Parasocial relationships

Question 1

What is a para-social relationship?

Answer 1

Parasocial relationships are those which are similar to ‘normal’ relationships but lack a key element. They are one-sided, unreciprocated relationships usually with a celebrant where the ‘fan’ expends a lot of time and emotional energy into the ‘relationship’.

Question 2

Who developed the levels of parasocial relationships?

Answer 2

McCutcheon developed the celebrity attitude scale.

Question 3

What are the three levels of parasocial relationships?

Answer 3

Entertainment-social
Intense-personal
Borderline-pathological

Question 4

What is the entertainment-social level of parasocial relationships?

Answer 4

this is the least intense level of celebrity worship. Celebrties are viewed as sources of entertainment and fuel for social interaction.

Question 5

Give an example of the entertainment social level of parasocial relationships.

Answer 5

Friends with an interest in soap operas may enjoy discussing Eastenders.

Question 6

What is the intense-personal level of parasocial relationships?

Answer 6

This level reflects a greater personal involvement in a parasocial relationship with a celebrity.

Question 7

Give an example of the intense-personal level of parasocial relationships.

Answer 7

A fan of Kim Kardashian may have frequent obsessive thoughts and feelings about her and consider her to be their ‘soulmate’.

Question 8

What is the borderline-pathological level of parasocial relationships?

Answer 8

this is the strongest level of celebrity worship which features uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours.

Question 9

Give an example of the borderline-pathological level of parasocial relationships.

Answer 9

Spending a large sum of money on a celebrity-related object or being wiling to commit a crime for the celebrity.

Question 10

What is the absorption-addiction model?

Answer 10

McCutchrob linked the levels of parasocial relationships to the deficiencies people have in their own lives. For example, a person may have low self esteem and lack of fulfilment in their everyday relationships. Someone who has an initial entertaiment-social orientation to a certain celebrity may be triggered into intense-personal by a personal crisis. The absorption addiction model has two components: absorption and addiction.
This may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking.

Question 11

What is absorption?

Answer 11

seeking fulfilment in a celebrity who motivates an individual to focus their attention as far as possible on the celebrity and identify with them.

Question 12

What is addiction?

Answer 12

The individual needs increase their ‘dose’ of the celebrity in order to gain satisfaction. This may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking. For example, stalking a celebrity because they feel the celebrity really wants to reciprocate their feelings.

Question 13

Outline the link between attachment theory and parasocial relationships.

Answer 13

There is a tendency to form parasocial relationships in adolescence and adulthood because of attachment issues in early childhood.

Mary Ainsworth identified two attachment types associated with unhealthy parasocial relationships :insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.

Insecure-resistant types are most likely to form parasocial relationships as adults because they seek unfulfilled needs to be met.

Insecure-avoidant people prefer to avoid the pain and rejection in both social and parasocial relationships.

Question 14

Give a strength of research into parasocial relationships (research support for levels).

Answer 14

One strength of the levels of parasocial relationships is that it has research support. For example, McCutcheon used the CAS to measure levels of parasocial relationships. They also assessed problems in their intimate relationships. Participants who scored intense-personal or borderline-pathological tended to experience a high degree of anxiety in their intimate relationships. This suggests that ‘celebrity worshippers’ can be classified into three categories and these are predictive of actual behaviour.

Question 15

Give a strength of research into parasocial relationships (research support for the absorption-addiction model).

Answer 15

There is research showing a link between celebrity worship and body image. The addiction absorption model suggests that a deficency in a persons life would predispose them to forming parasocial relationships. Maltby assessed boys and girls aged 14 to 16 years and a correlation was found between poor body image and intense celebrity worship in teenage girls. This supports the model’s prediction of an association between poor psychological functioning and the level of parasocial relationship.

Question 16

Give a limitation of research into parasocial relationships (correlational research).

Answer 16

Most research into celebrity worship is correlational. This means that the cause and effect cannot clearly be established which lowers the scientific explanation.

Question 17

Give a strength of research into parasocial relationships (universal tendency)

Answer 17

Despite some weaknesses, research into celebrity worship seems to be describing a universal phenomenon. For example, Schmid and Klimmt studied levels of paraasocial relationships with characters from 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.

Question 18

Give a limitation of research into parasocial relationships (methods of report).

Answer 18

A limitation of studies into parasocial relationships is that they rely heavily on self-report methods such as interviews and questionaries. These methods may not reflect the true picture as participants may want to answer in a way that portrays them in a good light (social desirability bias). 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.