SPECTATORING AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY-IMAGE AND SEXUAL EXPERIENCE - SELF-FOCUS OR SELF-VALENCE

A recently reported finding that negative body image is associated wit h lower levels of sexual experience was replicated in a large, ethnica lly diverse sample of undergraduates. Additional analyses failed to su pport a proposed spectatoring, or chronic self-focus, interpretation o f this association (e.g., Faith & Schare, 1993). First, correlations b etween body image and a variety of dispositional self-focus measures w ere either nonsignificant or in a direction opposite to that assumed b y the spectatoring hypothesis. Second, a composite of self-focus ratin gs on three trait adjectives shown, to be associated with a narcissist ic personality profile, flirtatiousness, seductive, and fashionable, e xplained most of the correlation between body image and sexual experie nce. These findings suggest body image-related sexual inexperience may have more to do with motivational mechanisms associated with self-val ence (e.g., expectancy-mediated disengagement or avoidance) than, with cognitive mechanisms associated with self-focus (e.g., chronic attent ional distraction from arousal cues). Explanatory pitfalls in the dual attentional and evaluative meanings of Masters and Johnson's (1970) c onstruct of spectatoring are discussed.