Psychology Theories for Celebrity Worship and Fandoms

Psychology Theories for Celebrity godliness and FandomsATHYNEA BURCHALLOutline and Evaluate what psychological enquiry has sh induce or so reputation fear and intense fandom. What do you think argon the actually world implications?The topic of famous person worship and intense fandom was once a media cheer group but this new phenomena is now a focus of psychological investigation and has been researched into by amicable psychologist. This assignment is going to look into why muckle ashes parasocial relationships with celebrities some clock times with people they have never met. Intense fandom sack up be described as Fandomis a term used to refer to asubculturecalm offanscharacterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who sh are a common interest. Fans typic altogethery are interested in plain minor expand of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a signifi good dealt portion of their time and energy complicated with their interest, often as a part o f asocial networkwith incident practices wikipedia1 Celebrity worship is the idolisation of a honor or a group of celebrities, and t herefore goes hand in hand with fandom, as groups of individualistics come together in their worship of a specific celebrities or idols. Most of the time this fascination with their idols is a harm slight activity hobby or past time however sometimes it can acquire into an obsessive disorder coined as Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS). The term CWS first appeared in an article Do you worship celebrities? by James Chapman 2003 in the Daily Mail. Celebrity worship syndromeis an obsessive-addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a glorys in-person life. Psychologists have indicated that though many people obsess over glamorousfilm,television,sportandpopstars, the only common factor between them is that they are all figures in the public eye. The term Celebrity Worship Syndrome is in fact a misnomer. Wikipedia 2Gibson in her study goes on further to explain Much research has been conducted most who engages in repute worship and what drives the compulsion. Celebrity worship for purely pleasure purposes likely reflects an extraverted privateizedity and is most likely a flushed past time for most people. This type of celebrity worship involves harmless behaviours such as reading and learning about a celebrity. Intense ain attitudes towards celebrities, however, reflect traits of neuroticism. The most extreme descriptions of celebrity worship exhibit borderline pathological behaviour and traits of psychoticism. This type of celebrity worship may involve empathy with a celebritys failures and successes, obsessions with the details of a celebritys life, and over-identification with the celebrity. Gibson (2009)3Psychological research done in this area by Mc Cutcheon, Lange and Houran developed a scale on which to assess the level of obsessive behaviour a fan was exhibiting known as the C elebrity Attitude Scale. Mc Cutcheon from this study suggested that people who scored lower on the scale were involved individualistic behaviour such as watching, listening to, reading and learning about celebrities whilst the higher levels of worship are characterized by empathy, over-identification, and obsession with the celebrity. Mc Cutcheon (2002)4In another study by Mc Cutcheon, he developed the absorption-addiction model to try and explain cases of celebrity worship. The study found a lack of personal identity and life fulfilment in a persons life contributed to psychological absorption into a celebritys life, and could then develop into more than extreme and obsessive behaviour, to try and sustain this identity that they have formed in relation to someone else.Later research done in the UK done by Maltby (2003) used a larger sample of participants for his study found that there were 3 dimensions or levels to celebrity worship. Entertainment social, Intense personal and Bor derline pathological. Entertainment social refers to a regular degree of interest in the life of a favourite celebrity. It is manifested by, for example, a desire to discuss the celebrity with friends, and agreement that learning about the celebrity through magazines or news cover represents having a good time. Intense personal celebrity worship involves the feeling of a tight personal connection with a celebrity. It is manifested by, for example, a feeling that the celebrity is a faultless soul mate, about whom the individual has frequent thoughts. Finally, borderline pathological worship is arguably the most detrimental form. It is manifested through a variety of bizarre beliefs such as a shared secret code through which the individual can communicate with the celebrity, a belief that the celebrity would come to help the individual in times of distress. North and Sheridan (2007)5.There have been various reasons machine-accessible to why celebrity worship happens, mass media has been blamed as celebrity stories are bombarded constantly by the media, via TV, magazines, and the internet, and even reputable newspaper high fervour celebrity gossip as front line news. When we are incessantly being exposed to figures through any medium, par asocial interaction can be fostered, which is the building of an imaginary relationship between audience and the figure (Keas, 2008).6 DNA has also been cited as a reason behind celebrity worship. Fischoff, who has academically studied the cult of celebrity, says the very need to find an idol and follow him is programmed into our DNA.Whats in our DNA, as a social animal, is the interest in looking at alpha males and females the ones who are important in the pack, says