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Question 1

What are parasocial relationships?

Answer 1

1. Those that audiences develop with celebrities are very different from those formed within normal social networks,
2. They are one-sided, with one person knowing lots and the other usually knowing nothing about the audience party.

Question 2

McCutcheon (2002), method and theory?

Answer 2

1. Developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale based on the findings of a set of questionnaires which asked participants to score 23 items describing different aspects of celebrity worship,
2. Using this scale Maltby et al (2006) later identified three increasingly intensive stages of celebrity worship, known as the three levels of parasocial relationships.

Question 3

What are Mtalby’s three levels of parasocial relationships?

Answer 3

1. Entertainment-social - where the relationship with the celebrity exists as a source of fun, shared with others in a social group,
2. Intense-personal - obsessive thoughts begin to arise in relation to the celebrity, e.g. “ ‘insert celebrity’ is my soul-mate”,
3. Borderline-pathological - obsessive thoughts begin to give rise to fully-fledged fantasies (e.g. “ ‘insert celebrity’ is my partner”) and behaviours (e.g. sending love letters to the relevant celebrity). It is at this stage that stalking may begin, which involves a level of pursuit that is intimidating.

Question 4

Attachment theory applied to parasocial relationships?

Answer 4

1. In terms of celebrities, attachment theory suggests that children who didn’t form close attachments with their caregivers may later develop insecure attachments as adults,
2. They are then more likely to be attracted to celebrities. In one-sided relationships, there is little opportunity for rejection.

Question 5

Evidence for attachment theory in parasocial relationships?

Answer 5

1. The results of Roberts’ (2007) study support the idea that there is a link between childhood attachment and parasocial relationships,
2. Roberts asked 200 students (100 males and 100 females) similar questions to McCutcheon et al. (2002), and found a positive correlation between insecurely attached individuals and frequently contacting celebrities.

Question 6

Evidence against attachment theory in parasocial relationships?

Answer 6

1. McCutcheon et al. (2006) asked over 250 university students to complete questionnaires which examined their personality types and their views on celebrities,
2. They found no relationship between having an insecure-attachment and forming parasocial relationships.

Question 7

What are the two stages of the absorption addiction model?

Answer 7

1. Absorption - an individual becomes absorbed in following a celebrity; the relationship is a form of escapism,
2. Addiction - in some cases the parasocial relationship becomes addictive, and the individual becomes more and more obsessed with the celebrity. This can lead to extreme behaviour, like stalking. This usually happens as result of poor mental health, or some sort of crisis.

Question 8

What is the Absorption Addiction model?

Answer 8

1. Developed by McCutcheon et al. (2002),
2. Model says that people form parasocial relationships when they have a weak sense of identity - an individual finds their own life deficient, so they follow a celebrity as a source of fulfilment.

Question 9

How are the absorption-addiction model and the three levels of parasocial relationships linked?

Answer 9

1. The first level (entertainment-social) occurs in the absorption stage,
2. If the parasocial relationship becomes addictive, an individual may move to the second (intense-personal), and sometimes third level (borderline-pathological).

Question 10

Strengths of the absorption-addiction model?

Answer 10

1. Maltby et al. (2006) found evidence that there is a connection between parasocial relationships and mental health. Participants who engaged in parasocial relationships were found to be functioning less well psychologically than those who didn’t. They also found a positive correlation between levels of anxiety and depression and frequency of more extreme parasocial relationships, which matches the model’s predictions,
2. The model explains why most people who form parasocial relationships do so at the entertainment-social level, and why only a small minority develop relationships at the intense-personal or borderline-pathological level.

Question 11

Weaknesses of the absorption-addiction model?

Answer 11

1. This model has been criticised for ignoring the positive aspects of being a fan and for stigmatising people who form parasocial relationships by linking their behaviour to poor mental health,
2. The studies which are used to support the absorption addiction model don’t show that poor psychological functioning causes people to form parasocial relationships - they just show that the two things correlate,
3. Studies supporting this model have tended to be conducted in western countries, so the theory is ethnocentric and results cannot be generalised to other cultures.