Relationships: Virtual and Parasocial Relationships (L9-12)

Question 1

How has social media impacted relationships?

Answer 1

• social media has increasingly become an important part of everyday life
• websites such as Facebook and Twitter have millions of people logging in every day
• many of them communicate daily with people with whom they have never met face-to-face (FtF)
• prominence of virtual relationships in people’s life has made it a fascinating topic
• research suggests that the nature of online communication is distinctly different from our social interactions irl

Question 2

What is a difference between FtF and virtual relationships, sd?

Answer 2

• self-disclosure tends to occur much faster
• a reason for this is the anonymity associated with online relationships
• people tend to hold off disclosing personal information irl for fear of ridicule or rejection, unless they are confident that they can trust the person and that information won’t be leaked to mutual friends
• but there is much less risk of this in virtual relationships, so people can share personal experiences and thoughts
• without much risk of the intimate information getting to the people they know

Question 3

What analogy is self disclosure in virtual relationships often compared to?

Answer 3

• ‘Strangers on a train’
• internet interactions with others might be like the encounters one sometimes has with complete strangers when travelling
• Rubin (1975) carried out studies where confederates disclosed personal information about themselves (varying in level of intimacy) to a complete stranger on trains, in airport lounges, or when standing at bus stops
• discovered that when confederates disclosed intimate details of their life to a stranger in the next seat or next to them in a queue
• this was often met with a reciprocal self-disclosure from the stranger

Question 4

What are the 2 major and contrasting theories explaining virtual relationships?

Answer 4

• reduced cues theory
• hyperpersonal model

Question 5

What is the hyper personal model?

Answer 5

• Walther proposed the hyperpersonal model of virtual relationships
• VR can be more personal and involve greater self-disclosure than FtF ones
• is because VR can develop very quickly as self-disclosure happens earlier and once established these relationships tend to be more intense and intimate
• there are two key features of hyperpersonal self-disclosure in virtual relationships

Question 6

What are the two key features of hyperpersonal self-disclosure in virtual relationships, HPM?

Answer 6

1, sender of the message has greater control over what to disclose and the cues they send than FtF ones
- this is selective self-presentation as the sender manipulates their self-image and present themselves in an idealised way
- self-disclosures can be intensely truthful (hyperhonest) and/or intensely false (hyperdishonest)
2, receiver gains a positive impression of the sender and may even send positive feedback
- such as ‘wow, you sound like a really happy person’
- will reinforce the sender’s selective self-presentation

Question 7

How does more self disclosure come about, HPM?

Answer 7

• the fact that one is anonymous online can lead to more self-disclosure than being FtF
• Bargh et al points out that the outcome of this is like the ‘strangers on the train effect’ in FtF relationship
• when you’re aware that other people do not know your identity
• you feel less accountable for your behaviour
• so you may well self-disclose more about yourself to a stranger than to your most intimate partner

Question 8

What is the reduced cues theory?

Answer 8

• according to Sproull and Kiesler virtual relationships are less effective than FtF
• lack the cues that we normally depend on in FtF
• include non-verbal cues like physical appearance and cues to our emotional state like facial expressions and tone of voice
• reduces a person’s sense of individual identity in virtual relationships
• is de-individuation, which in turn leads to disinihibition
• many people then feel freer to communicate in blunt and even aggressive ways
• people less likely to express their real thoughts and feelings to someone who is so impersonal

Question 8

Hyperpersonal model +ve:

Answer 8

• Whitty and Joinson conducted research which demonstrates the effect of being online on self-disclosure
• they discovered that in online
  discussion forums both questions and answers tend to be more direct, probing
  and intimate
• compared to everyday FtF interactions, as the hyper-personal model would predict

Question 9

Hyperpersonal model -ve:

Answer 9

• research has found that relationships which begin online are more durable
  than other relationships
• rather than ending more quickly as the hyper-personal
  model suggests
• is because of more open self-disclosure early on in the
  relationship
  = sd varies depending on the online context
  = people disclose more on gaming sites than they do on dating websites
  = as these are more likely to lead to encounters in the future

Question 10

Reduced Cues -ve:

Answer 10

• was developed when social media lacked face-to-face
  interaction
• meaning they were much less rich in non-verbal communication than
  real life interactions
• but advanced technology allows for live interaction,
  which is much more similar to real life interaction
  = non-verbal communication is not absent from virtual relationships
  = the cues are just different, e.g. emoticons are used as substitutes for facial expression and tone
  = timing of responses is also an important form of non-verbal
  communication

Question 11

What is a gate?

