CELEBRITY STALKING

• Stalking is the persistent, unwanted pusuit or obsessional harassment of another person, causing him or her fear of bodily injury.
• It is a potentially dangerous obsession.
• There is no single profile of a stalker (though the majority are men and victims are female).
• 25% of stalkers are violent.
• Behaviours may include intimidation, threats, harassment, aggression etc.

• Developed by McCutcheon in 2002.
• Celebrity worship typically begins in adolescense due to deficits in real relationships at this time in our lives.
• This model predicts that there will be an association between poor mental health and the strength of parasocial relationships.
• The first stage is absorption - discover as much as possible about a celebrity and develop a belief of a special relationship with the celebrity.
• The second stage is addiction - it becomes addictive as individuals feel they need to become more and more involved with the celebrity to feel connected to them. They crave greater closeness with the celebrity.
• Maltby et al found that pp's on level 2 of the CAS scored highly on anxiety and depression.
• Mullen et al found that delusional disorders were common amongst celebrity stalkers.

:) It provides an account of how worship can develop

:) The idea that absorption leads to addiction is well supported

• The attachment theory suggests attachment in infancy forms an internal working model for later relationships.
• Research shows early attachment problems can lead to social and emotional problems later on in adulthood.
• PSR's therefore origniate in insecure attachments (most likely ambivalent) meaning people are needy and clingy in their relationships.
• PSR's are attractive as they make no demands and there is no risk of rejection.
• Lewis et al found that stalkers have traits typical of insecure attachment such as ambivalent attitudes to those they have relationships with and emotional instability.

:) It has a good face validity as it makes sense.

:( It is deterministic - not all insecure attachments will form a parasocial relationship.

:( Hard to remember what type of attachment type you had as a baby.

:( Socially sensitive as it blames the family.