L10 - Parasocial Relationships: The Absorption-Addiction Model

Question 1

What are parasocial relationships?

Answer 1

prefix para means ‘resembling’ so parasocial relationships are those which are similar to normal relationships but lack a key element in that they are a one-sided unreciprocated relationship usually with a celebrity on which the ‘fan’ expends a lot of emotional energy, commitment and time.

Question 2

Who measured parasocial relationships & how?

Answer 2

• McCutcheon et al. (2002) developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) & this was used in a large-scale survey by Maltby et al. (2006) who identified 3 levels of parasocial relationships:
• L1 - Entertainment - Social
• L2 - Intense - Personal
• L3 - Borderline - Pathological

Question 3

L1 - Entertainment - Social

Answer 3

Giles and Malty suggest that most people engage in parasocial relationships at some point in their lives, but most stay at the first level (Entertainment - Social), where celebrities are seen as a source of entertainment and as a topic for lighthearted gossips with friends. This is the least intense level of celebrity worship.

Question 4

L2 - Intense - Personal

Answer 4

• This is a deeper level of parasocial relationships. At this level a person has a more intense relationship with a celebrity.
  E.g. they may see them as a soulmate and they have an intense interest in the celebrity’s personal life, such as their dress sense, food they like and entertainment in which they take part.
• This type of parasocial relationship is typical for teenagers who seem to be obsessed with every little detail of their favourite celebrity’s lifestyle.

Question 5

L3 - Borderline - Pathological

Answer 5

This is the most intense level of parasocial relationships. At this level, a person takes celebrity worship to an extreme, has obsessive fantasies about the celebrity, spends large sums of money to obtain memorabilia and may engage in illegal activities such as stalking. At this level, it is also usual for people to believe that if only they were given a chance to meet their favourite celebrity in person, their feelings will be reciprocated

Question 6

There are 2 theories to explain parasocial relationships

Answer 6

• adsorption-addiction model
• attachment theory

Question 7

Adsorption-Addiction Model

Answer 7

• McCutcheon (2002) linked the levels approach to the deficiencies that people have in their own personal lives and proposed the Absorption- Addiction Model to explain parasocial relationships.
• suggests that people engage in celebrity worship to compensate for some deficiencies in their life, such as difficulty forming intimate relationships, poor psychological adjustment and lack of identity.
• Forming parasocial relationships with a celebrity allows them to achieve the fulfilment they lack in everyday life and adds a sense of purpose and excitement.

Question 8

Adsorption phase

Answer 8

• McCutcheon explains that looking for satisfaction in celebrity worship makes a person focus intensively on parasocial relationships and achieving a sense of fulfilment motivates them to become even more intensely attached to the celebrity.
• This is the first stage of the model, absorption.

Question 9

Addiction phase

Answer 9

• The second stage of the model is the addiction - and can be compared fo physiological addiction
  of a psychoactive substance.
• The individual needs to increase their ‘dose’ in order to gain satisfaction.
• This may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking, for example, stalking a celebrity because they believe that the celebrity really wants to reciprocate their feelings but someone (such as the celebrity’s manager) is stopping them from getting involved.

Question 10

Evaluation of the adsorption-addiction model

Answer 10

strengths
- research support (1)
- teenagers body image
- +ve correlation
- research (2)
- applications of research
- universal phenomenon
weaknesses
- universal principles

Question 11

Research support (1)

Answer 11

• research support that is linked to the levels of parasocial relationships proposed by McCutcheon et al (2002).
• McCutcheon et al (2016), used the CAS to measure level of parasocial relationships and also assessed participants’ problems in their intimate relationships.
• found that pps who scored Level 3 - borderline-pathological or Level 2 - intense-personal tended to experience a high degree of anxiety in their intimate relationships. Whereas Pps who scored on the Level one - entertainment-social did have other relationship problems.
• suggests that the levels of parasocial relationships are a good indicator of actual behaviour. This study therefore leans towards supporting the absorption addiction model which is based on the levels of parasocial relationships.

Question 12

Teenagers body image

Answer 12

Furthermore research offers some support for absorption-addiction model. Maltby et al.
(2005) measured the relation between celebrity worship and body image in teenagers. They found that teenage girls who were at the intense-personal level of celebrity worship tended to have a poor body image, especially if they particularly admired a celebrity’s physical appearance.

Question 13

Positive correlation

Answer 13

Also, Schiappa et al. (2007) found a significant positive correlation between the amount of TV participants watched, the degree to which they perceived a TV character as ‘real’ and the level of their parasocial relationship.

Question 14

Research support (2)

Answer 14

Research also supports a link between loneliness and engaging in parasocial relationships. For example, Greenwood and Long (2009) found some evidence that people may develop celebrity worships as a way of dealing with a recent loss or loneliness. However, other research (e.g. Chory-Assad and Yanen, 2005) failed to find any significant correlation between intensity of loneliness and intensity of a parasocial relationship, so the evidence is not conclusive.

Question 15

Applications of research support

Answer 15

Research into parasocial relationships has useful applications. Maltby (2003) linked types of personality (extravert, psychotic and neurotic) to levels of parasocial relationships. He found that extraverts were more likely to be at the entertainment-social level, neurotics at the intense-personal level and psychotics at the borderline-pathological level, supporting the absorption-addiction model. This suggests that research into parasocial relationships can be used to improve professionals’ understanding of psychological disorders and help people struggling with psychological disorde

Question 16

Universal principles

Answer 16

The Absorption-Addiction Model is better suited to describing levels of celebrity worship that explain how people develop these attitudes. This model attempts to establish universal principles of behaviour (nomothetic approach) and as such misses out on deep insight into the reasons for behaviour. An idiographic approach, looking into particular instances of parasocial relationships, may be better suited to the reasons for why people develop them.

Question 17

Universal phenomenon

Answer 17

Despite some weaknesses, research into celebrity worship seems to be describing a universal phenomenon. For example, Schmid and Klimmt (2011) studied levels of parasocial relationships with characters from the Harry Potter books in different cultures, and found similar levels of worship in Germany (individualist culture) and Mexico (collectivist culture). This suggests that the absorption-addiction model is universally applicable.