Answer 11

• any obstacle to forming a relationship
• FtF interaction is gated, in that it involves many features that can interfere with the early development of a relationship
• e.g. physical unattractiveness, facial disfigurement, a stammer and social anxiety such as shyness and blushing

Question 12

What is a difference between online and FtF interactions, g?

Answer 12

•  absence of gating
• irl our attraction to other people is greatly influenced by their appearance, mannerisms and factors
• such as age and ethnicity
• this limits our choice of potential partners
• but in virtual interactions, these barriers (‘gates’) are absent
• this creates more opportunities for shy and less attractive people to develop romantic relationships
• when relationships move from virtual to the FtF phase so factors are revealed, they rarely decrease an already-developed attraction
• this is as a result of the feeling of intimacy brought by more open self-disclosure
• absence of gating also means that people can establish virtual identities they could never create face-to-face
• shy person can become outgoing and extraverted

Question 13

Absence of gating +ve:

Answer 13

• social benefits to the absence of gating in virtual relationships
• e.g. absence of gating could reduce loneliness by making it
  easier for some people to access to social interactions and to seek out company
• Rosenfeld and Thomas showed the importance of online communication for developing romantic relationships
• out of 4,000 72% had internet access and were married or had a romantic partner
• only 36% of those had but without internet access
• findings suggest that a virtual environment helps people to establish and maintain rs
  = claim that the absence of gating has positive effects on
  people’s offline relationships
  = people create an online identity that is appreciated by others
  = this enhances their overall self-image and increases the quality of their face-to-face relationships as well
• suggest that the absence of gating in virtual rs may be particularly useful for shy people - asked 207 male and female participants to complete a questionnaire
• scoring their answers in
  terms of shyness, internet use and perception of quality of their friendships
• found that those people who scored highly on shyness and internet use, perceived the quality of their friendships as high
• findings imply that as
  online communication helps people to overcome their shyness, the quality of
  their FtF communication also improves

Question 14

Absence of gating -ve:

Answer 14

• people are involved in both online and offline relationships every day; it’s not an either/or situation
• means that there are fewer differences between VR and FtF rs than research seems to suggest
• and research examining virtual relationships often fails to take into account the effect of these relationships on a person’s offline interactions, and
  vice versa
  = most research examining gating was conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s
  = as technology is changing rapidly, so is the nature of online
  relationships
  = so psychological research in this area risks becoming
  outdated by the time it is published
  = this lowers the temporal validity of research into virtual relationships

Question 15

What are parasocial relationships?

Answer 15

• refer to one-sided relationships with a celebrity
• fan knows everything about the subject of their adoration and feels very close to them
• but there is no chance of reciprocity
• has 3 levels

Question 16

What are the 3 levels of parasocial relationships?

Answer 16

1.entertainment - social
2. intense - personal
3. borderline - pathological

Question 17

What is the first level of parasocial rs?

Answer 17

1. entertainment - social
   - most people engage in parasocial relationships at
   some point in their lives
   - but most stay at this first level
   - celebrities are seen as a source of entertainment
   - and a topic for light-hearted gossiping with friends

Question 18

What is the second level of parasocial rs?

Answer 18

2. intense - personal
   - deeper level of parasocial relationships
   - at this level a person has a private obsession and feeling of personal connection with a celebrity
   - e.g. they may see them as a
   soulmate and have an intense interest in the celebrity’s personal life, such as their dress sense, food they like and entertainment in which they
   take part

Question 18

What is the third level of parasocial rs?

Answer 18

3. borderline - pathological
   - most intense level of parasocial
   relationships
   - at this level, a person takes celebrity worship to an
   extreme
   - has obsessive fantasies about the celebrity and spends large
   sums of money to obtain collectibles
   - it is also usual for people to believe that if only they were given a chance to meet their favourite celebrity irl, their feelings would be reciprocated
   - they may show extreme behaviours such as stalking

Question 19

What are the explanations to parasocial rs?

Answer 19

• absorption addiction model
• attachment theory

Question 20

What is the absorption addiction model, pr?

