Parasocial relationships Flashcards
Parasocial relationship
They are a one sided, unreciprocated relationship, usually with a celebrity, on which the ‘fan’ expends a lot of emotional energy, commitment and time
Levels of a parasocial relationship (Maltby et al)
A three step description of one sided relationships in terms of increasing strength from entertainment - social intense-personal to borderline-pathological
State the 3 levels of a parasocial relationship
Entertainment level
Intense personal level
Borderline pathological level
Describe each level of a parasocial relationship
Entertainment social - the least intense level where celebs are viewed as sources of entertainment and fuel for social interaction
Intense personal - an immediate level where someone becomes more personally involved with a celebrity and this may include obsessive thoughts
Borderline pathological - the strongest level of celebrity worship where fantasies are uncontrollable and behaviour is more extreme
Absorption addiction model
McCutcheon suggests that parasocial relationships can make up for personal deficiencies (e.g lack of fulfilment)
- Provide an escape from mundane lives
- People may be pushed towards the intense personal level by stressful life events such as bereavement
Explain the two components of the absorption addiction model
Absorption - seeking fulfilment in celebrity worship motivates an individual to focus their attention on the celebrity, to become absorbed in the celebrity’s existence and identify with them
Addiction - like a physiological addiction, an individual needs to increase their ‘dose’ of involvement to gain satisfaction. This may lead to a more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking
Attachment theory explanation of parasocial relationships
Early difficulties in attachment may lead to difficulties in forming a successful relationships later in life
Such difficulties may lead to a preference for parasocial relationships to replace those within one’s own social circle as parasocial relationships do not require the same social skills
Attachment theory: Insecure attachment -> parasocial relationships
Ainsworth:
Insecure-resistant types are most likely to form parasocial relationships because they want to have unfulfilled needs met in a relationship where there is no real threat of rejection
Insecure-avoidant types prefer to avoid the pain and rejection of any type of relationship, either social or parasocial
What are the 2 strengths
Useful applications
Entertainment social level
Evaluation: Useful application
There are practical uses for research on parasocial connections. Psychotic, neurotic, and extroverted personality types were related to parasocial connection levels by Maltby (2003).
In support of the absorption-addiction model, he discovered that extroverts were more likely to be at the entertainment-social level, neurotics at the intense-personal level, and psychotics at the borderline-pathological level.
This shows that studying parasocial interactions may help those with psychological problems and enhance the knowledge of psychological diseases by experts.
Evaluation: Entertainment social level
Most people admire a celebrity or prominent figure. For instance, supporting a public figure in a government office, or a favourite musician, or actor.
This theory supports the first level of parasocial relationships, why people tend to float around this level, and why a small minority descend into the other, more obsessive levels.
What are 2 limitations
Correlational research
Rely heavily on self report methods
Evaluation: Rely heavily on self report methods
Another weakness of studies into parasocial relationships is that they rely heavily on self-report methods, such as interviews and questionnaires.
These methods may not reflect the true picture, as participants may want to answer in a way that reflects them in better light (social desirability bias) and may not respond truthfully to the questions.
This means that the reasons for developing parasocial relationships may be different from the ones uncovered by research, which lowers the validity of these explanations, making them less applicable to real life.
Evaluation: Correlational research
Explanations based on attachment theory are not well supported.
Using 229 participants, McCutcheon et al. (2006) investigated the association between celebrity worship levels and attachment types. They observed no connection between higher levels of parasocial relationship intensity and insecure-resistant attachment.
This implies that there is no connection between attachment type and parasocial connections, which runs counter to the argument made by attachment theory explanations.
