parasocial relationships

• parasocial relationship definition

  Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, such as fans may feel they have with a celebrity, through concerts, TV appearances, films, magazines etc, where the celebrity is unaware of the fan's identity or even existence
• levels of parasocial relationships

  McCutcheon et al (2002) developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale. Maltby et al (2006) used the CAS to identify 3 levels of parasocial relationships:

  1. Entertainment-social

  • Least intense level of celebrity worship
  • Celebs viewed as a source of entertainment and source of gossip

  2. Intense-personal

  • Intermediate level which reflects greater personal involvement e.g. obsessive thoughts about a celebrity
  • Reflects intensive and compulsive tendencies of fans

  3. Borderline pathological

  • Strongest level of celebrity worship e.g. fantasies and extreme behaviour e.g. spending huge amounts of money on their products
  • Develop empathy with the celeb but also over-identification
• absorption-addiction model

  • McCutcheon (2002) explains that parasocial relationships form due to deficiencies people have in their lives e.g. poor psychological functioning or poor sense of self identity
  • Allows for an escape from reality or sense of fulfilment when real relationships don't supply these.
  • May have an initial entertainment-social orientation to a celebrity may become more intensely involved due to a trigger such as a stressful event
• absorption

  refers to the worship of a celebrity so that they become preoccupied with them and solely focused upon them
• addiction:

  refers to sustaining their commitment to the celebrity by developing a closer involvement with them.This leads to extreme behaviour and delusions e.g. stalking a celebrity because you believe they want to be with you

  • Introverted teenagers may become absorbed due to a lack of meaningful relationships, leading to addiction due to the need to remain `connected' to the celebrity
• the attachment of theory explanation

  • The formation of parasocial relationships late in life may be due to attachment issues in childhood E.g. Bowlby's attachment theory
  • Especially, children with early experience of rejection may form parasocial relationships, as the chances of rejection are greatly reduced
  • Attachment behaviours can be seen in people with PSRs, e.g. proximity seeking and secure base behaviour.
• Giles 2002 found parasocial relationships were a fruitful source of gossip in offices
• which features of the monotropic theory is relevant?

  internal working model - type of caregiver relationship would develop later on with others
• which two of ainsworth's types of attachment might be especially vulnerable to forming parasocial relationships?

  • insecure avoidant
  • insecure resistant
• eval: supporting research

  • research support for the absorption-addiction model
  • Maltby et al. (2003) used the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to assess the relationship between PSRs and personality.
  • They found that the intense-personal level was associated with neuroticism (i.e. tense, emotional and moody), which is also related to anxiety and depression.
  • This not only supports the Absorption-Addiction Model, but highlights a way of identifying people at risk of PSRs and psychological disorders like anxiety and depression
  • positive point: enable real life application = able to identify those who are at risk of developing a PR
• further supporting research for 'addictive' and proximity seeking behaviours in PSRs

  • Schiappa et al. (2007) carried out a meta-analysis which found that people with higher PSRs watched more TV.
  • They also found a significant positive correlation between the degree to which a person perceived TV characters as real and the tendency to form PSRs.
  • This supports both the addiction part of the absorption-addiction model, and the proximity seeking aspect of the attachment model

  * concepts are testable and measurable

  * correlation does not explain cause + effect relationship
• research support for the link between insecure attachment and parasocial relationships

  • Rain and Mar (2021) found that people with insecure attachment are more likely to form illusory, parasocial relationships with TV characters
• strength of the A-A model is that it has cross-cultural support

  • Schmid and KIimmt (2011) investigated whether there would be a difference in the PSRs formed with Harry Potter in two different cultures.
  • Germany (individualist culture) and Mexico (collectivist culture) showed similar patterns of PSRs, in line with the A-A model
  • This suggests that A-A model may be widely generalisable as an explanation of PSRs

  *support Bowlby's attachment theory - internal working model
• however both Rain and Mar and Schiappa et al used correlational research. what are the potential drawbacks for this research area?

  methodological issues:

  • self report (online questionnaires): number of effects that can be bias to enhance social status
  • correlational analysis: conclusion that an intense personal PSR causes young women to have poor body image is unwarranted - cant establish cause + effect
  • validity: lack longitudinal research