Para-social Relationships

• Para-social relationships refer to one-sided relationships with a celebrity, a prominant person in the community or a fictonal 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.
• The three levels of parasocial relationships are; the entertainment social stage, intense personal stage and the borderline pathological stage.
• Entertainment Social Stage - Source of entertainment and fuel for social interactions as a source of gossip.
• Intense Personal Stage - Reflects a greater personal involvement which involves frequent obsessive thoughts, intense feelings eg soulmates.
• Borderline Pathological - Strongest level of celebrity worship which involves uncontrollable fantasies, spending lots of money and performing illegal acts.
• McCutcheon et al linked the three levels of parasocial relationships to deficiencies thet people have in theor own lives. For example low self esteem or a lack of fulfilment could cause an escape from reality