Parasocial Relationships: The Absorption Addiction Model Flashcards
Parasocial relationships
The prefix ‘para’ means ‘resembling’ so parasocial relationships are those which are similar to ‘normal’ relationships but lack a key element in that they are a one-sided unreciprocated relationship usually with a celebrity on which the ‘fan’ expends a lot of
emotional energy, commitment and time.
CAS
McCutcheon et al (2002) developed the celebrity attitude scale (CAS) and this was used in a large-scale survey by Maltby et al (2006) who identified three levels of para social relationship.
CAS three levels
Level 1 Entertainment - Social
Level 2 Intense - Personal
Level 3 Borderline - Pathlogical
Level 1 Entertainment - Social
Giles and Maltby suggest that most people engage in
parasocial relationships at some point in their lives, but most stay at the first level (Entertainment – Social), where celebrities are seen as a source of entertainment and as a topic for lighthearted gossips with friends. This is the least intense level of
celebrity worship.
Level 2 Intense - Personal
This is a deeper level of parasocial relationships. At this level a person has a more intense relationship with a celebrity. For example, they may see them as a soulmate and they have an intense interest in the celebrity’s personal life, such as their dress sense, food they like and entertainment in which they take
part. This type of parasocial relationship is typical for teenagers who seem to be obsessed with every little detail of their favourite celebrity’s lifestyle.
Level 3 Borderline - Pathological
This is the most intense level of parasocial
relationships. At this level, a person takes celebrity worship to an extreme, has obsessive fantasies about the celebrity, spends large sums of money to obtain memorabilia and may engage in illegal activities such as stalking. At this level, it is also
usual for people to believe that if only they were given a chance to meet their favourite celebrity in person, their feelings would be reciprocated.
Two theories to explain para social relationships
Absorption-addiction model
Attachment theory
Absorption addiction model
McCutcheon (2002) linked the levels approach to the deficiencies that people have in their own personal lives and proposed the Absorption-Addiction Model to explain parasocial relationships. She suggests that people engage in celebrity worship to compensate for some deficiencies in their life, such as difficulty forming intimate relationships, poor psychological
adjustment and lack of identity. Forming parasocial relationships with a celebrity allows them to
achieve the fulfilment they lack in everyday life and adds a sense of purpose and excitement.
McCutcheon explains that looking for satisfaction in celebrity worship makes a person focus intensively on parasocial relationships and achieving a sense of fulfilment motivates them to become even more intensely attached to the celebrity. This is the first stage of the model, absorption.
The second stage of the model is the addiction – and can be compared to physiological addiction
of a psychoactive substance. The individual needs to increase their ‘dose’ in order to gain satisfaction. This may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking, for example, stalking a celebrity because they believe that the celebrity really wants to reciprocate their feelings but someone (such as the celebrity’s manager) is stopping them from getting involved.
Advantages of the absorption-addiction model
One strength of the absorption addiction model is the research support that is linked to the levels of parasocial relationships proposed by McCutcheon et al (2002). In a study by McCutcheon et al (2016), they used the CAS to measure level of parasocial relationships and also assessed participants’ problems in their intimate relationships. It was found that pps who scored Level 3 – borderline pathological or Level 2 – intense-personal tended to experience a high degree of anxiety in their intimate relationships. Whereas Pps who scored on the Level one – entertainment-social did have other relationship problems. This suggests that the levels of parasocial relationships are a good indicator of actual behaviour. This study therefore leans
towards supporting the absorption addiction model which is based on the levels of parasocial
relationships.
Furthermore research offers some support for absorption-addiction model. Maltby et al.
(2005) measured the relation between celebrity worship and body image in teenagers. They
found that teenage girls who were at the intense-personal level of celebrity worship tended to
have a poor body image, especially if they particularly admired a celebrity’s physical appearance.
Also,Schiappa et al. (2007) found a significant positive correlation between the amount of TV
participants watched, the degree to which they perceived a TV character as ‘real’ and the level
of their parasocial relationship.
Research also supports a link between loneliness and engaging in parasocial relationships. For
example, Greenwood and Long (2009) found some evidence that people may develop celebrity
worships as a way of dealing with a recent loss or loneliness. However, other research (e.g. Chory-Assad and Yanen, 2005) failed to find any significant correlation between intensity of loneliness and intensity of a parasocial relationship, so the evidence is not conclusive.
Disadvantages of the absorption-addiction model
The Absorption-Addiction Model is better suited to describing levels of celebrity worship that explain how people develop these attitudes. This model attempts to establish universal principles of behaviour (nomothetic approach) and as such misses out on deep insight into the reasons for behaviour. An idiographic approach, looking into particular instances of parasocial relationships, may be better suited to the reasons for why people develop them.
Gender differences
