Chapter 3: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 3

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMNEDATIONS

SUMMARY

This paper attempted to explain why people still undergo celebrity worshiping despite celebrities being considered as bad influences.

The research design used in this study is the explanatory research method in which the goal is to go above and beyond what exploratory and descriptive research to identify the actual reasons a phenomenon occurs. The researcher findings are the following:

1. Celebrity influence has a negative result on people especially on teenagers and children. Not only can it cause poeple to start bad habits it also gives them a bad perception of the world and destroy their morals.

2. Half of teens agree that peers are more likely to smoke or drink because they see celebrities do it.

3. Not only can celebrity influence cause us to start bad habits it also gives us a bad perception of the world and destroy our morals.

4. People who are extremely into celebrities suffer from low self-esteem.

CONCLUSIONS

1. “Humans learn about the world through observing the behaviour of others.” according to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory (1977) thus explaining why celebrity behavior can be aquired within the socitey.

2. “Bonds are parasocial, or one-way” based on Parasocialinteraction by Horton & Wohl (1956) meaning when a celebrity shares information, a certain number of people will react to it but there is not return of action.

3. Celebrities are trendsetters and people are naturally attracted to trends. They may also use celebrities as social tools for creating a network on their own.
4. There is nothing wrong with keeping up with celebrities as a hobby or a past-time. The only time this case gets serious is when a person look at celebrities as role models or people whom they pattern their own lives after.

5. People are continuosly seeking signs of humanity that they can relate to and that feels familiar to them, despite how far away, unreal, and unattainable such lives really are.

RECOMMENDATIONS

After drawing the conclusions of the study, the researcher hereby made the following suggestions/recommendations:

1. People, especially teenagers and children, who undergo celebrity worshiping should know the limits for their actions. The slightest obsessions may lead to a series of consequences that must be dealt properly with therapy.

2. Parents of children and teenagers that worship celebrities must not let it become a major priority in their lives. Being a hands-on parent and giving them proper guidance is necessary.

3. Students taking up psychology and sociology must dig deeper into this matter to finally give a better solution to this uprising trend in today's world.

4. Future researchers must be able to give more insights answering the questions why is this phenomenon occuring and how can it be stopped.

REFERENCES

Electronic Media

Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson (2013) Nick Cannon Says Mariah Carey Is A 'Diva' When It Comes To Changing Diapers retrieved April 12, 2014 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/nick-cannon-mariah-carey-diapers-video_n_2129648.html#slide=1757227)

Amanda L. Chan (2014) 18 Signs You're Dealing With A Narcissist retrieved April 12, 2014 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/signs-of-narcissism_n_4696772.html)

Brian Hiatt (2001) Mariah Carey Had 'Breakdown,' Her Publicist Says - Pop singer, hospitalized for a week, is undergoing psychiatric care retrieved April 15, 2014 (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1445918/mariah-carey-had-breakdown.jhtml)

Charing Ball (2013) Self-Conscious In Front Of The Camera: Are You Obsessed With Highlighting Your Good Side? Retrieved April 15, 2014 (http://madamenoire.com/254397/self-conscious-in-front-of-the-camera-are-you-obsessed-with-highlighting-your-good-side/)

Malia Jacobson (2013) The Miley Effect: Do Celebrities Shape Kids' Values? Retrieved April 21, 2014 (http://www.parentmap.com/article/the-miley-effect-do-celebrities-shape-kids-values)

Dr Charlotte De Backer (2013) Celebrity Role Models Prove to be 'Influential Teachers' retrieved April 21,2014 (http://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2007/12/nparticle.2007-12-18.html)

John M. Grohol, Psy.D. (2008) The Psychology of Celebrity Worship retrieved April 21, 2014 (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/11/23/the-psychology-of-celebrity-worship/)

Chapter 2: Discussion

Chapter 2

Discussion

A. The Negative Result Of Celebrity Influence

As the researcher mentioned earlier, it was studied that people imitate celebrities because it has been part of human nature to copy what they have observed from their surroundings. And since celebrities play a huge role in our individual lives, it is only expected that people may adapt their behavior, style, way of living, etc.

