Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Rachel M. Calogero

Rachel M. Calogero

My research interests span social, political, applied, and clinical contexts to address questions about gender, social justice, social change, and well-being. In particular, I am interested in identifying the social psychological processes that serve as barriers to social equality as well as those which facilitate it.

In a particular strand of this research, I examine self-objectification (a particular type of self-perception and self-consciousness that emerges primarily among girls and women in response to the accumulated experiences of sexual objectification and sexism in their day-to-day lives) among girls and women. This research has demonstrated that the impact of self-objectification extends beyond negative body image and poor mental health to function as a psychological device that maintains the gender status quo and disrupts women's engagement in collective action on their own behalf.

My research areas broadly include:

* psychological determinants of system justification and social change
* problems of (and solutions to) objectification of others and self-objectification
* social psychology of gender, class, and inequality
* social psychological underpinnings of (and interventions for) dysfunctional exercise and eating
* motivated social cognition

Primary Interests:

  • Applied Social Psychology
  • Gender Psychology
  • Group Processes
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Motivation, Goal Setting
  • Personality, Individual Differences
  • Political Psychology
  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Self and Identity
  • Social Cognition

Books:

Journal Articles:

  • Bardi, A., Calogero, R. M., & Mullen, B. (2008). A new archival approach to the study of values and value-behavior relations: Validation of the value lexicon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 483-497.
  • Calogero, R. M. (2013). Objects don’t object: Evidence that self-objectification disrupts women’s social activism. Psychological Science.
  • Calogero, R. M. (2009). Objectification processes and disordered eating in British women and men. Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 394-402.
  • Calogero, R. M. (2004). A test of objectification theory: Effect of the male gaze on appearance concerns in college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 16-21.
  • Calogero, R. M., Bardi, A., & Sutton, R. M. (2009). Needing values: Associations between the need for cognitive closure and people’s value priorities. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 154-159.
  • Calogero, R. M., Herbozo, S., & Thompson, J. K. (2009). Complimentary weightism: The potential costs of appearance-related commentary for women’s self-objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, 120-132.
  • Calogero, R. M., & Jost, J. T. (2011). Self-subjugation among women: Sexist ideology, self-objectification, and the buffering function of the need to avoid closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 211-228.
  • Calogero, R. M. & Mullen, B. (2008). About face: Facial prominence of George W. Bush in political cartoons as a function of war. The Leadership Quarterly, 19, 107-116.
  • Calogero, R. M., Park. L. E., Rahemtulla, Z. K., & Williams, K. C. D. (2010). Predicting excessive body image concerns among British university students: The unique role of appearance-based rejection sensitivity. Body Image, 7, 78-81.
  • Calogero, R. M. & Pedrotty, K. N. (2004). The practice and process of healthy exercise: An investigation of the treatment of exercise abuse in women with eating disorders. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 12, 273-291.
  • Calogero, R. M., & Pina, A. (2011). Body guilt: Preliminary evidence for a further subjective experience of self-objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 428-440.
  • Calogero, R. M. & Thompson, J. K. (2009). Potential implications of the objectification of women’s bodies for women’s sexual satisfaction. Body Image, 6, 145-148.
  • Calogero, R. M. & Watson, N. (2009). Self-discrepancy and chronic social self-consciousness: Unique and interactive effects of gender and real-ought discrepancy. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 642-647.
  • Mond, J. M., & Calogero, R. M. (2009). Excessive exercise in eating disorder patients and in healthy women. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 227-234.

Other Publications:

  • Calogero, R. M. (in press). On objects and actions: Situating self-objectification in a system justification context. In S. Gervais (Ed.), Nebraska Motivation Symposium: Vol. 60. Perspectives on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Calogero, R. M. (2012). Objectification theory, self-objectification, and body image. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance (Vol.2, pp. 574-580). San Diego: Academic Press.
  • Calogero, R. M., Boroughs, M., & Thompson, J. K. (2007). The impact of Western beauty ideals on the lives of women and men: A sociocultural perspective. In V. Swami & A. Furnham (Eds.), Body beautiful: Evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives (pp. 259-298). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Calogero, R. M., & Pedrotty, K. N. (2010). Incorporating exercise into the treatment and recovery of eating disorders: Cultivating a mindful approach. In M.Maine, D. Bunnell, & B. H. McGilley (Eds.), Treatment of eating disorders: Bridging the research-practice gap (pp. 425-441). New York: Elsevier.
  • Calogero, R. M., & Pedrotty, K. N. (2007). Daily practices for mindful exercise. In L. L'Abate, D. Embry, & M. Baggett (Eds.), Handbook of low-cost preventive interventions for physical and mental health: Theory, research, and practice (pp.141-160). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Rachel M. Calogero
School of Psychology
Keynes College
University of Kent
Canterbury CT2 7NP
United Kingdom

  • Phone: +44 (0)1227 827998

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