The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Objectification Perpetration Scale

While the literature has shown that sexually objectifying women leads to negative outcomes for the target and perceiver, measures of objectification perpetration are often adaptations of measures designed to assess targets’ self-objectification or reported experiences of objectifying behaviors. In the present article, we introduce the Objectification Perpetration Scale (OPS) that assesses not only men’s perpetration of objectifying behaviors directed toward women but also their objectifying cognitions and beliefs. Data from 855 men were collected across two studies. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in the first sample revealed two distinct factors and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the second, independent sample, supported the factor structure of the newly developed 16-item OPS, including: sex-based (10 items) and appearance-based (6 items) objectification perpetration. Supporting its construct validity, scores on the OPS and the subscales were positively associated with scores on other measures of objectification perpetration, measures of sexual violence perpetration, and sexual exchange and misogynistic ideologies.