自我客体化对女性心理健康的影响及其机制

性客体化理论从社会文化的角度, 解释了女性的性别角色社会化和性客体化经历是怎样影响并转化为心理健康问题的。自我客体化的女性, 从第三者的角度把自己的身体看作物体, 持续监视自己的身体, 并与社会理想体型对比产生差距, 便形成了身体羞耻、焦虑、“心流”体验的减少及身体内部感知的迟钝, 最终导致进食障碍、抑郁、性功能障碍和物质滥用等心理健康问题。近年来已有大量研究验证了女性自我客体化与这些心理健康问题之间的关系及形成机制, 并取得了丰硕成果。未来研究应关注实验群体的多样化, 相关设计和实验研究相结合来探究两者之间的因果关系, 同时运用脑科学技术探究其认知神经机制。另外还要从预防和干预的角度对女性自我客体化展开研究。

Self-Objectification: Effects on Women's Mental Health and Hypothesized Mechanisms

From a socio-cultural perspective, sexual objectification theory implicates experiences of gender-role socialization and sexual objectification as key influences on the development of mental health problems. Self-objectified women come to treat themselves as objects to be looked upon and continually evaluated based on their physical appearance which they perceive to fall short of internalized, culturally- prescribed ideals. This discrepancy results in body shame, anxiety, reduced flow experiences and lower internal bodily awareness, and ultimately leads to mental health problems, such as eating disorders, depression, sexual dysfunction and substance abuse. Recent research has demonstrated robust correlations between self-objectification and mental health problems in women and has generated hypotheses about underlying mechanisms. However, future research is needed to assess generalizability to culturally-diverse samples, assess causal relations via experimental manipulations of central constructs, and investigate neural correlates using neuroimaging technology. In addition, strategies aiming to reduce self-objectification should be evaluated to prevent and treat consequences of sexual objectification.