Everyone has an entertainer that we follow and like, but when does that like of a person become more than that. Is it possible for a person to become obsessed with an individual you don’t even know? Unfortunately it is, according to an article entitled: A cognitive profile of individuals who tend to worship celebrities, celebrity worship is a form of parasocial interaction in which individuals become obsessed with 1 or more celebrities. This obsession is similar to an erotomanic type of delusional disorder in which the individual believes that another person is passionately in love with them. A group of psychologist wanted to determine if this obsession/worship of celebrities had any common characteristics amongst the individuals. They conducted several test: celebrity attitude scale, intense-personal, and 6 cognitive measures. At the end of these tests they found that people with higher cognitive functioning are better at realizing reality then those with lower functioning.
I thought that this group of psychologist that conducted this study did a very good job of randomizing the test to minimize the probability of a systematic order effect. As well as making sure that the groups were well divided and used several measures to arrive to their conclusion. Although a sample size of 102 people was used for the testing the group wasn’t chosen by random selection. Also the group itself wasn’t evenly distributed; it contained 81 men with only 21 women. I don’t really understand how they concluded with there test that lower cognitive function was a common trait of celerity worshipers. This statement is too generalized for me; it covers a very large range of people of which not all show obsessive behaviors.
This study was executed in a good manner but I believe that if they would have increased their selection group (not just a particular group of students) and also balanced out the group sexually them more accurate results.
Celebrity worship is a term given to those who obsess over one or more celebrity. Jake Halpern's "The Popular Crowd," discusses how loneliness increases the likelihood of someone worshiping celebrities. Worshiping of celebrities is not necessarily bad, it can be helpful for those who have a social need that they need satisfied. However, this worshiping can sometimes lead to stalking and violence towards celebrities. Once this happens celebrities are put in danger. Some celebrities receive phone calls, letters, emails, and more from stalkers. They might not feel like this is a sign of danger, but it is. In order for celebrities to remain safe, they need to be educated about dangers that come with having fans.
While this study did not produce the result we wanted, we believe that we could use the information learned from this study and develop a study that would be more effective.
A fan in today’s world is usually characterized as the result of the “star system” portrayed in society due to mass media where media figures’ lives are constantly emphasized on a day to day basis. The internet and society are obsessed with news concerning celebrities, and knowing about their personal life. Today’s social media keeps fans constantly updated about celebrities, giving fans the illusion that they know everything about that celebrity and that they are connected somehow. This type of mass media has made the difference between appropriate behavior and inappropriate behavior of fans less noticeable (Lewis 11). These types of fans, the pathological fans, are also classified as the “o...
Going into details of the article, I realized that the necessary information needed to evaluate the experimental procedures were not included. However, when conducting an experiment, the independent and dependent variable are to be studied before giving a final conclusion.
The Celebrity as a Commodity Hurst introduced the idea of a commodity in the text. By definition, a commodity is something that is of use, advantage, or value. More directly, Hurst showed how people by use of their skills, looks, or names, could be used as advantages in society. He uses the examples of celebrities, sports figures, and beautiful people to show that people can be commodities. All of these groups bring some sort of recognition or attraction that is beneficial to a company, firm, or individual.
I would not change any of the methods or procedures used in this study. Before reading it, I wondered how the levels of psychological distress in each student would be measured. By using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale to obtain results in the study, I feel like my concern became a non-issue. As the delegates implied, I believe a larger sample would benefit the research in the future.
