Role Of Personality Traits, Physical Attractiveness And Gender On Sexual Harassment
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Role Of Personality Traits, Physical Attractiveness And Gender On Sexual Harassment
ABSTRACT
This study looked at the effects of personality factors, physical attractiveness, and gender on sexual harassment.
The study included 300 participants: 200 girls and 100 males. The participants were students from Ebonyi State University and the Ezzamgbo School of Health Technology.
A 28-item Eysenck personality questionnaire with yes or no answers was used to assess participants’ personalities. A fifteen-item yes/no options questionnaire was used to assess physical attractiveness, and a fourteen-item five-point Likert type questionnaire was utilised to assess individuals’ experiences with sexual harassment.
A pilot research was done prior to the main study to determine the items’ reliability. Personality had a coefficient of.66, physical beauty had a coefficient of.62, and the sexual harassment scale had a cronbach’s alpha reliability of.79.
A cross-sectional research design was adopted, with 300 copies of the questionnaire distributed and collected for use in the study.
The study’s statistics were multiple hierarchical regression.
The three hypotheses used in this investigation are:
1. There will be no statistically significant relationship between personality characteristics and sexual harassment.
2. There will be no statistically significant distinction between physical attractiveness and sexual harassment.
3. There will be no statistically significant distinction between gender and sexual harassment.
Hypothesis I had a regression coefficient of (r=.32, p<.05), hypothesis II had a regression coefficient of (r=.74, p<.05), and hypothesis III had a regression coefficient of (r=.29, p<.01).
The study’s consequences, recommendations, and conclusions were also presented.
Finally, suggestions for further research were provided, and the summary and conclusion were considered.
Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study
Sexual harassment comprises undesired sexually determined behaviour such as physical interactions and advances, sexually coloured statements depicting pornography, and sexual demands made through words or action (Singh 2009).
It is also an unsolicited sexual advance, request, sexual favours, and other verbal or physical sexual behaviour that tends to create a hostile or offensive workplace.
Women of all ages and social backgrounds, as well as all races, faiths, and ethnicities, face violence against them all around the world. It is primarily committed by men (Krug, 2002). It is the most common violation of human rights in the world today.
It takes many forms, both subtle and overt, and has a significant impact on development. However, it is so firmly established in cultures around the world that it is nearly undetectable (Charlotte, 1997).
Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have resulted in male dominance and discrimination against women
as well as the impediment to women’s full advancement. Violence against women is one of the critical social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position in comparison to men.
The United Nations declarations on violence against women provide a foundation for defining gender-based violence. According to Article 1 of the Declaration, violence against women is defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life” (United Nations, 1996).
The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, across all socioeconomic and educational classes, breaking down barriers of wealth, race, religion, and culture, violating and impairing or nullifying women’s enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedom.
Every type of violence is a threat to women, limiting their ability to make decisions about their life. At a 12-country workshop on women’s non-formal education held in China, participants were asked to name the worst element of being female: fear of male violence was the nearly unanimous response (Heise, 1992).
Acts or threats of violence, whether committed at home or in the community, or perpetrated or supported by the state, instill fear and insecurity in women’s life and impede progress towards equality, development, and peace.
The fear of violence, including harassment, is a continual limitation on women’s mobility, limiting their access to resources and essential activities. Violence against women carries significant social, physical, and economic implications for both individuals and societies.
Violence against women harms society economically, politically, and culturally by reducing women’s ability to actively participate in communal development. Violence against women is a key technique that forces women to be subordinate to men.
Sexual harassment is a type of sexual exploitation of women that occurs in the workplace or in educational settings under particular circumstances. One person inflicts on another.
Such activity is banned if it creates a hostile or frightening atmosphere, interferes with a person’s work or school performance, or if accepting the harasser’s behaviour is considered an accomplishment. Perceptions of what constitutes sexual harassment vary.
However, common types of sexual harassment involve sexual oriented gestures, jokes or remarks that are unwelcome, frequent and unwanted sexual overtures; touching or other inappropriate bodily contact and physical intimidation.
Sexual harassment can occur when one person has control over another and forces them to accept unwelcome sexual attention. It can also occur among peers, such as when a coworker constantly tells sexual jokes, posts phonographic photographs, or makes inappropriate sexual innuendos to another coworker (Martha, 2003).
