Parasocial relationships

Question 1

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Parasocial relationship

Answer 1

an attraction to a celebrity where the fan knows all about the celebrity but the celebrity doesnt even know the fan exists
* they can occur in anyone at any tyoe of age but seems to be more common during adolescence
* men are more likely to develop parasocial relationships with sports personalities, whereas females are more likely to develop them with entertainment celebrities
* people with a lower level of education are more likely to develop parasocial relationships with celebrities

Question 2

Celebrity Attitude Scale

Answer 2

CAS
* McCutheon et al (2002) developed it as a measure of parasocial relationships

Question 3

level of parasocial relationships

Answer 3

1. Entertainment -social level
2. Intense personal level
3. Borderline pathological level

Question 4

Entertainment social level

Answer 4

• least intense level of celebrity worship
• involves viewing celebrities as a source of entertainment and is a point of discussion between friends and family

Question 5

Intense personal level

Answer 5

• intermediate level of celebrity worship
• involves greater personal involvement characterised by obsessive thoughts and intense feelings
• e.g. spending lots of money to follow star on world tour

Question 6

Boarder pathological level

Answer 6

• most intense level of celebrity worship
• involves uncontrollable thoughts and extreme behavious such as spending large sums of money on objects relating to celebrity and following and behaving in line with everything celebrity says or does
• person may even attempt to meet celebrity becasue they feel celebrity will feel same way if they met in real life

Question 7

Explanations for parasocial relationships

Answer 7

1. Absorption addiction model
2. Attachment theory

Question 8

Absorption addiction model

Answer 8

• someone with a personal deficiency in their lives such as low self esteem who lacks fulfilment in their everyday relationships, is likely to use celebrities as an escape from reality when faced with a personal crisis or stressful life event
• model has 2 compenents:
  1. absorption- worshipping a celebrity provides individual to focus even more attention to the celebrity and becomes obsessed
  2. addiction - individual has the need to increase their dose to gain the same level of satisfaction which leads to extreme behaviours and delusional thinking such as celebrity stalking

Question 9

Attachment theory

Answer 9

• Bowlby says attachment issues in early childhood (during critical period) leads to emotional problems as an adult and difficulties in forming successful relationships late in life
• such difficulties may lead to preference for parasocial relationships to replace those within ones own social circle as parasocial relationships dont require the same social skills
• insecure-resistant types are more likely to form parasocial relationships
• they have an emotional need for fulfilment and parasocial relationships do not carry risk of rejection/break up unlike real life relationships
• people with insecure attachments become extremely distressed at thought of seperation from those they are attached to
• crave closeness of a relationship but risk of rejection in real relationships is too high
• more likely to form parasocial relationships as risk of being abandoned is eliminated

Question 10

Evalution

Answer 10

+ Support for absorption addiction model
+ Attachment theory is universal
- Insecure resitant types are not more likely
+ Practical value but difficult to measure

Question 11

+ Support for absorption- addiction model

Answer 11

Maltby et al (2005)
* found there was an association between poor body image and parasocial relationships
* e.g. girls 14-16 years who held poor body image were more likely to report intense-personal parasocial relationships with a female celebrity ehose body shape they admired
* supports predictions for absorption-addiction model

Question 12

+ attachment theory is universal

Answer 12

Dinkha et al (2005)
* compared Kuwait (collectivist culture) to US (individualist culture) and found that people with an insecure attcahment type were more likely to form a parasocial relationship with celebrities and characters from TV shows
* this was true with both cultures and acts as support for attachment theory
* shows its an universal explanation

Question 13

- Insecure resistant attachments are not more likely

Answer 13

McCutcheon et al (2006)
* found evidence agianst attachment theory
* measured attachment types and celebrity related attitudes in 299 American participants
* found that ppts with insecure attachments were no more likely to form such relationships than ppts with secure attachments

Question 14

+ Practical value but diificult to measure

Answer 14

• understanding thoughts and behaviours that could precede borderline pathological tendancies may help to identify those at risk before their behaviour progresses into criminality
• this can also help to develop treatments by better understanding of the causes of behaviours such as stalking
• however celebrity stalking is very complex and can have many triggers
• makes the psychology behind it difficult to understand

Question 15

- Self report methods and correlational studies

Answer 15

• much of the research relies on self-report data which may be subject to social desirability bias as some people will not be honest affecting the reliability and validity of findings
• also, most of studies use correlational analysis
• despite strong correlations between celebrity worship and body image causal links cannot be made