Relationships - Parasocial Relationships Flashcards
What are parasocial relationships?
- One sided relationships with personalities outside of the individuals network - antisocial and neurotic individuals
- Men - tend to form parasocial relationships with sports stars
- Women - tend to form parasocial relationships entertainment stars
- Usually those between the ages of 11-17 (Giles) - due to education level, and that most people of this age are just beginning to experience relationships and so instead of entering one in real life, they project these feelings onto someone who they can never date
- However, newer arguments are that they are more inline with real life relationships (Thompson)
Levels of parasocial relationships
McCutcheon Celebrity Attitude Scale:
1) Entertainment- social; Social aspects eg: discussing with friends
2) Intense-personal; Strengths of feelings
3) Borderline pathological; Uncontrollable feelings
The absorption addiction model in parasocial relationships
McCutcheon:
- Absorption is the need to seek fulfilment in celebrity worship, motivating an individuals to focus their attention on the celebrity and they become absorbed in their existence and identify with them
- Addiction refers to how the individual needs to increase their dose of involvement to gain satisfaction, similar to a physiological addiction, which leads to extreme behaviours and delusions
- Suggested parasocial relationships are due to personal inadequacies (poor real life relationships etc) and this leads to a desire for complete psychological involvement in the celebrity’s life and mistaken belief / delusion that the feelings are reciprocated
The model -
1 - Attraction to media personalities based on their skills
->
2 - Connections with the personality gets stronger and thoughts of links get stronger
->
3 - Feelings of ‘soul mates’ progress to obsessions and fantasies which are separate from reality
Each progression is associated with a new level of parasocial relationships.
Celebrity Worship Syndrome
CWS - developing into a mental disordered behaviour
McCutcheon:
- AIM - how common is it in real life and why does it develop
- METHOD - 600 self report questionnaires with rating statements
- FINDINGS - ⅓ showed CWS, 1% were pathological.
> Intense personal tended to be emotional and neurotic
> social tended to be extroverts
- CONCLUSION - it is a sliding scale. Those with intense feelings are more likely to be anxious depressed and socially dysfunctional
Supporting evidence for parasocial relationships
- Meloy - stalkers have a history of failed sexual relationships and are generally socially incompetent and isolated
- Purcell - female stalkers had a nurturing disposition and generally stalked those they physically knew
- Maltby - used EPS (Eysenck personality scale) to find those on entertainment-social levels were highly extrovert but those on intense-personal were high in neuroticism
Strengths of parasocial relationship theories
Strengths:
+ Applications to restraining orders, media training and psychotherapy
+ Research fits with people entering stages when looking for direction in life
The attachment theory of parasocial relationships
- Bowlby’s theory of attachment suggests that those who do not have a secure attachment earlier in life will have emotional difficulties and attachment disorders when they grow up.
- Parasocial relationships are often associated with teenagers and young adults who may have had less genuine relationships to build an internal working model which allows them to recognize parasocial relationships as abnormal.
- For example, it may be that those with insecure resistant attachment types are drawn to parasocial relationships because they do not offer the threat of rejection or abandonment.
Weaknesses of parasocial relationships theories
1) Portrays a negative view of human behavior – PSRs are portrayed as psychopathological behavior like calling them ‘borderline pathological’ – Theory may be socially sensitive as it implies that such behavior is a bad thing when it may actually provide support for those who struggle with real-life relationships, it may be more appropriate to adopt a positive, humanistic approach.
2) - Methodology is flawed - This can often lack validity, whether this is due to accidental inaccuracies, due to a warped perception of the parasocial relationship by the participant, genuine memory lapses, or more deliberate actions.
-> For example, the social desirability bias makes the respondents under-report their abnormal behavior. There is often competition between fans of celebrities to see who is the ‘biggest’ fan, which may lead to an exaggeration of the behaviors and attitudes when reporting the relationship
3) Education may have an impact
Attachment theories of parasocial relationships - general
- Insecure resistant are most likely to form parasocial relationships
- As the media personality is not aware of the relationship there is no fear of rejection
- Secure or avoidant attachments are unlikely to form parasocial relationships
Evidence for attachment theory in parasocial relationships
- Kienlen - 63% stalkers had primary separation whilst 50% had childhood abuse
- McCutcheon - insecure attachment types give positive responses to stalking and obsessive behaviours
- McCutcheon - only more intense forms of parasocial relationships are linked to attachment type
Evaluation of attachment theory in parasocial relationships
Weaknesses:
- There are variations in all relationships, simplifying them to attachments is not valid
- Parasocial attachment may be a new form of attachment
Strengths:
- There is some evidence that people may turn to parasocial relationships after suffering a loss of a loved one
- The theory can be backed up by much of the information found within developmental psychology
