Relationships - Parasocial Relationships

Question 1

What is a parasocial relationship?

Answer 1

• parasocial relationships refer to one-sided relationships with celebrity, a prominent person in the community or a fictional character
• when a fan knows everything about the subject of their adoration and feels very close to them
• but there is no chance of reciprocity.

Question 2

Outline the levels of parasocial relationship

Answer 2

McCutcheon et al (2002) developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale, which was used in research by Maltby et al (2006). Through this, three levels of parasocial relationship were identified:

Entertainment-social: the least intense level, where celebrities are merely sources of entertainment and gossip. For example, enjoying the music of One Direction and being interested in the life of Harry Styles.

Intense-personal: a feeling of greater personal involvement with the celebrity. For example, feeling a strong connection to Harry Styles and obsessively thinking about him, seeing him as a ‘soul mate’.

Borderline pathological: an intense level of feeling, including fantasising and engaging in extreme behaviours. For example, spending thousands of pounds to buy clothing worn by Harry Styles.

Question 3

Outline the absorbtion-addiction model

Answer 3

McCutcheon (2002) suggested that people who form parasocial relationships often do so to compensate for a lack of fulfilment in their own lives.
For example, they may be in an unsatisfying relationship (or no relationship). They are also often less well-adjusted psychologically, which may be exacerbated by a stressful life event. Such conditions make it more likely that a person with an entertainment-social level of interaction will progress to the more intense levels.
Absorption refers to focusing on a celebrity and becoming pre-occupied with their lives.
Addiction is where a person feels the need to have a closer involvement with the celebrity, which may lead to extreme behaviours such as stalking and delusional beliefs, for instance the belief that the celebrity wishes to reciprocate the relationship but is being stopped from doing so.

Question 4

Outline the attachment theory explanation of parasocial relationships

Answer 4

Attachment theorists suggests that people who form parasocial relationships are more likely to have had difficulties forming attachments in early life. Of Ainsworth’s attachment types, insecure-resistant is seen as the most likely type to lead to a parasocial relationship. This is because parasocial relationships do not carry the risk of rejection, meaning the need for an attachment can be met without this accompanying fear. Insecure-avoidant individuals are more likely to avoid all types of relationship, including parasocial.

Question 5

Evaluate attachment theory in parasocial relationships - lack of support

Answer 5

There is a lack of support for attachment theory explanations.
McCutcheon et al. (2006) examined the correlation between attachment type and celebrity worship levels using 229 participants, and found no link between insecure-resistant attachment and more intense levels of parasocial relationships. This contradicts the claim made by attachment theory explanations and suggests that there is no link between attachment type and parasocial relationships.

Question 6

Evaluate parasocial relationships - self-report methods

Answer 6

Another weakness of studies into parasocial relationships is that they rely heavily on self-report methods, such as interviews and questionnaires.
These methods may not reflect the true picture, as participants may want to answer in a way that reflects them in better light (social desirability bias) and may not respond truthfully to the questions. This means that the reasons for developing parasocial relationships may be different from the ones uncovered by research, which lowers the validity of these explanations, making them less applicable to real life.

Question 7

Evaluate research into parasocial relationships - universality

Answer 7

Research into celebrity worship seems to be describing a universal phenomenon. For example, Schmid and Klimmt (2011) studied levels of parasocial relationships with characters from the Harry Potter books in different cultures, and found similar levels of worship in Germany (individualist culture) and Mexico (collectivist culture). This suggests that the absorption-addiction model is universally applicable.