Mischief. We are sociologically pre-programmed to follow the leader, he says, and notes that we are biochemical sitting ducks for the Hollywood star system even the stars themselves get caught up in the mystique. ABC news 7. Also with one in three relationships now starting via the web may be social fragmentation can be contributing factor as well, In todays individualistic world, perhaps fantasy relationships with celebrities are easier to form than the real one Harrison, (2006).8Statistics done by Ramanires in 2011 found that 1/3 of the worlds population is afflicted with some form of celebrity worship and this number is growing. What are the implications of these phenomena in everyday life? Fans who are addicted or obsessed with their idol will spend most of their time, energy, and money on following their celebrity, whether on-line, via magazines, papers or in person to find out new information, meet them, or find out what they are doing, in order to have a sense of knowing their celebrity and following their lives to be apart of the celebrity life themselves. This is detrimental to their own lives because a substitute for their own lives and is not real. It is kinda of concentrating on productive activities and forming real relatio nship dint heir own lives. Fans are also willing to spend a lot of income on fan memorabilia, CDs, downloads, and other promotional material. Aronowitz agrees, but also says entertainment media is at least partly to blame for creating the monster known as the celebrity super fan. The altogether Hollywood spin machine works together to create images that are impossible for any of us to live up to. They purposefully set us up to admire and even covet something we can never have. when we are completely vulnerable, they sell us the image even harder from headlines that titillate us with celebrity secrets, to the books, diets, cosmetics, foods, jewellery, and clothes that promise well be closer to the ones we adore. Aronowitz.9 . However Houran argues that people who worship celebrity at low level tend to be happier, more outgoing and more amiable as it is a form of social bonding, stress reduction, escapism and entertainment (Harrison, 2006)10. In addition, social mutual post and str ong companionship can be found belonging to a Fandom group. Where fans can meet new friends with uniform interest through conventions, the fans club merging or Internet, feel a sense of acceptance, support and belonging they dont feel anywhere else in their lives, where they have a common interest and have something in common straight away so can communicate and form relationships easily. Like most things theres a dimensional approach here there are some people who are fascinated by celebrities lives, but also involved in meaningful activities and relationships in their own lives, and for these people star watching is usually a harmless diversion, says HollanderThis idolisation of celebrities and wanting to be like them as role models can have both irresponsible and negative implications. Due to the exposure of the media a celebritys life is completely on display, showing the negative behaviours as well as the ordained ones, such as smoking, taking drugs and drinking. Prior to M arilyn Monroe, a stars life was hidden from the public. But now, instead of a glossy ideal, we see celebritys ugly messes, including their drug and intoxicant abuse, which, for many who admire these people, translates into a very dangerous message, says Aronowitz.11 A survey done by Downing () shows that many teenage girls confessed to changing their own opinions because of the lick of a celebrity, some even admitted to smoking after(prenominal) viewing smoking in movies the same may be true for drug and alcohol use. around half agree that their own peers drink or smoke cigarettes because they see their idols doing it. The survey revealed that most adolescent completely wants to look or going as far as plastic surgery and act like famous people. Moreover, nearly 60 percent of teens said they wanted to pierce a tree trunk part or get a tattoo because a celebrity has. And 77 percent believe that when a star loses weight, they would also do the same and loss weight. Downing ()12.A lot of picture found in magazines and on the internet of celebrities have been air brushed and the celebrity have had tanning, start up and hair done by professional artists. Fans try and imitate their idols, even though they do not look like this naturally in real life, and the fans will go to extreme lengths to copy them. There have been links to celebrity worship and anorexia and cosmetic surgery in teenage girls. This competency explain why eating disorders are prevalent amongst teenagers to date. For some people, they are willing to undergo plastic surgery in virtue of imitating their favourite celebritys outlook. They believe they can have a better life like the celebrity if they look like the celebrity (Hareyan, 2006).13 However it can be argued that then celebrities can be positive role models as well and therefore celebrity worship can have positive implications. For example sprightliness a wellnessy lifestyle, highlighting a cause and decreasing a stigma attached to is sues such as Brooke Shields bringing post natal natural depression into the spot light. Many celebrities have used their popularity and fame to motivate people or to change their behaviour to be more positive. A Taiwanese celebrity, Chen Jian chow chow launched a get word named Love Life to promote the important values of loving life. To date, there have been more than a hundred artistes join this project to promote I Love Life (Wang, 2010)14. Giles also argued the adoration of celebrities as role models