parasocial relationships

• parasocial relationships:

  • one sided, unreciprocated usually with celebrity - expend energy, commitment + time
  • target individuals unaware of relationship
• levels of parasocial relationships:

  • mccutcheon developed celebrity attitude scale - used large scale survey by maltby et al
• types of relationships:

  • entertainment social - least intense, source of entertainment/gossip
  • intense personal - greater involvement e.g obsessive thoughts + feelings
  • borderline pathological - uncontrollable fantasies, extreme behaviour, willingness to perform illegal act
• absorption addiction model (mccutcheon):

  • people form parasocial relationships because of deficiencies in own life - lack of fulfilment + poorly adjusted psychologically, allows for escape + finding fulfilment
  • someone who has ES may be triggered into intense involvement by personal crisis
• absorption + addiction:

  • absorption - seeking fulfilment motivates person to focus attention of celebrity
  • addiction - needs to sustain commitment through stronger + closer involvement - may lead to extreme behaviour + delusional thinking
• attachment theory:

  • tendency to form because of childhood attachment
  • insecure resistant - more likely, unfulfilled needs, no rejection, disappointment/breakup
  • insecure avoidant - less likely, prefer to avoid pain/rejection
• EVALUATION: support for levels of parasocial relationships

  • maltby - linked levels to personality types e.g es = extroverted, ip = neurotic, bp = psychotic
  • relationship between celebrity worship + body image - ip tended to have poor image especially after admiring celebrity - ed
  • confirms prediction of correlation between each levels + poor psychological functioning
• EVALUATION: lack of support for attachment explanation

  • mccrutcheon et al - 229 people, correlation between attachment types + levels
  • those with insecure no more likely to form relationships than secure
  • contradicts attachment theory - no link between attachment + levels
• EVALUATION: methodological issues

  • rely on self report methods - social desirability bias
  • most research correlational, cause + effect cant be established - poor image + worship, people with poor image may engage in higher levels to increase self esteem
  • reasons for developing relationships may be different from ones in research