Mariah Carey is an influencial artist. Her name is known across the world, even to children who are less older than a fourth of her age. And as a prominent figure, Mariah should act accordingly in order to be a good influence; that does not seem to be the case. Although, Mariah doesn't do drugs which is a very common problem when it comes to celebrity influence. There have been many incidents that show Mariah Carey's bad attributes. When it comes to her personality, her huge ego is just one. She also happens to have narcissistic personality traits, she gets into clashes with other celebrities most of the time, for the very reason that she always acts like a diva. She is often inferred to as insecure after talking down to people in the same field as hers like Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj and Madonna to name a few.

On this article “The Miley Effect: Do Celebrities Shape Kids' Values?” by Malia Jacobson of parentmap.com (http://www.parentmap.com/article/the-miley-effect-do-celebrities-shape-kids-values) it was said that “A 2006 study by USA Weekend (http://159.54.226.237/06_issues/060521/060521teens_and_celebs_full.html) found that half of teens agree that peers are more likely to smoke or drink because they see celebrities do it. Over three-quarters of teens think that their peers are likely to diet after a star loses weight, and some 60 percent say peers want to copy a celebrity’s tattoos and piercings.” It is an inevitable effect that happens to most teenagers today.

And apparently, drinking, smoking, drug usage aren't the only bad influences people can aquire from celebrities. Malia said “Pop culture does more than glamorize damaging behaviors like drinking and smoking for kids and young adults — it can also distort their worldview. Research from the University of Calgary (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00788.x/abstract) found that 60 percent of college students admitted a celebrity had influenced their beliefs, attitudes and personal values.”

Not only can celebrity influence cause us to start bad habits it also gives us a bad perception of the world and destroy our morals. But if celebrities are deemed more of a bad influence then why are people still following them?

B. Celebrity Influence and it's Impact in Human Lives

Celebrities have been a part of the society and their everyday lives meaning, celebrities play a major role in people's lives. There are many factors to determine how they spread their influence.On an article entitled “Celebrity Role Models Prove to be 'Influential Teachers'” by Dr Charlotte De Backer on le.ac.uk (http://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2007/12/nparticle.2007-12-18.html), several factors were mentioned.

1. Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

According to psychologist, Albert Bandura’s social learning theory (1977), humans learn about the world through observing the behaviour of others. People decide on their own values about behaviour. And since these celebrities are basically seen every where, people will most likely follow their footsteps. Logically, people are likely to imitate the behaviour of successful people. Dr Charlotte De Backer conducted a study and found that celebrities are seen as being "higher status or more successful others" which means that people are more likely to mimic their overall behavior pattern.

2. Dr Charlotte De Backer's Parasocial Hypothesis

Dr Charlotte also came up with a theory called the Parasocial Hypothesis based on Horton & Wohl's (1956) original concept of parasocialinteraction that states“bonds are parasocial, or one-way because the celebrity reveals private information (often involuntary), and the audience members respond emotionally to this, but there is no feedback of the private life of the audience going to the celebrity (or hardly ever), and nor do celebrities display emotions towards their audience.”

3. Celebrities as social tools

Asides from being famous and attaining a really high social status, celebrities are said to be a social tool in order for humans to interact with one another. In the same study conducted by Dr Charlotte De Backer, it was also stated that older people were interested in celebrity gossip not because they wanted to learn about the celebrities, but because it helped them to form social networks with other people. Celebrities create social trends that can interconnect people with each other.

4. Man's natural attraction to trends

Added to that, people are naturally attracted to trends. Whether we deny it or not, there are no exceptions in this matter. And one of the most powrful and influencial trends today exsists in the celebrity world since celebrities are considered as trend setters. Say, in order for a new establishment, brand or company to make it big, they usually hire celebrities to endorse their product or service, thus, starting a trend.

In conclusion, celebrity behavior heavily influences not only young people, but the society as a whole.

C. The unusual psychology behind celebrity worship

“The Psychology of Celebrity Worship” is an article written by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. from psychcentral.com (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/11/23/the-psychology-of-celebrity-worship/) and it perfectly explains the reason behind celebrity worship. John stated that it is still considered healthy if it is done for purely entertainment purposes only such as casually reading and learning about a celebrity. Such activies would likely reflect an extraverted personality. But if a person gets emotionally involved with a certain celebrity's life and at extreme cases have been dealing with empathy for a celebrity's successes and failures while obsessing over minute details about the celebrity's life, they most likely exhibit borderline pathological behavior and traits of psychoticism.

