Materialistic Values and Body Objectification (Case Study :Female Students of Urmia University)

In today's consumer society, women are socialized in such a way that they consider their body as a commodity. In this sense, the body is a text that has evolved into an ever-controversial commodity that represents the identity and class base of each person. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the physical objectification of students and its relationship with materialistic values.The research employed a survey methodology, wherein the required data was gathered using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the research is the female students of Urmia University, 182 of whom were selected by stratified sampling.The results indicated that the mean of materialistic values among students was 61.28%, while the mean of physical objectification was approximately 59.67%. Upon analysis of the descriptive statistics pertaining to the dimensions of body objectification, it is evident that the dimension of body surveillance has the highest average (65.22%) and the dimension of body shame has the lowest average (48.40%). Among the contextual variables; faculty of study, monthly household income, and social class affect students' body image. Materialistic values have a positive and significant relationship with students' physical objectification (r=0.307). Among the dimensions of body objectification, body appearance control and body shame have a positive and significant relationship with materialistic values, except for the dimension of body surveillance, which has no significant relationship with materialistic values. The regression model shows that materialistic values account for 11% of the variability observed in body objectification.Therefore, it can be concluded that female students' body objectification stems from their pursuit of materialistic ideals.