Parasocial Relationships

Question 1

Outline- Levels of parasocial relationships

Answer 1

Lowest) entertainment-social: they’re a source of entertainment and are spoken about with friends but not much more
Middle) intense-personal: greater personal involvement in the celebrity where you have obsessive thoughts and intense feelings about the celeb. ‘Soul mate?’
Highest) borderline pathological: uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours. Spending large sums of money on their stuff etc. Being willing to risk your life for them.
Example- Bryan Ray got plastic surgery worth £80000 to look like Britney Spears

Question 2

Outline- absorption addiction model

Answer 2

McCutcheon (2002)
Absorption- seeking fulfilment in celebrity worship because of a hard life they have.
Addiction- they must have more and more or know more and more to sustain their commitment to the celeb like a substance addition. This may lead to more delusional thinking.

Question 3

Outline- the attachment theory explanation.

Answer 3

• many psychologists believe that if you have an insecure-resistance attachment as a child you’re much more likely to develop a parasocial relationship.
• this is because they have unfulfilled needs to be met and they can’t be neglected or dumped by a celeb as they don’t know you exist.

Question 4

Evaluation- Maltby and colleagues (2005)

Answer 4

Support

• studied link between celeb worship (who’s body they admire) and body image in males and females ages 14-16.
• found these people tend to have a poor body image and thought this is a link to the development of anorexia

Question 5

Evaluation- McCucheon et al (2006)

Answer 5

Limitation- of attachment theory
- measured attachment type and celeb related attitudes in 299 participants
Found- insecure attachment people were no more likely to form a parasocial relationship.