Lesson 12: Absorption Addiction Model

Question 1

McCutcheon et al (2002)

Answer 1

• absorption addiction model attempts to explain why people develop para social relationships. It argues that pursuing para social relationships makes up for deficits in an individual’s real life relationships. Relationships with celebrities are seen as an attempt to cope with or escape from reality.
• Parasocial relationships also enable individuals to develop a sense of personal identity and achieve a sense of fulfilment
• People with an addictive nature will escalate through a series of stages until their para social relationship becomes a total pre-occupation with a celebrity’s life.

Question 2

Absorption

Answer 2

• Seeking fulfilment in celebrity worship motivates one to focus all their attention on the celebrity, to become pre-occupied in their existence and identify with them.

Question 3

Addiction

Answer 3

• The individual sustains their commitment to the relationship by feeling a stronger and close involvement with the celebrity. This leads to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking (e.g. stalking a celebrity because there is a belief that they share mutual feelings).

Question 4

Strengths of absorption-addiction model

Answer 4

+ Research supports a link between loneliness and engaging in paradoxical relationships. For example, Greenwood and Long (2009) found some evidence that people may develop parasocial relationships as a way of dealing with a recent loss or loneliness.

+ Stalkers often have a history of failed sexual relationships at the time of the stalking. Stalking in such cases is a reaction to social incompetence, isolation and loneliness.

+ Maltby et al (2005) measured the relationship between parasocial relationships and body image in teenagers. They found that teenage girls who engaged in parasocial relationships tended to have a poor body image, especially if they particularly admired a celebrity’s physical appearance.

Question 5

Weaknesses of absorption-addiction model

Answer 5

• Most research into parasocial relationships is correlational. This means that cause and effect cannot be clearly established, lowering the scientific explanatory power. For example, while a significant correlation was found between poor body image and intensive parasocial relationships in teenage girls, this does not mean that intense parasocial relationships cause poor body image. It may as well be that girls who already have poor body image tend to engage in a more intensive level of parasocial relationships to enhance their self-esteem.
• The absorption-addiction model is better suited to describing levels of parasocial relationships than explaining how people develop these attitudes. This model attempts to establish universal principles of behaviour and as such misses out on deep insight into the reasons for behaviour. Looking into particular instances of parasocial relationships, may be better suited to discovering the reasons as to why people develop them.