There is nothing wrong with keeping up with celebrities as a hobby or a past-time. The only time this case gets serious is when a person look at celebrities as role models or people whom they pattern their own lives after. People who are in the extreme cases suffer from low self-esteem. John mentioned “people with the most extreme celebrity worship engage in an attributional style that believes the cause of most events in the person’s life are external, that is, they are outside the control of the person experiencing the event. People who have stable, global attributions share such an attribution style with people who are depressed. So people who have the most extreme celebrity worship look to the outside world for explanations, and believe celebrities might hold a piece of that cure.” meaning that people who are engaged in extreme celebrity worship look for answers about themselves in the outside world since they believe that it is the cause of most events that happen in their lives.

Celebrity worship can be found most in female teenagers between ages 14 to 16. John stated “Teens seek positive role models that they can emulate. Sadly, our culture continuously reinforces the important and value of celebrities, so it’s no shock that teenage girls might focus their attention on them.” Since celebrities are being treated as much of a big deal in today's society, it is no surprise that people in general turn to them.

In addition, everyone wants someone who he/she can relate to. And that's one of the keys on why people look up to celebrities. “we’re seeking a sign of humanity that we can relate to and that feels familiar to us, despite how far away, unreal, and unattainable such lives really are.” said John.

Chapter 1: Introduction

ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: FANATICISM

A Research Paper Presented to

The faculty of the English Resource Center

School of Multimedia Arts

Asia Pacific College

Magallanes, Makati

In Partial Fullfilment

of the Requirements for the Course

ERESRIT – Research Writing

Andrea Patricia L. Robite

April 2014

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Mariah Carey is a world renowned diva. The term diva was derived from the Italian language and was earlier used for female deity or in basic sense, a goddess. Today, it's been given many definitions such as: a celebrated female singer, a usually glamorous and successful female performer or personality, a woman regarded as temperamental or haughty. Mariah can easily be defined by all of these. As to being a well-known female singer and a successful one at that, Mariah is surely on top of her game. Personality wise, she is also deemed as arrogant and cocky, but that's part of being a diva.

It is obvious how Mariah acts in public since there are such discussions about her but it does not end there. She also happens to act like a diva, even at home. On an article “Nick Cannon Says Mariah Carey Is A 'Diva' When It Comes To Changing Diapers” by Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson from huffingtonpost.com, it appears that Nick Cannon, Mariah's husband, was interviewed on Anderson Live about the matter. Jessica wrote “When the newsman asked who changes the most diapers, Cannon's response was perhaps no surprise. "Me," Cannon replied, adding, "I mean we all do it, but for some reason I get that duty a little bit more."”. Coming from her own husband, there is no doubt on how much of a diva Mariah Carey really is. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/nick-cannon-mariah-carey-diapers-video_n_2129648.html#slide=1757227)

Mariah has narcissistic personality traits. It is a very known fact that Mariah can be a little cocky sometimes. What people don't know is that she only does those things to make humor out of it. Yes, acting like a self-conceited, ego filled diva has been a huge a part of Mariah's image but does that necessarily mean that she is a narcissistic person?

In the researcher's quest to find the answer to that question, the researcher read the article "18 Signs You're Dealing With A Narcissist" by Amanda L. Chan from huffingtonpost.com. It says that it is possible to have some of the traits a narcissist has without having a clinically diagnosed narcissistic personality disorder. There is a specific range in narcissism. Most people are in the middle and some with extreme cases, go overboard. Among the 18 signs, Mariah got 9 out of 18. Even-though she is energetic and confident, she tends to hide them by showing that she doesn't care or she puts it out in humor. With this, Mariah Carey appears less cocksure and narcissistic than she actually is. It might be confusing for some but, the truth is, Mariah Carey does not have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She only has a narcissistic personality which is not an extreme case and shouldn't really be taken seriously.

"But sometimes the signs of narcissism are a little more nuanced. They're not always as obvious as media depictions would have you believe. And yes, it's possible to have some traits of narcissism without having full-blown, clinically diagnosed narcissistic personality disorder, which is when narcissism starts to have a serious, negative impact on everyday life and relationships." said Amanda. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/signs-of-narcissism_n_4696772.html)

Mariah suffers from extreme workaholism. As an artist, Mariah has always been so dedicated to working in this field. If she had the need to not sleep for two weeks, she does it with the inability to stop herself from working so hard. In the unforgettable summer of 2001, the singer suffered what was described as an emotional breakdown after a two-week whirlwind tour to promote her first movie, Glitter.

