parasocial relationships Flashcards
levels of parasocial relationships
McCutcheon et al
developed celebrity attitude scale
used in a large scale survey by maltby
identified three levels of parasocial relationship
each level describes the attitudes and behaviours linked to extreme forms of celebrity worship
entertainment social
least intense level of celebrity worship
celebrities are viewed as sources of entertainment and fuel for social interaction
giles - parasocial relationships were a fruitful source of gossip in offices
intense personal
intermediate level which reflects a greater perosnal involvement in a parasocial relationship with a celebrity
may have frequent obsessive thoughts and intense feelings about her
borderline pathological
strongest level of celebrity worship
features uncontrollable fantasises and extreme behaviours
may include spendings a large sm of money on celebrity related object or being willing to perform soem illegal act on the celebrity’s say so
absorption addiction model
Mccutcheon
linked the levels approach to the defincnes people have in their own lives
exmaple - a perosn may have low self esteem and lack fulfilment in their everyday relationships
someone who initially has an entertainment social orientation to a certain celebrity may be triggered into more intense involvement by soem perosn crisi or stressful even
th parasocial realitonsho allows them to escape reality
absorption
seeking fulfilment in celebrity worship motivates an individual to focus their attention as far as possible on the celebrity
to become precoccupties with the celebrity and identify with them
addiction
just as with a physiological addiction to a psychoactive substance
idniual needs to increase their dose in order to gain satisfaction
may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking
exmaple - stalking a celebrity because they believe that the celebrity really wants to reciporcate their feelings
attachment theory explanation of parasocial relationships
psychologists have suggested that there is a tendency to form parasocial relationships in adolescence and dulthood because of attachment difficulties in early childhood
bowlbys attachment theory suggested that such early difficulties may lead to emotional troubles later in life
ainsworth identified two attachment types associated with unhealthy emotional development
insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant
insecure resistant types are mos likely to form parasocial relationships as adults
this si because they seek to have unfulfilled needs met
but in a relationship that is not accompanied by the threat of rejection break up and disapotinet that real life relaiotnsho rings
insecure avoidant types prefer to avoid the pain and rejection of relaiotnshops whether they be social or parasocial
strength
research support for levels
strentgh of the levels model is that its predictions are supported by research
predictive validity
McCutheon et al
used CAS to measure level og parasocial realitonshops
assessed participants problems in their intimate relaiotnshps
participants who scored as borderline pathological or intense personal rended to experience a high degree of anxiety in their intimate relaiotnshops
people with entertainment social level generally did not
suggest that celebrity worshippers can usefully be classified into three categories and that these are predictive of actual behaviour
strength
support for absorption addiction model
research shows a link between celebrity worship and body image
the addiction absorption model suggest that a deficiency in a persons life such as poor body image wild predispose them to forming a parasocial relaiotnship
Maltby et al
assessed boys and girl as aged 14 to 16
researchers wear particularly interested in girls who reported an intense perosnal paradoxical relaiotnshops with an adult female celebrity whose ody shape they admired
found that girls tended to have a poor body image
speculated that this may contribute to the development og an eating disorder
supports the models prediction of an association betwen poor psychological functioning and the level of parasocial realitoshop
limitation
causation and correlation
McCutcheon at al
use correlational analysis
such studies do not show causal relaiotnshops between vairvakes
in this case we cannot conclude that anxiety in relaiotnshops causes borderline pathological parasocial involvement
the casual relaiotnshops could be in the other direction
alternatively a third factor which was to measured in the study could be the cause of both variables
