Discuss research into celebrity worship. (4+6)

Question 1

Celebrity Attitude Scale

Answer 1

Developed by McCutcheon - a way of judging where celebrity attraction ends and celebrity worship beings is falling within the intense-personal or borderline-pathological dimensions on the CAS. - some fans spend a great deal of time and money on their fandom but nonetheless function normally - for celebrity worshippers their life is completely pre-occupied with celebrity and their behaviour is obsessive, such people are likely to show characteristics from the intense-personal dimension of the CAS

Question 2

Intense-personal behaviour

Answer 2

extreme parasocial bereavement and feeling that a celebrity is a ‘soul-mate’

Question 3

Border-line pathological aspects

Answer 3

feeling compelled to learn the details of a favourite celebrities lifestyle

Question 4

Eysenck’s personality theory

Answer 4

Three-dimension model of celebrity worship parallels the three dimensions of Eysenk’s personality theory ‘extraversion, neuroticism and psychotics’
The entertainment-social dimension (CAS) = extraversion personality traits
The intense-personal dimension (CAS) = neuroticism
The borderline-pathological dimension = psychoticism

Question 5

Maltby

Answer 5

found significant positive correlations:

0. 3 between extroversion and entertainment-social celebrity worship
1. 3 between neuroticism and intense-peronsla celebrity worship
2. between psychoticism and borderline-pathological celebrity worship

Question 6

Ashe and McCutcheon

Answer 6

found that CAS scores correlated positively with self-reported number of motives watched per week - predictive validity

Question 7

McCutcheon

Answer 7

found alpha reliability of 0.9, 0.8 and 0.7 for the ES, IP and BP scales - CAS has concurrent validity as it correlates with Eysenck’s dimensions

Question 8

Characteristics of Celebrity worshippers

Answer 8

Some studies try to establish the kind of personality characteristics which might make a person more likely to become a celebrity worshipper

Question 9

Maltby (characteristics)

Answer 9

Suggested a link between poor mental health and celebrity worship

Question 10

McCutcheon (characteristics)

Answer 10

measure cognitive ability in various ways > verbal creativity, critical thinking, spatial ability and need for cognition - there were consistently high negative correlations between participants’ scores on the CAS and on the tests measuring cognitive ability

Question 11

Advantage of measuring cognitive ability

Answer 11

By measuring in more than one way ensures validity measures intelligence in a meaningful way

Question 12

Limitation of measuring cognitive ability

Answer 12

cannot infer causality because it is correlational only - celebrity worship could sap intelligence

Question 13

Absorption Addiction Model

Answer 13

Sever deficits in a fan’s sense of personal identity and problems in real life go to extremes, they become embroiled in the lives of celebrities, in order to escape from reality, to achieve fulfilment and to gain a sense of personal identity. They learn everything they can about their favourite celebrity and develop a feeling of closeness with him or her

Question 14

Advantage of research into the AA model

Answer 14

its practical application: it may help us to better understand and treat eating disorders - therapists can use the CAS and have a discussion session to explore issues of personal identity: establish more sense of self

Question 15

Maltby (AA)

Answer 15

found that when celebrity worship was associated with eating disorders, the group at risk comprised of some female adolescents - those who didn’t discuss the celebrity with their friends but instead have an intense personal relationship with their celebrity