An article called “Mariah Carey Had 'Breakdown,' Her Publicist Says - Pop singer, hospitalized for a week, is undergoing psychiatric care.” by Brian Hiatt from mtv.com said “While juggling a video shoot, a recording session and a whirlwind publicity schedule in May, Carey told MTV News that the non-stop pace was getting to her.

"I'm honestly really, really delirious and stressed out and overworked and doing too much," she said. "I haven't slept in like two weeks and that's an important detail for you to know." If she hadn't been so busy, Carey said, she'd be "crying on the floor." "It's an insane time in my life. It's crazy," she said.” (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1445918/mariah-carey-had-breakdown.jhtml)

Mariah is an insecure woman. Believe it or not, a self-centered diva like Mariah Carey has disproportionate concerns or anxieties about herself - appearance mostly - or "complexes" as we call it. First is of course, being born in a bi-racial family, second is her consciousness about the left side of her face. She never allows anyone to photograph her from that side ever since. This peculiar demand of hers got people wondering "Why not?", when clearly, she looks gorgeous in any perspective.

Only after reading this article "Self-Conscious In Front Of The Camera: Are You Obsessed With Highlighting Your Good Side?" by Charing Ball from madamenoire.com, can the researcher learn about the back story of her strange complex. Mariah said, herself, that back when she first started in the industry - she was only 19 at that time - someone from her agency drilled into her head that her left side is her "bad side" and that she should never let anyone take pictures of her from that side. It definitely affected her and made her struggle with this idea embedded inside of her. “There is a larger point here that involves more than pointing and laughing hysterically at this poor, poor soul known to the world as Mariah Carey. In fact, this bit of humanity from Carey makes me appreciate her even more.” Charing Ball said. (http://madamenoire.com/254397/self-conscious-in-front-of-the-camera-are-you-obsessed-with-highlighting-your-good-side/)

All the points mentioned above only contribute to the fact that there are a lot of downsides in being a celebrity. The researcher observes that despite Mariah Carey's negative attributes, people still like her. Therefore, having background information on the psychology of a fan will provide the readers insights on celebrity culture and its side effects. Other than exploiting the dark side of being a celebrity, the purpose of this paper is to explain the reason behind celebrity worshiping.

B. Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer the question:

1. What is the reason behind celebrity worshiping?

C. Significance of Study

Students taking up Psychology and Sociology.The aim of this paper is to study the psychology behind a fan's dedication to celebrities. This paper will give insights to what happens inside a fan's mind. It helps psychology students understand the human brain more.

Professors teaching Sociology. Since a huge percentage of the human population is heavily involved with their own “fandoms”, being part of a certain “fandom” should be considered as a lifestyle by now. This paper explains that this cultural phenomenon is not a passive matter. The aim of this paper is to give sociology professors an idea of what is going on with most of the people today.

Celebrity worshipers and people involved within a fandom. This research will help these people to understand themselves more. They can gain realizations and insights after reading this paper.

Future Researchers. This research paper will be a huge help for future researchers who plan to do further research on the topic. They may use this paper as an informational basis especially in the fields of psychology and sociology.

D. Scope and Delimitation

This study is focused on the Mariah Carey fandom, specifically. Since, Mariah is a prominent figure in the industry and is known for being conceited, arrogant and hard to deal with. It is normal for celebrities to have this certain attitude but for some reason people still notice and focus more on Mariah's diva fits and only see the bad about her. Despite that, people still like her. The main focus of this research paper is to dwell deeper into the psychology of a fan. This paper aims to answer questions such as “Why do people worship celebrities?” and “What do they like about them?”

The researcher may site other celebrities and instances for emphasizing points but will not be digging further on those matters anymore as they are not that important.

E. Material and Methods

This paper will be using blogs, articles and online research papers from only professional perspectives as to these are scientific and are based on expert views. Only facts and real life happenings will be stated. Personal views, biases and untrusted references and non-professional opinions will not be included.

This paper will focus on the explanation of data as to interconnecting scientific data with the topic.

F. Definition of Terms

Fan. a dedicated being of a certain sport, tv series, celebrity, etc.

Fandom. a community of fans; the state or attitude of being a fan

Fanaticism. wildly excessive or irrational devotion, dedication, or enthusiasm. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fanaticism)

Psychology. – the science of the mind or of mental states and processes; study of the human or animal brain (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/psychology)