parasocial relationships Flashcards
(22 cards)
what is a parasocial relationship?
HORTON & WOHL:
- one sided relationship
- unreciprocated
- emotional energy
- commitment
- time
- resources
- celebrity worship
- fandom
- not always towards people
- objects (e.g. car)
- places (e.g. statue of liberty)
- lack a key element of interaction and attachment
how are parasocial relationships measured?
MCCUTCHEON:
- celebrity attitudes scale
- assess level of people’s parasocial relationships
- typically doesn’t go further than admiring celebrities for their entertainment / social value
how many levels of parasocial relationships are there?
MCCUTCHEON:
- (top) entertainment-social
- (middle) intense-personal
- (bottom) borderline pathological
what is the entertainment-social level of parasocial relationships?
- celebrities are a source of entertainment, fuel social interaction
- fruitful source of gossip in offices / between friends and family
what is the intense-personal level of parasocial relationships?
- frequent obsessive thoughts and intense feeling about ‘their’ celebrity
- considers celebrity their soulmate
what is the borderline pathological level of parasocial relationships?
- uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours
- e.g. spending large amounts of money on celebrity related experiences
- prepared to perform illegal acts
- stalker level
what is the absorption-addiction model?
MCCUTCHEON:
- explains tendency to form parasocial relationships
- parasocial relationship deficiencies in personal lives
- psychologically mal-adjusted
- the parasocial relationship allows them to escape reality
- enables a sense of identity
- weaker personal identities
what is the absorption-addiction model?
- absorption
- addiction
what is the absorption-addiction model?
- motivates to focus maximum attention on the celebrity
- become preoccupied in their existence and identify with them
- seek fulfillment in celebrity worship
- become absorbed in the celebrity
- obsession consumes them
LANGE:
- found that adolescents did this if they lack meaningful relationships and had difficult social circumstances
what is the addiction component of the absorption-addiction model?
- individual needs to sustain their commitment to the relationship
- delusional thinking develops
- psychological addiction
- extreme behaviours
- feed addiction
- e.g. “i just need to meet them and i know they will love me and we’ll be together forever”
what is bowlby’s attachment explanation?
- internal working model (IWM)
- first attachment is the template for attachment
- continuity hypothesis
- first attachment can be seen in other relationships
- poor first attachment leads to difficulty forming relationships and a parasocial relationship develops
- substitutes the lacking relationships
what is ainsworth’s attachment explanation?
insecure-resistant:
- unhealthy emotional development
- likely to have a parasocial relationship
- no fear of rejection
- needs are met
- become possessive
what are the fundamentals and their application to attachment?
proximity seeking:
- when you try to reduce the distance between yourself and your attachment figure
secure base:
- presence of the attachment figure provides security
protest at disruption:
- presence of prolonged distress following separation or loss of the attachment figure provides
what are the fundamentals and their application to parasocial relationships
proximity seeking:
- fans wanting to get close to celebrity, do research to stay informed, collect trivia about them, rearrange schedules and may contact the celebrity
secure base:
- can’t be rejected so can create secure base and therefore explore other relationships
protest at disruption:
- raw emotion over loss
- starting petitions
- e.g jeremy clarkson being axed from top gear
evaluation of parasocial relationships - research evidence
MCCUTCHEON: (+)
- celebrity attitude scale
- correlation between levels of parasocial relationships
- intense-personal, borderline pathological
- levels of anxiety in intimate relationships are a useful classification system
MALTBY: (+)
- meta-analysis
- 14 to 16 year old boys and girls
- levels of celebrity worship
- clear link with celebrity worship and body image
- girls had a poor boy image > intense-personal level with female celebrities
- supports absorption-addiction model
KIENLAN: (+)
- researched stalkers
- 63% stalkers loss of primary caregiver
- 50% childhood abuse
- supports attachment theory
COLG: (+)
- adolescents who were insecure-resistant
- more likely to develop parasocial relationships
MCCUTCHEON: (-)
- surveyed 299 americans
- attachment type had no impact on parasocial relationships
- it didn’t matter if they were secure / insecure
- provides conflicting evidence
DINKHA: (+)
- parasocial relationships are not impacted by culture
- collectivist / individual
- intense-personal seen across all cultures
- TV celebrity worship
evaluation of parasocial relationships - socially sensitive (-)
- attachment explanations blame childhood
evaluation of parasocial relationships - deterministic (-)
- lack of free will
- deficiency / attachment type
- (-) relinquishes responsibility, stalking, law, label, self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP)
- (+) removing blame produces a sympathetic response
evaluation of parasocial relationships - reductionist (-)
- too simplistic
- parasocial relationships
- too complex
- not just attachments / deficiencies
- other factors have a role to play
evaluation of parasocial relationships are- only correlational (-)
- does not infer causality
- too many other variables
- personality types
evaluation of parasocial relationships - practical application (+)
- therapy / counselling
evaluation of parasocial relationships are - self report (-)
- relies on honesty and memory
- social desirability bias