or idols has been prevalent for many years and it can be argued that it is normal and a part of identity development within childhood and even adolescence (Giles et al 2004)15.However there have also been psychological implications of celebrity worship. It starts to be mentally harmful to someone when a person starts to substitute idolising their celebrity for real life and real relationship, as they can lose focus on their own lives and became obsessed with a fantasy world escap ing their reality. In North study in 2007 he found that celebrity worship can be associated with depression, social dysfunction, anxiety, stress, negative and reports of illness. Maltby also stated that celebrity worshippers have a lower psychological well-being than non-worshippers. super acidgh low levels of celebrity worship (entertainment-social) are not associated with any clinical measures, medium levels of celebrity worship (intense-personal) are related to fantasy proneness (approximately 10% of the shared variance), while high levels of celebrity worship (borderline-pathological) share a greater association with fantasy proneness (around 14% of the shared variance) anddissociation(around 3% of the shared variance, though the effect sizing of this is small and most probably due to the large sample size) These finding suggests that as celebrity worship becomes more intense, and the individual perceives having a relationship with the celebrity, the more the individual is pron e to fantasies. Wikipedia 16 Some fans are so obsessed that it becomes dangerous to themselves and the celebrity. For example a dozen of Michael Jacksons fans committed suicide after his death. One of them barely survived, yet he killed himself anyway as he wanted to be with Michael Thompson, ( 2009)17. However Aronowitz argues A lot of these people who fall deeply into celebrity worship are just abnormal pathology waiting to happen. The fact that it comes out in the form of idolization of a particular celebrity is less important than recognizing the pathology was there all along. And if it was not focused on a celebrity it would be focused on something else, but it would still be there.18 Aronowitz cultureCelebrity Worship and intense Fandom although has recently been researched by Psychologist I feel more investigations are needed into the implications of this growing phenomena as the research is based on small sample sizes, and mostly done in the UK and US. As statistics state th is has become a worldwide phenomenon, which is only going to increase. Also mental health issues for the more extreme cases needs examining as the implications for these can negative and even dangerous. I feel mild forms of celebrity worship and intense fandom is harmless and can even be beneficial. As long as it doesnt take over your life and a person is still participating in their own lives and reality.http//psychology.about.com/b/2009/09/01/the-psychology-behind-celebrity-worship.htmAbanes Richard. Celebrity Worship. Religions of the stars What hollywood believes and how it affects you. n.eds. Minneapolis Bethany House. 2009. Print. Alexander, Jeffrey C. The Celebrity-Icon. Cultural Sociology 4.3 (2010) 323-336. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. Downing, Alexandrea. Calista Flockheart And Britney Spears Celebrity Culture And Its component part In Shaping Adolescent Identity. Conference Papers American Sociological Association (2004) 1-12. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web . 30 Oct. 2013. Hollander, Paul. Michael Jackson,tghe The Celebrity Cult, And Popular Culture. Society 47.2 (2010) 147-152.SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. North, Adrian C., and Lorraine P. Sheridan. Death, Attractiveness, Moral Conduct, And Attitudes To Public Figures. Omega daybook Of Death anxious(p) 60.4 (2009) 351-363. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. Parkins, Wendy. Oprah Winfreys Change Your Life TV And The Spiritual Everyday. Continuum Journal Of Media Cultural Studies 15.2 (n.d.) 145-157. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.http//abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7941766page=2Giles, D. C. (2004). Parasocial interaction a polish of the literature and a model for future research.Media Psychology.Maltby, J., Day, L., McCutcheon, L. E., Gillett, R., Houran, J., Ashe, D. D. (2004). Personality and coping A context for examining celebrity worship and mental health. British Journal of Psychology, 95, 411428.Maltby, J., Giles, DC., Barber, L. McCutcheon, L.E. (2005). Intense-personal celebrity worship and body image Evidence of a link among female adolescents.British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(1), 17-32.McCutcheon et al (2002). Are parasocial relationship styles reflected in love styles? authoritative Research in SocialPsychology, 7, 8293North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. (2007). Problem music and self-harming. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior ,36, 582590.Sheridan et al (2006). Celebrity Worship, addiction and criminality. Psychology, crime and law. 13 (6) 559-571.Giles, D. C. (2004). Parasocial interaction a review of the literature and a model for future research.Media Psychology.http//psychologicalgirl.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/the-psychology-behind-celebrity-worship/ReferencesMaltby, J., Giles, DC., Barber, L. McCutcheon, L.E. (2005). Intense-personal celebrity worship and body image Evidence of a link among female adolescents.British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(1), 17-32.North, A.C., Sheridan, L. Maltby, J. Gillett, R. (2007). 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