Parasocial relationships

• What is a parasocial relationships?

  One sided, unreciprocated relationship
• What are levels of parasocial relationships?

  Three step description of one sided relationships
• What is the absorption addiction model?

  Total pre occupation in a celebrity's life
• What is attachment theory?

  How an emotional bond forms between two people that persists over time, leading to clinging and proximity seeking
• McCutcheon et al

  • Developed "Celebrity Attitude Scale"
• Entertainment-social level

  • Least intense
  • Celebrities viewed as entertainment
• Intense-personal level

  • Intermediate level
  • Greater personal involvement
• Borderline pathological level

  • Most intense
  • Uncontrollable fantasies
  • Extreme behaviours
• Absorption addiction model

  • Form parasocial relationships
  • Terms of deficiencies people have in own lives
  • Poorly adjusted psychologically
  • Allows escape from reality
• Absorption

  • Seek fulfilment in celebrity worship
  • Motivates individual to focus attention on celebrity
  • Become pre occupied in existence
• Addiction

  • Sustain commitment to relationship
  • Feel stronger and closer involvement
  • Extreme behaviours
  • Delusional thinking
• Insecure-resistant

  • Likely to form parasocial relationships
  • Unfulfilled needs
  • Need to be met but without fear of rejection
• Insecure-avoidant

  • Prefer to avoid pain of relationships
  • Social or parasocial
• Support for absorption-addiction model (evaluation)

  Studies support the absorption addiction model as they confirm the prediction of a correlation between level of celebrity worship and poor psychological functioning. Maltby et al links celebrity worship level and body image in males and females between 14-16. Females tended to have a poor body image, reported intense-personal parasocial relationships with celebrities whose body shape they admired. This might be a precursor of eating disorders such as anorexia which shows poor psychological functioning.
• Problems with attachment theory (evaluation)

  There are problems with attachment theory such as its validity. McCutcheon et al measured attachment types and celebrity related attitudes. Found participants with insecure attachments were no more likely to form parasocial relationships as previously thought. Finding fails to support central predictions of attachment theory.
• Methodological issues (evaluation)

  There are methodological issues with studies of parasocial relationships. Most studies use correlational studies, finding strong correlations between celebrity worship and body image. It could be that young women already have a poor body image and are drawn to intense-personal worship of celebrities. The issue of cause and effect could be addressed by longitudinal research. However as the absorption-addiction model is based on these studies, the validity of them being an explanation of parasocial relationships is questioned.