Women were sexually harassed long before there was a phrase for it in slavery. African-American women were sexually exploited by white masters and have been objects of sexual assault since industrialisation. Women working in factions and offices must face sexual comments and demands from bosses and coworkers as a cost of economic survival.
Teachers have been sexually preyed upon for as long as they have been permitted to receive an education. Sexual demands that women are unable to refuse have been widespread on the streets and in their homes.
The trade of sex for survival under coercion, which constitutes prostitution, has also marked women’s and men’s unequal relations throughout history, as well as forms of violence.
Sexual harassment is the most common and insidious kind of violence that women might face, made worse by the fact that it is considered “normal” activity rather than an assault on the female body. It affects women in all settings, public and private, and has psychological, physical, social, political, legal, and economic consequences.
Sexual harassment should be considered a gendered aggression against women’s rights and dignity. The fact that its promiscuous impacts are obvious worldwide undermines any attempt to approach it with less gravity than it merits (Srinivasan, 1998).
Sexual harassment is almost entirely motivated by power and status inequalities. Harassment stems from a desire to exercise control, humiliate, achieve, and maintain authority. A harasser’s worldview often includes the conviction that women are inferior and should be kept in subordinate roles.
The factors that contribute to sexual violence are obviously numerous and complex. Gender-based socialisation and social control at the family and societal levels are the core causes of sexual violence against women.
The disparity between the norms, values, expectations, and consequences imposed on girls and boys as a result of socially constructed gender inequality is an important consideration. Men are given unrestricted freedom beginning in childhood.
Sanctions are imposed only on girls and almost none on boys. As a result, sexual harassment can be viewed as an offshoot of gender-biased socialisation and a means for men to assert power and dominance over women.
The media has a tremendous influence on how people perceive gender roles and identities. Sexual harassment has been facilitated by the representation of violence against women as usual in any form of media, including advertising, films, and newspapers. Reporting sexual assaults is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate where power exists in our society. It is in the hands of the male image makers.
Accepting the media’s excuse that we are not creating reality, but rather reflecting it, means accepting that sexual violence against women, such as sexual harassment, is a fundamental part of the relationship between the sexes (and thus deserves accurate reflections), rather than a symptom of how men and women are taught to view each other. (Davies et al., 1987).
Personality refers to individual variances in behaviour patterns, cognition, and emotion.
Personality describes an individual’s cross-situation consistency in broad categories of behaviour. Personality traits assessed by self-report are temporarily stable correlated with objective measures of behaviour (Mathews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2003) and predict important life outcomes such as health (Neelman, System, & Wadsworth, 2001)
sexual behaviour (Eysenck 1970), social networks (Swickert, Rosentreter, Hilttner, & Mushrush, 2002), and marital adjustment (Kelly & Conley, 1987).
Some research has supported the assumption that dangerous sexual activity, such as sexual harassment, is linked to a variety of personality factors. Cooper (2000), for example, proposed that risky sexual behaviour, such as sexual harassment, is motivated by neuroticism (with the goal of regulating negative effects), whereas extraversion motivates the use of risky behaviour, such as sexual harassment, in order to enhance positive affective experiences.
Schmitt, Levin, and Bryan (2009) discovered that poor self-esteem was substantially related with sexual harassment. Other personality qualities, such as impulsivity and low self-efficacy, have been linked to risky sexual behaviours such as sexual harassment (Noar et al, 2006; Robbins and Bryan, 2004).
However, for the sake of this study, we will focus on the personality qualities of extroversion and introversion as they relate to sexual harassment.
Extroversion is the act, state, or practice of primarily seeking enjoyment from things outside of oneself. Extroverts like interpersonal connections and are passionate, chatty, aggressive, and sociable.
Extraverts are energised and thrive in social situations. They enjoy large-scale social gatherings, such as demonstrations and corporate or political groupings. They also function well in groups. They are also more interested in sexual activity.
Introversion is the state or propensity to be entirely or mostly concerned with and interested in one’s own mental health. Introverts are often viewed as more quiet or introspective. Introverts frequently like social activities such as reading, writing, utilising computers, and fishing. They prefer societal activities.
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