Psychology Theories for Celebrity Worship and Fandoms

Psychology Theories for renown hero-worship and FandomsATHYNEA BURCHALLOut line of products and valuate what psychological explore has sh give birth close to distinction devotion and intense fandom. What do you think argon the sure world implications?The topic of famed person morality and intense fandom was once a media interest but this unseasoned phenomena is promptly a focus of psychological investigation and has been interrogationed into by favorable psychologist. This appellation is going to look into why good deal course of action equatingasocial kindreds with celebrities virtuallytimes with people they need never met. Intense fandom nonify be described as Fandomis a term used to refer to asubculturecomposed offanscharacterized by a savouring of sympathy and camaraderie with separates who share a earthy interest. Fans typically are interested in withal minor expand of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a signifi chamberpott portion of their t ime and energy problematical with their interest, often as a occasion of asocial electronic networkwith particular practices wikipedia1 Celebrity idolization is the idolization of a notoriety or a group of celebrities, and thitherfore goes hand in hand with fandom, as groups of case-by-cases come to ca-caher in their godliness of a specific celebrities or idols. Most of the time this fascination with their idols is a harmless activity pursual or past time however sometimes it can groom into an obsessive disorder coined as Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS). The term CWS root appeared in an article Do you morality celebrities? by James Chapman 2003 in the Daily Mail. Celebrity piety syndromeis an obsessive-addictive disorder in which a someone becomes overly entangled with the details of a renowns in-personized manners. Psychologists give birth indicated that though many people obsess over glamorousfilm,television,sportand protrudestars, the but common circumstanc eor 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 write up goes on further to explain Much enquiry has been conducted about who engages in repute revere and what drives the compulsion. Celebrity adoration for purely recreation purposes ilkly reflects an extraverted personality and is most likely a healthy past time for most people. This type of repute worship involves harmless demeanours such as reading and acquisition about a eminence. Intense personal 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 through wit h(p) 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 kn profess as the Celebrity Attitude Scale. Mc Cutcheon from this study suggested that people who scored commencementer on the scale were involved individualistic behaviour such as watching, listening to, reading and learning about celebrities whilst the high levels of worship are characterized by empathy, over-identification, and obsession with the celebrity. Mc Cutcheon (2002)4In another(prenominal) study by Mc Cutcheon, he developed the absorption- habituation model to examine and explain cases of celebrity worship. The study found a lack of personal indistinguishability and life fulfilment in a persons life contributed to psychological absorption into a celebritys life, and could thusly develop into more than extreme and obsessive behaviour, to try and sustain this identity that they put one across formed in relation to someone else. Later research done in the UK done by Maltby (2003) used a large sample of participants for his study found that there were 3 dimensions or levels to celebrity worship. Entertainment social, Intense personal and Borderline pathological. Entertainment social refers to a normal degree of interest in the life of a favorite celebrity. It is manifested by, for vitrine, a desire to discuss the celebrity with friends, and agreement that learning about the celebrity through magazines or themes represents having a good time. Intense personal celebrity worship involves the noteing of a strong personal radio link with a celebrity. It is manifested by, for example, a feeling that the celebrity is a faultless sense mate, about whom the individual has frequent thoughts. Finally, borderline pathological worship is arguably the most detri moral form. It is manifested through a variety of bizarre beliefs such as a share secret code through which the individual can leave with the celebrity, a belief that the celebrity would come to patron the individual in times of distress. northeastward and Sheridan (2007)5.There have been divers(a) reasons attached 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 lighting 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 similarly been cited as a reason behind celebrity worship. Fischoff, who has academically studied the cult of celebrity, says the real need to become 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 pistillates 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 swell up, 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 wedded or obsessed with their idol will spend most of their time, energy, and coin 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 instead of concentrating on plenteous activities and forming real relationship dint heir own lives. Fans are also unstrained 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 unharmed Hollywood spin machine works together to create images that are impossible for any of us to live up to. They purposefully baffle 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 . until now Houran argues that people who worship celebrity at low level tend to be happier, more outgoing and more pleasant as it is a form of social bonding, stress reduction, escapism and entertainment (Harrison, 2006)10. In addition, social mutual support and strong companionship can be found belonging to a Fandom group. Where fans can meet new friends with kindred interest through conventions, the fans club meeting 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 ca n have both positive 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 positive ones, such as smoking, taking drugs and drinking. previous to Marilyn Monroe, a stars life was hidden from the public. But now, instead of a gaudy ideal, we see celebritys ugly messes, including their drug and alcohol abuse, which, for many who admire these people, translates into a very dangerous message, says Aronowitz.11 A play along done by drink () shows that many teenage girls confessed to changing their own opinions because of the influence of a celebrity, some even admitted to smoking after viewing smoking in movies the same may be true for drug and alcohol use. Roughly half(a) 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 cute to pierce a body 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 conniption found in magazines and on the internet of celebrities have been air napped and the celebrity have had tanning, make 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 might explain why eating disorders are predominant amongst teenagers to date. For some people, they are willing to endure 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 tha t then celebrities can be positive role models as well and therefore celebrity worship can have positive implications. For example living a healthy lifestyle, highlighting a cause and diminish a stigma attached to issues such as Brooke Shields bringing beam natal depression into the spot light. Many celebrities have used their popularity and fame to cause people or to change their behaviour to be more positive. A Taiwanese celebrity, Chen Jian Zhou launched a project named applaud living 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 escaping their reality. In coupling 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. Though 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 flatness (approximately 10% of the shared variance), while high levels of celebrity worship (borderline-pathological) share a great association with fantasy proneness (around 14% of the shared variance) anddissociation(around 3% of the shared variance, though the effect size of this is small and most believably 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 prone 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 and only(a) 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 profoundly 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 til now be there.18 AronowitzConclusionCelebrity Worship and intense Fandom although has recen tly 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 this has become a worldwide phenomenon, which is only going to increase. Also mental health issues for the more extreme cases needfully examining as the implications for these can negative and even dangerous. I feel spiritless 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 refinement And Its Role In Shaping stripling 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. beau monde 47.2 (2010) 147-152.SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. North, Adrian C., and Lorraine P. Sheridan. remnant, Attractiveness, Moral Conduct, And Attitudes To Public Figures. Omega Journal Of Death Dying 60.4 (2009) 351-363. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. Parkins, Wendy. Oprah Winfreys Change Your Life TV And The unearthly 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=7941766 summon=2Giles, D. C. (2004). Parasocial interaction a review of the literature and a model for succeeding(a) research.Media Psychology.M altby, J., Day, L., McCutcheon, L. E., Gillett, R., Houran, J., Ashe, D. D. (2004). constitution 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 usher of a link among female adolescents.British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(1), 17-32.McCutcheon et al (2002). atomic number 18 parasocial relationship styles reflected in love styles? Current Research in SocialPsychology, 7, 8293North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. (2007). conundrum 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-celebri ty-worship/ReferencesMaltby, J., Giles, DC., Barber, L. McCutcheon, L.E. (2005). Intense-personal celebrity worship and body image severalise of a link among female adolescents.British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(1), 17-32.North, A.C., Sheridan, L. Maltby, J. Gillett, R. 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