parasocial relationships Flashcards
what are parasocial relationships
- a one sided relationship with celebrities, prominent people in a community or fictional characters
- the ‘fan’ may know a lot about the person, despite there being no chance of reciprocity
the absorption addiction model
- proposed by McCutcheon (2002) to explain parasocial relationships
- people engage in celeb worship to compensate for deficiencies in their life, e.g. lack of identity, difficulty forming relationships
- looking for satisfaction in celeb worship makes people focus on their PSR, forming these allows them to achieve fulfilment they lack in real life, and this motivates them to become more attached to the celeb
- giles and maltby (2006) identify 3 levels of PSR
stage 1: entertainment - social
- the least intense level
- celebs are seen as a source of entertainment and a topic for lighthearted gossip with friends
stage 2: intense - personal
- a deeper level
- a person has a more intense relationship with a celeb, they may see them as a soulmate and have an interest in their personal life, e.g. the food they eat or the clothes they wear
stage 3: borderline pathological
- most intense level
- a person has obsessive fantasies about the celeb, they sound lots of money on memorabilia and may engage in illegal activity like stalking
- they may believe that if they were to meet this person, their feelings would be reciprocated
attachment theory explanation - bowlby
- his theory predicts that people who didn’t form a strong bond with their primary caregiver as a young child will attempt to find a substitute attachment when older
- a parasocial relationship allows them to do this
attachment theory explanation - ainsworth
- people with I-R attachment styles in childhood are more likely to form PSR, as they are afraid of the rejection and criticism in real life relationships
- supported by ainsworth’s strange situation: I-R children were clingy to mothers, didn’t explore, and had high separation anxiety
-hazan and shaver say this translates into clingy and jealous behaviour as an adult, making it hard to develop romantic relationships
-celeb worship lets them fantasise the ‘perfect’ relationship, without the heartbreak and rejection - cole and leets (1999) investigated PSR adolescents developed with tv characters, found this was more likely in those with I-R attachment
greenwood and long (2009 - link between loneliness and PSR
- found some evidence that people may develop celeb worships to deal with loss or loneliness
- however chory-assad and yanen (2005) failed to find a correlation between loneliness and PSR, so evidence on this isn’t conclusive
kienlen et al (1997) - support of attachment theory
- supported the idea that disturbed attachment in childhood may lead to borderline pathological PSR.
- they investigated experiences of stalkers, found 63% lost a caregiver in childhood, and 50% experienced emotional and physical abuse
- shows bad or disrupted early attachments may be associated with engaging in PSR
mccutcheon et al (2006) - test the attachment theory explanation of PSR
- 299 students did questionnaires to see if their early attachment with parents would influence their chance of developing a PSR. they completed the CAS about celeb stalking, and a questionnaire about attachment style
- found no link between attachment style and their chance of forming a PSR, they did find though that those with insecure attachment were more likely to approve of stalking towards celebs
- limited evidence to support the attachment theory
give a strength of PSR
research has useful real world applications. maltby (2003) linked personality types to levels of PSR. he found extraverts would be at the entertainment social level, neurotics at the intense personal level and psychotics at the borderline pathological level. also, maltby et al (2005) measured the relationship between celeb worship and teen body image, found younger girls at intense personal level were likely to have bad body image, esp if they admired a celebs appearance. so research can be used to improve knowledge of psychological disorders
give a limitation of PSR
research is correlational, so cause and effect can’t be established. for example, although maltby et al found a correlation between poor body image in young girls and intense celeb worship, it can’t be concluded that this celeb worship caused the poor body image. it may be the case that girls with poor body image engage in more intense PSR to help their own self esteem. this questions the validity of the research
give a limitation of PSR
research relies heavily on self report techniques. these may not accurately represent real life as participants could display social desirability bias, answering in a way that reflects them in a better way than the truth, or they may display demand characteristics, where they answer how they believe the researcher needs based on the aim. so reasons for developing PSR may be different than research suggests, lowering the internal validity of the explanations, and making them less applicable to real life
give a limitation of PSR
the absorption addiction model best describes levels of celeb worship that explain how people develop these attitudes. it takes a nomothetic approach by establishing universal laws for behaviour, so misses deep insight into these reasons. an idiographic approach may be more appropriate to explain why people develop PSR relationships, by looking into specific instances of PSR
give a strength of PSR
research describes a universal phenomenon. schmid and klimmt studied levels of PSR with harry potter characters in different cultures and found similar worship levels in germany (individualist culture) and mexico (collectivist culture). this suggests the model is universally applicable.
