Parasocial Relationships

Question 1

How do you measure para social relationships

Answer 1

McCutcheon’s celebrity attitude scale (CAS)

Question 2

Who identifies the 3 levels of para social relationships

Answer 2

Maltby, when he did a large scale survey using CAS

Question 3

What are the 3 levels of parasocial relationships

Answer 3

-Entertainment social
-Intense-personal
-Borderline pathological

Question 4

Entertainment social

Answer 4

-The least intense level of celebrity worship
-Celebrities are viewed as a source of entertainment and fuel for social interaction

-Discussing actor gossip or favourite TV shows

Question 5

Intense-personal

Answer 5

-Intimidate level of celebrity worship
-Frequent, obsessive thoughts and intense feelings about a celebrity
-Investments of time and money

Question 6

Borderline pathological

Answer 6

-Strongest level of celebrity worship
-Uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviors
-Spending large amounts of money, stalking or other illegal acts

Question 7

What is the absorbtion addiction model

Answer 7

-McCutcheon
-People tend to form parasocial relationships due to deficiencies within their own lives
-Poor mental health
-Low self esteem
-Low satisfaction in real life relationships
-The parasocial relationships help them ‘escape from reality’

Question 8

Absorption

Answer 8

-Seeking fulfillment from the celebrity causes the person to focus all their attention on the celebrities life
-Become preoccupied in the celebrities existence and identifies with them

Question 9

Addiction

Answer 9

-The individual needs to sustain their commitment to the celebrity just like an actual physiological addiction
-Extreme behavior and delusional thinking leads to a feeling of closer involvement

-Stalking a celebrity because you believe she reciprocates your feelings but their body guard keeps stopping you

Question 10

Insecure resistant

Answer 10

-Most likely to form parasocial relationships in order to have their unfulfilled needs met
-No risk of rejection

Question 11

Insecure avoidant

Answer 11

-Least likely to form parasocial relationships by wanting to avoid the rejection of relationships altogether

Question 12

Support for abortion addiction model

Answer 12

-Maltby
-Investigated the link between celebrity worship and body image in males and females aged 14 to 16
-Females who had an intense personal relationship with a body they admired tend to have poor body image with a link to the development of AN

-Supports how a person gets absorbed in a celebrities life and attempts to copy and relate to them in order to form a closer emotional attachment

Question 13

Contradicting research, attachment type

Answer 13

-McCutcheon
-Measured attachment type and CAS of 299 participants and found that there was no difference between the likelihood of secure and insecure attachments forming parasocial relationships, just that insecure resistant attachments were more likely to form borderline pathological

Question 14

Methodological issues, self report

Answer 14

-Parasocial relationships use self reports like CAS, questionnaires and surveys to collect data

-This can lead to social desirability bias as many of the behaviors which coincide with borderline pathological can be perceived as creepy and harmful

Question 15

Methodological issues, extended peel on absorption addiction model, correlational

Answer 15

Correlation found between body image and celebrity worship doesn’t lead to the conclusion that intense personal parasocial relationships lead to poor body image