Parasocial Relationships Flashcards
How does the CAS assess celebrity attraction?
The Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) was used by Maltby et al to identify three levels of parasocial relationship.
What are the three levels of parasocial relationships?
- ‘Entertainment-social level’: least intense level where celebrities are viewed as sources of entertainment and fuel for social interaction.
- ‘Intense-personal level’: an intermediate level where someone becomes more personally involved with a celebrity and this may include obsessive thoughts.
- ‘Borderline pathological level’: the strongest level of celebrity worship where fantasies are uncontrollable and behaviour is more extreme.
How can parasocial relationships be explained in terms of people’s life deficiencies?
McCutheon suggests that parasocial relationships can make up for personal deficiencies (e.g. Lack of fulfilment). Parasocial relationships also provide an escape from mundane lives. People may be triggered towards a higher level by stressful life events such as bereavement.
What are the two components to 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, the individual needs to increase their ‘dose’ of involvement to gain satisfaction. This may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking.
How is early attachment problems linked to parasocial relationships?
Bowlby’s attachment theory suggests that early difficulties in attachment may lead to difficulties in forming successful relationships in later 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.
How are insecure attachment types linked to parasocial relationships?
Ainsworth identified two attachment types associated with unhealthy emotional development: insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant. Insecure-resistant types are most likely to form parasocial relationships because they want to have their 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.
Strength: research support for absorption-addiction model.
Maltby et al (2005) studied female adolescents who reported an intense personal relationship with a female celebrity whose body shape they admired. These females tended to have a poor body image (often a precursor to an eating disorder). Maltby et al (2003) linked the entertainment-social level with extrovert personality traits, the intense-personal category with neurotic traits and the borderline pathological level with psychotic personality traits. Both studies support the model because they show a correlation between the level of celebrity worship and different or disordered psychological functioning.
Limitation of the absorption-addiction model: it lacks explanatory power.
The model describes the characteristics of people at different levels of intensity but does not explain why the different forms develop. This does not help us to prevent the more dangerous and disturbing forms of parasocial relationships. So the model is limited in its explanatory power and its application for supporting people whose celebrity worship has become problematic.
Limitation of the link to attachment theory: lack of support.
McCutcheon et al found that participants with insecure attachments were no more likely to form parasocial relationships with celebrities than participants with secure attachment styles. This is the key assumption of this explanation and failure to find support for it raises crucial questions about the explanation’s validity. This is a limitation of using attachment theory to explain parasocial relationships because it shows that there is little predictive strength.
Strength of attachment explanations: cross-cultural support.
Schmid and Klimmt found similar levels of parasocial attachments to Harry Potter in an individualist culture (Germany) and a collectivist culture (Mexico). So it would seem that this tendency is not culturally specific. This suggests that the need to form parasocial relationships may be universal and innate, and may be an adaptive behaviour.
Limitation: methodological issues limit the validity of research.
Most of the research studies use self-report techniques to collect data. These can be affected by forms of bias, for example social desirability bias. Most of the studies also use correlational analysis. Despite strong correlations between celebrity worship and body image causal links cannot be made. This means that there is no evidence to show that parasocial relationships are caused by specific experiences.