Answer 20

• McCutcheon argues that
  parasocial rs focused on a celebrity make up for
  deficiencies/dissatisfaction in a person’s real life/relationships
• they provide them with a sense of identity
• people with an addictive nature will escalate through the levels of parasocial rs
• this is until their parasocial rs becomes a total pre-occupation with a celebrity’s life

Question 21

What do the different parts of the absorption addiction model suggest?

Answer 21

absorption: looking for satisfaction in celebrity worship makes a person focus intensively on parasocial relationships
- achieving a sense of fulfilment motivates them to become even more intensely attached to the celebrity
- this is the first stage of the model, absorption
addiction: can be compared to physiological addiction of a psychoactive substance
- individual needs to increase their ‘dose’ in order to gain satisfaction
- this may lead to more extreme behaviours and delusional thinking
- e.g. stalking a celebrity because they believe that the celebrity really wants to reciprocate their feelings but someone is stopping them from getting involved

Question 21

Absorption addiction model +ve:

Answer 21

• research supports a link between loneliness and engaging in parasocial
  relationships
• Greenwood and Long found some evidence
  that people may develop parasocial relationships as a way of dealing with a recent loss or loneliness
  = stalkers often have a history of failed sexual rs at the time of the stalking
  = stalking in such cases is a reaction to social incompetence, isolation and
  loneliness
• Maltby et al. measured the rs between parasocial rs and body image in teens
• found that teen girls who
  engaged in parasocial relationships tended to have a poor body image
• especially if they particularly admired a celebrity’s physical appearance

Question 22

Absorption addiction model -ve:

Answer 22

- most research into parasocial relationships is correlational - means that cause and effect cannot be clearly established - e.g. while a significant correlation was found between poor body image and intensive parasocial relationships in teenage girls - does not mean that intense parasocial relationships causes poor body image - may be that girls who already have a poor body image tend to engage in a more intensive level of parasocial relationships to enhance their self-esteem = better suited to describing levels of parasocial rs than explaining how people develop these attitudes = this model attempts to establish universal principles of behaviour = and misses out on deep insight into the reasons for behaviour = looking into particular instances of parasocial relationships, may be better suited to uncovering the reasons for why people develop them

Question 23

What is Bowlby's involvement in the attachment theory, pr?

Answer 23

- use of Bowlby’s attachment theory and Ainsworth’s types of attachment to explain celebrity worship - Bowlby’s theory predicts that individuals who didn’t form strong bond with a primary caregiver in early childhood try find attachment substitute as adults - engaging in parasocial relationships allows them to do so

Question 24

What is Ainsworth's involvement in the attachment theory, pr?

Answer 24

- attachment type by Ainsworth suggest that individuals who formed insecure-resistant relationships with their caregiver in early childhood will be more likely to form parasocial relationships - as they are too afraid of the criticism and rejection that are a part of real life relationships - Ainsworth’s findings in Strange Situation study showed insecure-resistant children were very clingy, less explorative, as they didn’t feel safe enough to leave a parent, and showed great distress when their mother left the room

Question 25

What is Hazan and Shaver's involvement in the attachment theory, pr?

Answer 25

- Hazan and Shaver suggest this behaviour translates into clingy and jealous behaviour in adulthood - makes it difficult for people to developed committed and lasting romantic relationships - intensive celebrity worship allows them to engage in fantasy about the perfect relationship - without heartbreak and rejection

Question 26

Attachment theory +ve:

Answer 26

- Cole and Leets found that individuals with an insecure-resistant attachment style were more likely to engage in parasocial relationships with their favourite TV personality - and insecure-avoidant individuals were the least likely to engage in parasocial relationships - suggests there is a relationship between early attachment in childhood and adult parasocial relationships = research found that 63% of stalkers experienced loss of a primary caregiver in childhood usually from parental separation = 50% reported childhood emotional, physical or sexual abuse from their primary caregivers = this supports the idea that disturbed attachment in childhood is related to extreme forms of parasocial rs as an adult - study found that adults with insecure attachment types had positive attitudes to obsessive behaviours and stalking - pathological attachment types tend to engage in stalking which implies stalking is related to childhood attachment

Question 27

Attachment theory -ve:

Answer 27

- research studies are into the link between infant attachment type and parasocial relationships - they rely on participants’ memories about their early lives in order to assess their infant attachment style - such recollections are likely to be flawed - as our memories of the past are not always accurate, meaning the studies are not valid = parasocial rs can be positive and not just about fulfilling attachment needs = e.g. they allow a safe exploration of emotions