Category Research Paper
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Evolutionary Psychology and Mass Media
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by Gayle S. Stever, November 2020
In book: The Sage Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (pp.398). Publisher: Sage Link to article.
Evolutionary theory as it relates to media psychology is often controversial (Grabe, 2011). A fundamental tenet relating the two fields posits that because our species has not had time, in an evolutionary sense, to adapt to media, we process mediated stimuli as if it were real (Reeves and Nass, 1996). So much violence is consumed through media that we as a society suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Restak, 1991). For example, a media portrayal of sexual assault can be a trigger for one’s own past experiences, possibly as powerful as perceiving such an event in real life...
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Fan studies in psychology: A road less traveled
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by Gayle S. Stever, September 15, 2019
Transformative Works and Cultures, Vol. 30
This article describes the methods and materials used in my various studies of fan cultures in the years from 1988 to 2018. It delineates a mixed methods/multi-perspectivist approach and describes the process by which fan groups were selected and studied. Contrary to the concept of “aca-fan,” an academic who studies a fan group of which she or he is already a part, this article describes the engagement of a number of fan groups with whom I was not already involved. I traveled throughout North American and Europe in order to observe fan behavior across the lifespan and across a number of different cultures . Both pop star musicians’ fans and television fans were included...
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Theorizing Development of Parasocial Engagement
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by Riva Tukachinsky, Gayle Stever, December 15, 2018
Communication Theory, Volume 29, Issue 3, August 2019, Pages 297–318
The article proposes a theoretical model of the development of parasocial relationships (PSRs) building on Knapp’s model of relationship development. Through synthesis of research across disciplines, the model conceptualizes the relational goals and parasocial interactions (PSIs) specific to the PSR. The model identifies variables that predict engagement at that level, describes the stage’s outcomes/effects, and considers the utility of existing measures to assess these stages. The conceptualization of PSRs as a dynamic process rather than intensity of a monolithic experience offers new directions worthy of empirical examination.
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Article : Meeting Josh Groban (Again): Fan/Celebrity Contact as Ordinary Behavior
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by Gayle S. Stever, November 2016
In a participant-observer ethnographic study, the researcher offers evidence from 10 years of observation of the Josh Groban fandom as an example of fans becoming friendly acquaintances of celebrities. Contrary to the way much of the psychological literature depicts fans as celebrity worshippers or stalkers, the largest percentage of the fans observed in this study showed normal social engagement with others outside of their fan activity, and a friendly acquaintanceship with Groban that is similar to other kinds of relationships happening outside of the context of mediated relationships. Fans who pursued these relationships did so within a social context and network of other fans in most cases...
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Article: Evolutionary Theory and Reactions to Mass Media: Understanding Parasocial Attachment.
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by Gayle S. Stever, March 2016
Article: Forming attachments to those people proximal to the individual was the only option prior to mass media. In an era of mass media, individuals become acquainted with media personae, expanding greatly the pool of available attachment objects. This increases the possibility of a parasocial attachment, defined as a nonreciprocated attachment to a familiar other, and from whom one derives safe haven and felt security...
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Article: Twitter as a Way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans: Implications for the Study of Parasocial Interaction
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by Gayle S. Stever and Kevin Lawson, January 2013
Twitter is a relatively new social media website and a good option for celebrities who want to chat with their fans without having to give away personal access information. This paper presents an analysis of a sample of the Twitter accounts of 12 entertainment media celebrities, 6 males and 6 females, all taken from 2009-2012 Twitter feeds. Since little is known about Twitter, a grounded theory approach for this study was used. Twitter can be used to learn about parasocial interaction, the unreciprocated interaction between individuals of differing status and knowledge of one another. This analysis provides a first step in that endeavor...
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Article : Mediated vs. Parasocial Relationships: An Attachment Perspective
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by Gayle S. Stever, January 2013
This article delineates the distinctions between mediated and parasocial relationships before outlining the key aspects of parasocial theory and suggesting that the theory be expanded to consistently include parasocial attachment as a category distinct from parasocial relationships. Parasocial theory involves interactions, relationships and attachments between people of differing status such that one person is well known to the other but that knowing is not reciprocated. As media become more pervasive in the day-to-day lives of individuals, it becomes more and more important to understand the mechanisms whereby parasocial interaction, relationships, and attachments function in both development and social life...
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Article: Celebrity Worship: Critiquing a Construct
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by Gayle S. Stever, June 2011
McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran (2002) proposed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) to identify celebrity worshipers, useful for identifying individuals who are overly absorbed or addicted to their interest in a celebrity. Problematic is the absence of a conceptual definition for celebrity worshiper and how this term relates to use of the term fan. Currently, these terms are most often used as if they were synonyms (Haspel, 2006; Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett et al., 2004; McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002). Sampled groups of serious fans contained many individuals who met none of the criteria for celebrity worship, as identified by the CAS. The use of celebrity worshiper as a synonym for fan appears to be conceptually flawed.
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Article: Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory: Explaining Para-social and Social Attachment to Celebrities
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by Gayle S. Stever, March 2011
The theories of Levinson (1986 Am Psychol 41(1):3–13) and Erikson (1959 Identity and the life cycle. WW Norton and Co, New York, 1968 Youth and crisis. WW Norton and Co, New York), Bandura’s (1986 Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs) Social Cognitive Theory, and the ethological attachment theories of Bowlby (1969 Attachment and loss, Vol. 1, attachment. Hogarth, London), and Ainsworth (1978 Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale) are used in a discussion of the para-social and social relationships that fans have with celebrities...
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Article: 1989 vs. 2009: A Comparative Analysis of Music Superstars Michael Jackson and Josh Groban, and their Fans
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by Gayle S. Stever, January 2011
Data from previous studies compared two celebrity fan communities and their superstar honorees. This comparison included the nature of the fan-celebrity interaction, the nature of fans’ interactions with each other, and motivations fans reported for their participation in the fandom of the target celebrity. A structured, focused, and largely qualitative post hoc comparison of the cases of Michael Jackson compared to Josh Groban fandoms make up this discussion with each case study set in a different time in media history. The researcher used ethnographic participant-observer methods to collect much of the data for this research with findings reported from both previously published articles and also research notes kept on the two tours...
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