Date

2006

Author

Arda, Selen

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In this study, 248 university students completed questionnaires measuring their perceptions of and responses to their favorite and least desired characters in their favorite TV serial. Firstly, the respondents named their favorite serial character and then rated their favorite character on several attributes (physical attractiveness, positive social behavior, strength and humor) and indicated their level of agreement to the items of the parasocial interaction scale. Secondly, the participants named the character they desired the least in their favorite TV serial, rated that character on several attributes (physical repulsiveness, negative social behavior, weakness) and responded to the items of the negative parasocial interaction scale. Regression analyses predicting the sub-dimensions of parasocial interaction, namely companionship, empathic involvement and interest, and negative parasocial interaction, namely, boredom, anger, disturbance and amazement were performed. Different attributes of the characters were found to be important in predicting different dimensions of parasocial and negative parasocial interaction. The predictors of the sub-dimensions of parasocial interaction were determined. Significant predictors of companionship sub-scale were found as the positive social behavior, humor and strength of the character. In terms of empathic involvement, the perceived attributes of positive social behavior, physical attractiveness, strength and humor were found as significant predictors. For the interest sub-scale, the significant predictors were found as humor, strength and physical attractiveness. The newly-formed scale named as Negative Parasocial Interaction Scale was factor analyzed and interpretable factors were determined. The predictors of these factors were also examined. Significant predictors of boredom sub-scale were found to be the perceived weakness and physical repulsiveness of the character. Negative social behavior of the character was found to be a significant negative predictor of boredom sub-scale. In terms of anger sub-scale, only negative social behavior was found to be a significant predictor. For the disturbance sub-scale, significant predictors were found as negative social behavior, physical repulsiveness and weakness. Finally, the amazement sub-scale was significantly predicted only by the physical repulsiveness of the character. The implications of the findings, the strengths and weaknesses of the study are discussed.

Subject Keywords

General Social Sciences., Psychology M.S. thesis

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607381/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/15905

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis