Attachment Theory Explanation Flashcards
What is secure attachment?
Infants would play with their mother and return to her periodically during play. They sought comfort during reunions. They would experience separation distress and stranger anxiety. As an adult they are empathetic, able to create meaningful relationships and have high self esteem
What is insecure avoidant?
Infants would ignore their mother and her absence did not affect play. They ignored her when she returned. Little stranger anxiety was shown. As an adult they have problems with intimacy, invests little in emotional relationships and are unwilling to share feelings
What is insecure resistant?
They explored less and stayed with their mother. Huge stranger and separation anxiety. Sought contact on mother’s return but simultaneously would show anger and fight her contact. As adults they avoid closeness, worry that their partner doesn’t love them and are distraught when relationships end
Attachment style and PSR?
Insecure resistant are most likely to form a parasocial relationship as they have concern that others will not reflect their desire for intimacy.
Insecure avoidant are least likely as they find it difficult to develop relationships and are therefore unlikely to seek them from real or fictional people.
Secure attachments are not likely as they often have satisfactory real life relationships so do not seek an additional relationship with a celebrity.
Proximity seeking?
Individuals attempt to reduce the distance between themselves and their attachment figure. Fans exhibit many proximity seeking behaviours as part of their PSR. Research has shown that people like to stay informed about their favourite celebs. They will collect trivia, rearrange schedules to see them on TV and will attempt to contact them through fan letters.
Secure base?
The presence of the attachment figure provides a sense of security for the individual, a safe haven that allows them to explore the world.With a PSR, there is no or little chance of rejection from the attachment figure. The individual is able to create a secure base for which they can explore other r/ships in a safe way.
Protest at disruption?
The best marker of attachment may be the presence of prolonged distress following the separation or loss of the attachment figure.
ATTACHMENT THEORY - Research support?
Cole and Leets (1999) examined the parasocial relationships developed by teenagers with TV personalities. To do this, they used 115 student participants who completed the parasocial scale and two attachment-style questionnaires. They found that individuals with anxious-resistant attachment styles were more likely to develop parasocial relationships (they hold more negative views of themselves and the PS bonds they make reflect their desire for intimacy due to their unmet relational needs, while avoidant styles were least likely to develop parasocial behaviours or seek any relationships at all.
ATTACHMENT THEORY - Refuting evidence?
For example McCutcheon (2006) measured the attachment styles and celebrity related attitudes in 229 participants. The researchers found that the participants with insecure infant attachments were no more likely to form parasocial relationships with celebrities than participants with secure infant attachments This therefore contradicts the claim made by attachment theory explanations an suggests that there is no link between attachment type and PSR’s
ATTACHMENT THEORY - Methodological issues?
For example studies into parasocial relationships rely heavily on self-report methods, such as interviews and questionnaires such as the research studies by Coles and Leets. These methods may not reflect the true picture, as participants may want to answer in a way that reflects them in a better light (social desirability bias) and may not respond truthfully to the questions or may not accurately recall their childhood attachment styles accurately because recall is retrospective.There is often competition between fans of celebrities to see who is the ‘biggest’ fan, which may lead to an exaggeration of the behaviours and attitudes when reporting the relationship too.
ATTACHMENT THEORY - Correlational?
One of the problems with research on parasocial relationships is that it is correlational, meaning that we cannot claim a direct cause-and-effect relationship.
For example, although Kienlen et al. (1997) found that disrupted attachment in childhood was related to borderline pathological disorder, this was only a correlation and not a direct cause and effect, meaning that we cannot scientifically say that disrupted attachment causes intense parasocial relationships.
ATTACHMENT THEORY - Practical applications?
For example, identifying those who had insecure- resistant attachment styles can be helped to overcome their fears of rejection through encouraging them to get counselling and learn to be more trusting of potential real partners and not rely on celebrity worship as their emotional support and feel more confident to engage in actual real life fulfilling relationships. Another positive of having a PSR is that in some cases, where people have lost an attachment figure (e.g. through parental death or divorce), they can seek comfort in PSR’s. If done in a harmless way (e.g. not at an intense level) this can provide much needed relief as an interim help before they can transition to real relationships.
