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AQA Psychology- Parasocial relationships notes
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- Relationships
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Notes created by an A-level psychology private tutor + A* student. All topic notes for Parasocial relationships AQA Psychology A-level
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Rela onships lesson 10- Parasocial rela onshipsSimilar to normal rela onships but lacking a key element. They are one-sided (unreciprocated),
usually with a celebrity, on which the fan spends a lot of emo onal energy, commitment & me.
Parasocial rela onships typically develop with television celebri es, but they can also occur between
individuals and their favourite bloggers, social media users and gamers. The pervasiveness of mass
media such as television and the Internet gives the viewer the illusion of having a face-to-face
rela onship with a par cular celebrity.
This associa on is so strong that the celebrity becomes a meaningful gure in the individual’s life,
and can produce a much more complex set of responses than just simple imita on.
Levels of Parasocial Rela onships- McCutcheon (2002) developed the Celebrity A tude Scale
This was used in a large scale survey to measure levels of parasocial rela onships- Maltby et al.
(2006).
There are three levels, each describing the a tudes & behaviours linked to ever more extreme forms
of celebrity worship.
Entertainment-social- Least intense level of celebrity worship. Celebri es are viewed as sources of
entertainment & fuel for social interac on.
Fans are a racted to a favourite celebrity and will watch, keep up with, read and learn about that
celebrity for the purposes of entertainment and gossip. For example, on the CAS they would agree
with statements such as ‘Learning the life story of my favourite celebrity is a lot of fun.’
Intense-personal- An intermediate level which re ects a greater personal involvement in a parasocial
rela onship with a celebrity, e.g. frequent obsessive thoughts & intense feelings, maybe considering
the celebrity to be a ‘soul mate.’
This level involves a deep er level of involvement and re ects intensive and compulsive
feelings about the celebrity. This leads to obsessive tendencies in fans for example a fan of Kim
Kardashian might have frequent obsessive thoughts and intense feelings about her, perhaps even
feeling that she is their ‘soulmate’.
Borderline-pathological- The strongest level of celebrity worship, featuring uncontrollable fantasies
and extreme behaviours, e.g. spending (or planning to spend) a large amount of money on a
celebrity-related item, or being willing to break the law on the celebrity’s say-so.
This level is typi ed by, on the one hand, empathy with the celebrity, as individuals at this level
iden fy with the celebrity’s successes and failures. However, it is also characterised by
overiden ca on with the celebrity and uncontrollable behaviours and fantasies about their lives.
For example, fantas cal beliefs such as- ‘If I walked through the door of my favourite celebrity’s
house, he or she would be happy to see me’
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