Levels Of Parasocial Relationships

Question 1

What is a parasocial relationship ?

Answer 1

These are one sided relationships with a celebrity, a prominent person in the community, or a fictional character, when a fav knows everything about the subject or their adoration and feels very close to them but there is no chance of reciprocity.

Question 2

What are the three levels of parasocial relationships?

Answer 2

1) entertainment-social: most people engage in parasocial relationships in some point of lives but stay at this level. Celebrities are seen as a source of entertainment and as a topic of gossip with friends. This is the least form of celebrity worship.
2) intense-personal: this is a deeper levels of prarsocial relationships, at this level a person has a more intense relationship with a celebrity. For example, they may seem them as a soulmate and have intense interest in their personal life.
3) Borderline pathological: this is the most intense level of parasocial relationships. At this level people have obsessive fantasies about celebrities, spend large sums of money to obtain memorabilia and may engage in illegal activity such as stalking.

Question 3

Strengths of levels of parasocial relationships

Answer 3

• ) studies have found a significant positive correlation between the amount of television someone watched, the degree they perceived a TV character to be real and the level of their parasocial relationship.
• ) There is research support for the claim that attractiveness increases the likelihood of a parasocial relationship. The more attractive a celebrity the more development of the three levels of parasocial relationships from the public.

Question 4

Weaknesses of parasocial relationships

Answer 4

• ) education levels need to be taken into account, highly educated individuals may see celebrities as less intelligent so are less likely to engage in parasocial relationship.
• ) People have recommended that training should occur in schools highlighting the danger of parasocial relationships. They often result in unrealistic goals to be more similar to the celebrity such as gating an eating disorder in an attempt to be slimes.
• ) research into the levels of parasocial relationships was conducted through questionnaires which can be effected by social desirability bias and so lacks validity.