Relationships: Parasocial Flashcards
what’s a parasocial relationship?
‘para’ means resembling. parasocial relationships are similar to normal relationships but they are one-sided, unreciprocated. usually with a celebrity on which fans express emotional energy, commitment and time.
what’s levels of parasocial relationships?
McCutcheon developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale, which used a large scale survey by Maltby. they identified 3 levels of parasocial relationships, each level describing the attitudes and behaviour linked to celebrity worship.
what’s the entertainment-social level?
the least intense level. the celebrity is viewed as entertainment and fuel for social intercation.
what’s the intense-personal level?
the intermediate level. it reflects greater personal involvement - frequent obsessive thoughts and intense feelings (consider them a soulmate).
what’s the borderline pathological level?
the strongest level. it features uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours. it may include spending lots of money on celebrity-based objects or willing to perform illegal acts on celebritie’s say-so.
what’s the absorption-addiction model?
McCutcheon explains the tendency to form parasocial relationships. people may have a weak sense of self-identity and lack fulfilment in everyday relationships. it allows them an escape from reality.
what’s the absorption component of the model?
seeking fulfilment in the celebrity worship motivates the individual to focus their attention as far as possible on the celebrity, to become pre-occupied in their existence and identify with them.
what’s the addiction component of the model?
the individual needs to sustain their commitment to the the relationship by feeling stronger and closer involvement with the celebrity. it may lead to exteme behaviours and delusional thinking.
what’s the attachment theory’s link to parasocial relationships?
parasocial relationships could be due to attachment difficulties in early childhood. Bowlby’s attachment theory suggests early attachment troubles can lead to emotional difficulties later.
what’s research support for absorption-addiction model? (A03)
Maltby investigated link between celebrity worship and body images in men and women 14-16 years old. females reporting an intense-personal relationship with female celebrities who’s bodies they admired. these adolenscents had poor body image. other research by Maltby found entertainment-social level was linked to extraverted personality, intense-personal with neurotic and borderline-pathological with psychotic.
what’s problems with attachment theory? (A03)
McCutcheon measured attachment types and celebrity related attitudes in 299 participants. he found that insecure attachment were no more likely to form relationships with celebrities than secure attachment. this fails to support the attachment theory, raising doubts about validity.
what’s the methodological issues?
most research uses self-report methods like online questionaires. these are subject to bias as participants may respond to quite personal itemts in a way that they think will enhance their social status (social desirability bias). correlational analysis. strong correlation between body image and celebrity worship. the conclusions that young girls had poor body image was unwarrented. it could be the women who already have poor body image are drawn to an intense-personal relationship. a longitudinal study could addressed the issue of cause and effect.
