parasocial relationships Flashcards
What are parasocial relationships?
Is a one-sided relationship that occurs between a person and a media personality who is outside the person’s real social network, usually without the celebrity’s knowledge
Who created the levels of parasocial relationships?
Maltby et al (2006) used the Celebrity Attitude Scale to identify the levels of parasocial relationships.
- Celebrity Attitude Scale was developed by McCutcheon
What are the three levels of parasocial relationships?
- Entertainment social (least intense)
- Intense personal (middle intense)
- Borderline pathological (most intense)
Why do people form parasocial relationships?
- Escape from reality
- Attachment difficulties in early childhood
What does the absorption addiction model suggest ?
- model suggests that people pursue parasocial relationships due to problems within their real life
People who form parasocial relationships also have: Have a poor sense of identity, Have poor psychological adjustment (eg stressed), Lack of fulfilment in life - allows people to ‘escape reality’ and feel fulfilled
What is the absorption part of the absorption addiction model?
- The process where a person becomes ‘absorbed’ in the following of a celebrity.
- They achieve a sense of fulfilment they lack in their own lives, which motivates a more intense attachment
What is the addiction part of the absorption addiction model?
They become addicted to the feeling of fulfilment and therefore become more obsessed with the celebrity
• This can escalate to extreme behaviours i.e. stalking
- Moving from absorption to addiction may be caused by a personal crisis
Which attachment is most likely to lead to parasocial behaviours?
Insecure-resistant types are most likely to form parasocial relationships as adults
Why does Attachment difficulties in childhood lead to parasocial behaviour in adulthood ?
This is because they seek to have unfulfilled needs met in a relationship with no risk of rejection/ break-up.
What is research supporting levels of parasocial relationships?
P: One strength is that the levels of CAS to predict behaviour.
EE: McCutcheon et al. (2016) used the CAS to measure level of parasocial relationships. They found that borderline-pathological / and intense-personal = experienced a high degree of anxiety in their relationships. People at the entertainment-social level = did not experience anxiety in their relationships
L: Therefore, the theory has high predictive validity and it allows us to predict behaviour based on the 3 categories.
What is research supporting the absorption addiction model?
P: One strength of the model is research showing a link between parasocial relationships and body image.
EE: According to the absorption addiction model, those who have a problems in their own life (such a poor body image) are more likely to form a parasocial relationship. Maltby et al. (2005) found that girls (aged 14-16) who tended to have poor body image also reported an intense-personal parasocial relationship with an adult female celebrity whose body shape they admired.
L: This supports the model’s prediction of an association between poor psychological functioning and the level of parasocial relationship.
What is a strength of the attachment theory?
P: One strength of attachment theory is that it can explain why people all over the world have a desire to form parasocial relationships.
EE: Dinkha et al. (2015) found that people with an insecure attachment type were the most likely to form intense parasocial relationships with TV characters. This was true in both collectivist and individualistic cultures.
L: This supports the view that attachment type may be a universal explanation for the need to form parasocial relationships
