Parasocial Relationships

• Parasocial Relationships


  One-sided, unreciprocated relationships an individual perceives themselves to be in with a celebrity. An individual spends a lot of time, energy & emotion into the 'relationship' whilst the celebrity does not know they exist. Exposure of the celebrity in the media give the individual the illusion of having the same interactions face to face.
• Levels of Parasocial Relationships:

  Giles & Matby developed Celebrity Attitude Scale.

  1. Entertainment-social
  2. Intense-personal
  3. Bordeline Pathological
• Entertainment-social


  Mild level of involvement with the celebrity. Mostly seen as a source of entertainment to "keep up with them" for gossip purposes..
• Intense-personal


  Intermediate level of involvement with the celebrity where they experience intense and compulsive feelings. No expectation to interact with the celebrity but may have strong feelings towards them.
• Borderline Pathological


  Strongest level of involvement with a celebrity and they have uncontrollable feelings for and fantasies about them. They believe to be in a relationship with them which may cause extreme behaviour.
• Theories to explain parasocial relationships

  1. Absorption-addiction model - McCutcheon
  2. Attachment theory - Bowlby & Ainsworth
• Absorption-Addiction model


  Parasocial relationships form when an individual suffers from deficiency in their own life due to low self esteem or lack of fulfilment. They may focus their attention on a celebrity to escape.

  Two components:

  1. absorption - over identifies by trying to absorb the celeb into their own lives through giving them all their attention
  2. Addiction - individual seeks stronger & closer involvement with celebrity leading to extreme behaviour & delusional thinking
• Attachment Theory as an explanation for parasocial relationships

  Bowlby - Attachment difficulties from childhood experiences may lead to emotional difficulties in adulthood.

  Ainsworth - insecurely attached child may form insecure relationships

  individuals who are insecure resistant may form a parasocial relationship as it avoids rejection
• Parasocial Relationship Evaluation (absorption-addiction model)

  (P) supporting evidence

  (E) Maltby

  (E) linked entertainment-social level + extravert personality traits, intense-personal + neurotic traits and borderline pathological + psychotic traits

  (L) provides support for the model because it shows a correlation between the level of celebrity worship & different disordered psychological functioning
• Parasocial Relationship Evaluation - absorption-addiction model:

  (P) lacks explanatory power

  (E) model describes the characteristics at different levels of intensity but does not explain why the different forms develop

  (E) this does not help us prevent dangerous forms of parasocial relationships

  (L) limited in exploratory power because its application for supporting people whose celebrity worship has become problematic
• Parasocial Relationship Evaluation - attachment theory

  (P) lack of supporting evidence

  (E) McCuctheon

  (E) measured attachment types + attitudes to celebrities in 299 participants & found those with an insecure resistant attachment type were no more likely to form a parasocial relationship

  (L) this contradicts claims by the attachment theory and suggests no link between attachment types
• Parasocial Relationship Evaluation:

  (P) methodological issues that limit validity

  (E) most research studies in parasocial relationships use correlation analysis

  (E) despite the strong correlations between celebrity worship + body image, casual links cannot be established

  (L) meaning there is no evidence to show that parasocial relationships are caused by specific experiences