Another fault of Loftus and Palmers research is that the participants were all American male university students and so the results couldn’t be generalized to all the differences in the
Palmer states that being obsessed with celebrities is inconsequential, Although Deborah King persuades people to argue that being obsessed is not healthy. If you follow what they do you will get in the same trouble the same as the celebrity also. King has a point about being obsessed with celebrities can hurt people but she argues that being obsessed can get you and I in trouble. Although if you worship, a celebrity it can get you mental problems that can give you panic attacks, fatal heart attacks, and you can gain anxiety. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jo-piazza/americans-unhealthy-obsession-with-celebrities_b_1385405.html)
A weakness in this research was that it only focused on parasocial relationships with celebrities. It didn’t address the possibility of having parasocial relationships with a fictional character and didn’t consider how those would affect self-esteem. A strength was that participants completed the Rosenberg test in order to determine their level of self-esteem. Doing so gave researchers an unbiased method to measure each participant's
Many factors on why we are so obsessed with today’s celebrities are the fact that there is nowhere else in our culture with such rich and readily accessible stories. We are famed obsess culture where technology have made it a lot easier to get the juice at a click of a button. Whatever the motivation is, people all over the world will continue to search out the latest information and gossip about our favourite idols.
Much of today’s society seems obsessed on what actors/actress, athletes, and music artist are wearing, eating, who they are marrying, dating, where they are vacationing, what affairs they are having or have had, and how they live their everyday lives. What’s so interesting about this obsession is as a society we are implacable and often place celebrities on a pedestal, only to destroy them when they are illusive or promiscuous. Media outlets are swift to report when celebrities are in trouble but quickly forget all their accomplishments. It’s as if we want them to be perfect but once they are associated with a scandal we embark on destroying their reputation and character. Should society hold celebrities to higher standards just because they are paid millions for endorsements and a craft they worked hard to perfect? Do we as a society have the right to castigate celebrities when they misbehave? Do celebrities have the right to become livid when they are focused on for their immoral behavior? Do they love the media attention only when it benefits them? Before we can answer the above questions, would we, furthermore, can we live our life as a celebrity if given the opportunity?
The deception of media consumers allows for the abuse of economic infrastructures of society. An obsession with celebrities’ lives passifies ordinary people in accepting the stratification of the elite businesses and the ordinary citizens. Though pseudo-events and celebrity worship may not be exactly complementary, the similarities of both leaves the public to be utterly vulnerable unless they begin to critically think for themselves.
Have you seen the pictures of Madonna and her baby yet? Have you ever surfed the web and stumbled onto a site about celebrities? Probably so. There are thousands of sites on the web about celebrities; their official web sites, pictorials and biographical information. You can’t even go into a supermarket without being bombarded by tabloids.You can’t listen to the radio in the car. TV shows and whole networks rely on entertainment and celebrities in the news. VH1, MTV and E! are excellent examples of this. Many people make their living off celebrities and their personal lives. But why does this need to be explored? Producers and journalists say they are only making and reporting on what the people want. The general public say they only watch and read this “news” because it is so readily available. Lets face it, it would be easier to find matches for “Madonna and her baby “ on the web than it would be to find “biological engineering”.
In order to test this hypothesis 60 students will be randomly recruited. In order to get my 60 participants, I will pick students who id begins with the numbers 08. A total of 30 females and 30 males will be chosen, all psychology undergraduate students from Texas A&M International University, largely in the age range 20-25 years. No payment, other than receive 5 points of extra credit, will be offered for participation.
Celebrity worship syndrome is a personality disorder that is becoming more apparent in 21st century Australia, and it is estimated that 30% of the population has it. Several studies have shown that celebrity worship is more prevalent in adolescents, especially teen and preteen girls. When the British boy band One Direction toured Australia in late 2013, many articles were published surrounding the hysteria that many girls were experiencing. The Adelaide Entertainment Centre CEO said that they “were expecting lots of teenage girls” and needed to set up the centre with “reserved seating only … to mitigate the risk of any crushing…”. Additionally, there were countless celebrity worship articles published, including a story about a fifteen-year-old Australian girl who started working part-time in a café so that she could spend all of her money on the band’s merchandise, approximately $130 a week. This report will be exploring the different aspects of celebrity worship syndrome to address whether celebrity worship is a prominent issue in Australian society that needs to be addressed.