”A Study Of Correlation Of Street Harassment As A Determinant Of Self-

Esteem and Self-Objectification Among Selected Female Senior High School

Students Of AMA Computer College Caloocan”

12-HUMSS B
 Chapter I

The Problem And It’s Background

Introduction

Street Harassment consists of leering, catcalls, obscene comments,

whirling whistles,repeated requests for your phone number or name after

you’ve clearly said no and other actions by strangers in public areas that can

be unnerving and discomforting. These are common forms of sexual

harassment in public spaces initiated by strangers that million people

worldwide experience, especially girls and women.Simply put, street

harassment promotes fear, and gives women yet another reason to be on

edge when out and about.

Self-esteem can influence life in myriad ways, from academic and

professional success to relationships and mental health.In psychology, the

term self-esteem is used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or

personal value. In other words, how much you appreciate and like yourself.

Self-objectification occurs when individuals treat themselves as objects to

be viewed and evaluated based upon appearance. People who self-

objectify take on a third person’s view of themselves. They consistently and

carefully watch their appearance,  measuring themselves against an idealized

and often unattainable standard of beauty and body image.

1
 The researchers wanted to pursue this study because the researchers

observed that campaign to stop this kind of street harassment in the

Philippines were not widely spread in the public. The researchers also wanted

to inform the people that catcalling is not just uttered words of compliment but

can be considered as degrading and objectifying comments that have a

negative impact on women’s psychological well-being like self-objectification

in which a woman’s internalization of repeated objectification by others. The

women viewed themselves as represented of their body, body parts and

sexual function. The women felt more conscious and ashamed about their

body and body parts that led to self-objectification on woman because as they

experienced this they felt anxious about how their body was evaluated by the

strangers. As a result, objectification affected the women’s cognitive or mental

state.

Statement of the problem

The present study aims to determine the relationship between the

frequency of street harassment to the level of self-esteem and level of self-

objectification of selected female students in AMA Computer College

Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1.) What are the level of Self-Esteem and level of Self-Objectification of the

respondents who experienced Street Harassment

2
2.) What are the factors of Street Harassment to the Self-Esteem and Self-

Objectification of the respondents in terms of:

2.1 Place

2.2 Transportation

2.3 Companion

2.4 Attire

3.) Is there a significant relationship between the frequency of street

harassment and levels of self-esteem and self-objectification?

Hypothesis

The researchers formulated hypothesis of the possible outcomes of the

experiment.

There is no significant relatinoship between the frequency of street

harassment and the levels of self-esteem and self-objectification.

Significance of the study

The study will be benificial to the following:

Counselors/Psychologists. To give an updated study or statistics about

street harassment for them to have additional information when handling

cases that are related to street harassment.

3
Men. To inform that street harassment is not an appropriate way on how to

get the attention of a woman and to understand that street harassment can

have an effect on women.

Women. Help women to understand what street harassment is and it can

have a psychological effect to them.

Students. To be informed and spread awareness about street harassment

Teachers.To give a broader knowledge about street harassment and also

spread awareness about street harassment.

Future Researchers. To educate and to be informed about street

harassment.

Scope And Delimitation

The main focus of this study is to have a knowledge about how street

harassment can affect the self-esteem and self-objectification among the

selected female students. The study focused on self-esteem and self-

objectification.

This study limits only to Senior High School Female Students of AMA

Caloocan. The researchers limit their study by giving questionnaire to the 100

female students with no particular strand.

Input Process
Output
A Study Of The proponents
The researchers
Correlation Of had found the
will give a survey 4
Street relationship
questionnaire to
between the
Harassment As A all the
frequency of
Determinant Of respondents and
Conceptual Framework

The conceptual paradigm illustrate the flow of the study. The current

study aimed to determine the relationship between the frequency of street

harassment experienced by selected female student and their levels of self-

esteem and self-objectification. The researcher used a survey questionnaire

to gathered the data.

Theoretical Framework

According to sociometer theory, selfesteem is essentially a psychological

meter, or gauge, that monitors the quality of people’s relationships with others

(Leary, 1999; Leary & Baumeister, in press; Leary & Downs, 1995). The

theory is based on the assumption that human beings possess a pervasive

drive to maintain significant interpersonal relationships, a drive that evolved

because early human beings who belonged to social groups were more likely

to survive and reproduce than those who did not (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).

Given the disastrous implications of being ostracized in the ancestral

environment in which human evolution occurred, early human beings may

5
have developed a mechanism for monitoring the degree to which other people

valued and accepted them. This psychological mechanism— the sociometer

—continuously monitors the social environment for cues regarding the degree

to which the individual is being accepted versus rejected by other people. The

sociometer appears to be particularly sensitive to changes in relational

evaluation—the degree to which others regard their relationship with the

individual as valuable, important, or close. When evidence of low relational

evaluation (particularly, a decrement in relational evaluation) is detected, the

sociometer attracts the person’s conscious attention to the potential threat to

social acceptance and motivates him or her to deal with it. The affectively

laden self-appraisals that constitute the “output” of the sociometer are what

we typically call self-esteem. Self-esteem researchers distinguish between

state self-esteem—momentary fluctuations in a person’s feelings about him-

or herself—and trait self-esteem— the person’s general appraisal of his or her

value; both are aspects of the sociometer. Feelings of state self-esteem

fluctuate as a function of the degree to which the person perceives others

currently value their relationships with him or her. Cues that connote high

relational evaluation raise state self-esteem, whereas cues that connote low

relational evaluation lower state self-esteem. Trait self-esteem, in contrast,

reflects the person’s general sense that he or she is the sort of person who is

valued and accepted by other people. Trait self-esteem may be regarded as

the resting state of the sociometer in the absence of incoming information

relevant to relational evaluation.

Definition of terms

6
Street Harassment includes catcalling, but also encompasses non-verbal

conduct and behaviour such as grabs, pinching, groping, obstructing walking

paths, stalking, and physical threatening gesture.

Catcalling is the use of crude language, verbal expression, and non-verbal

expression that takes place in public areas such as streets, sidewalks, or bus

stops. Catcalling does not require physical contact because where physical

contact is present; victims have adequate remedies stemming from charges

such as battery and assault.

Self-Esteem is defined as a person’s overall evaluation of his or her worth

Self-Objectification is defined as a woman’s internalization of repeated

objectification by others; she comes to view herself as represented by her

body