Parasocial:

• Levels of parasocial relationships

  McCutcheon and his colleagues developed the Celebrity attitude scale (CAS). This was used in a large-scale survey by Maltby et al who identified 3 levels of parasocial relationship
• Levels of parasocial relationships:

  1. Entertainment-social

  • Least intense level of celebrity worship
  • Celebrities are viewed as sources of entertainment
  • Giles found that parasocial relationships were a fruitful source of gossip in offices
• Levels of parasocial:

  2. Intense-personal

  • Intermediate level which reflects a greater personal involvement in a parasocial relationship with a celebrity
  • might have frequent obsessive thoughts
• Level of parasocial

  3. Borderline-pathological

  • Strongest level of celebrity worship, featuring uncontrollable fantasies
  • These might include spending a large sum of money on a celebrity-related object
• The absorption addiction model

  McCutcheon linked the levels approach to the deficiences people have in their own lives

  IE Person may have a low self-esteem in their everyday relationships

  Someone who initially has an entertainment-social orientation to a certain celebrity may be triggered into more intense involvement by some personal crisis or stressful life event. The parasocial relationship allows them to 'escape from reality'.
• The absorption model:


  • Absorption - seeking fulfilment in celebrity worship motivates an individual to focus their attention as far as possible on the celebrity, to identify with them
• The absorption model


  • Addiction - just as with a physiological addiction to a psychoactive substance the individual needs to increase their 'dose in order to gain satisfaction
  • This may lead to more extreme behaviours
  • For example, stalking a celebrity
• Attachment theory explanation of parasocial relationships

  Tendency to form parasocial relationships in adolescence and adulthood because of attachment difficulties in early childhood. Bowlby's attachment theory suggested such early difficulties may lead to emotional troubles later in life
• Attachment:


  Ainsworth identified 2 attachment types associated with unhealthy emotional development: insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant

  Insecure-resistant types are most likely to form parasocial relationships as adults as they seek to have unfulfilled needs met but in a relationship that is not accompanied by the threat of rejection break-up and disappointment that real-life relationships bring.

  Insecure-avoidant types, on the other hand, prefer to avoid the pain and rejection of relationships altogether, whether they be social or parasocial.