Parasocial relationships

• What is a parasocial relationship 


  Resembles normal relationship but parasocial ones are one sided + unreciprocated. Usually with celebrity, fan expends lots of time + commitment
• who made the celebrity attitude scale and who carried out a survey to identify 3 levels of parasocial relationships

  mccutcheon, Maltby
• what is the entertainment (social) level if the celebrity attitude scale


  First level, celebrity provides entertainment + social interaction.

  E.G. talking about if Jinx is alive

  Giles found para relationships are good source of gossip
• what is the intense (personal) level of the celebrity attitude scale


  Middle level, reflects greater personal involvement in relationship with celebrity.

  E.G. fan of celebrity has frequent obsessive thoughts about them
• what is the borderline pathological level if the celebrity attitude scale


  third level, strongest level of celebrity worship > uncontrollable fantasies + extreme behaviour.

  E.g. spending lots of money on celebrity related object
• Absorption - addiction model


  form para Rships in terms of deficiencies in life - may have a weak self identity and para Rship allows them to escape reality or find fulfilment they cant achieve in real relationships.

  Absorption - seek fulfilment in celebrity worship to focus attention on them to become preoccupied with their existence

  Addiction- sustain commitment by feeling stronger closer connection > extreme behaviour like stalking
• what are the attachment theories explanation in terms of parasocial relationships 


  bowlby’s theory- people without bond to primary caregiver in childhood tries to find attachment substitute as adults by engaging in para Rships

  Ainsworth attachment types- insecure resistant relationships in childhood more likely to form para Rship as afraid of rejection of real life
• One strength of parasocial relationships: application


  Maltby linked personality type (extravert, psychotic, neurotic) to levels of parasocial relationships. Extraverts likely to have entertainment, neurotics have intense, psychotics have boderline > supports absorbtion addiction model. Research can improve understanding of disprders and help people struggling
• weakness of parasocial relationships: lack of support for attachment theory explanations 


  no link between attachment type and celebrity worship level > contradicts claims made by explanation
• weakness of parasocial relationships: correlation causation issue


  found poor body image linked to celebrity worship in teenage girls but does not mean it causes it. could be that girls with low body image engage more with celebrity worship to enchance self esteem
• Weakness of parasocial relationships: self report methods 


  Social desirability bias. Means reasons for developing parasocial relationships could be different from those uncovered by research > lowers validity less applicable
• weakness of parasocial relationships: absorption addiction model better at describing levels of worship rather how they develop


  Model attempts to establish universal principles of behaviour and misses out on insight into reasons for behaviour. A more personal approach may be better for explaining why they are developed
• One strength of parasocial relationships: likely to be universal phenomena 


  Found parasocial relationships with characters from harry potter is the same in different cultures (germany individualist / mexico collectivist)