- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About The Editor
- Contributors
- Emerging Perspectives on the Study of Social Exclusion
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection
- Ostracism and Stages of Coping
- Driven to Exclude: How Core Social Motives Explain Social Exclusion
- The Multi-Motive Model of Responses to Rejection-Related Experiences
- Social Exclusion of Individuals through Interpersonal Discrimination
- Theory and Research on Social Exclusion in Work Groups
- The Dark Side of Divorce
- The Importance of Feeling Valued: Perceived Regard in Romantic Relationships
- Peer Rejection among Children and Adolescents: Antecedents, Reactions, and Maladaptive Pathways
- Rejection and Aggression: Explaining the Paradox
- How and When Exclusion Motivates Social Reconnection
- Social Rejection Reduces Intelligent Thought and Self-Regulation
- Cortisol Responses to Social Exclusion
- Why Rejection Hurts: The Neuroscience of Social Pain
- Social Pain
- Perceived Social Isolation within Personal and Evolutionary Timescales
- The Social Stigma of Identity- and Status-Based Rejection Sensitivity
- Depression and Suicide: Transactional Relations with Rejection
- Individual Differences in Responses to Social Exclusion: Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Self-Compassion
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and the Challenges of Social Exclusion
- Attachment Orientations and Reactions to Ostracism in Close Relationships and Groups
- Social Connection and Seeing Human
- Attentional Retraining for Anxiety
- Behavioral Mimicry as an Affiliative Response to Social Exclusion
- Belonging Regulation through the Use of (Para)social Surrogates
- The Birth and Death of Belonging
- Looking Back and Forward: Lessons Learned and Moving Ahead
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
If belonging is a fundamental human need, then social exclusion should motivate reconnection or another means of fulfilling one’s belonging needs. Consistent with this premise, research reveals that individuals utilize myriad means of regaining a sense of belonging after social threat (Belonging Regulation Model; Gardner, Pickett, & Knowles, 2005 ). This chapter briefly surveys the nature of and evidence for these belonging maintenance strategies and details one of the strategies most far removed from the real world—the use of parasocial attachment figures as social surrogates. Research within and beyond psychology reveals that many individuals form parasocial, or one-sided, attachments to media figures such as television characters. Much like real relationships, these parasocial attachments can be drawn upon in order to maintain a subjective sense of connection. Indeed, exposure to parasocial attachment figures mitigates the negative consequences of exclusion. Last, this chapter raises questions about the boundary conditions of these phenomena.
Keywords: belonging needs, belonging regulation, parasocial attachments, social exclusion, social monitoring, social motivation, social surrogacy, television
Megan L. Knowles, Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About The Editor
- Contributors
- Emerging Perspectives on the Study of Social Exclusion
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection
- Ostracism and Stages of Coping
- Driven to Exclude: How Core Social Motives Explain Social Exclusion
- The Multi-Motive Model of Responses to Rejection-Related Experiences
- Social Exclusion of Individuals through Interpersonal Discrimination
- Theory and Research on Social Exclusion in Work Groups
- The Dark Side of Divorce
- The Importance of Feeling Valued: Perceived Regard in Romantic Relationships
- Peer Rejection among Children and Adolescents: Antecedents, Reactions, and Maladaptive Pathways
- Rejection and Aggression: Explaining the Paradox
- How and When Exclusion Motivates Social Reconnection
- Social Rejection Reduces Intelligent Thought and Self-Regulation
- Cortisol Responses to Social Exclusion
- Why Rejection Hurts: The Neuroscience of Social Pain
- Social Pain
- Perceived Social Isolation within Personal and Evolutionary Timescales
- The Social Stigma of Identity- and Status-Based Rejection Sensitivity
- Depression and Suicide: Transactional Relations with Rejection
- Individual Differences in Responses to Social Exclusion: Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Self-Compassion
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and the Challenges of Social Exclusion
- Attachment Orientations and Reactions to Ostracism in Close Relationships and Groups
- Social Connection and Seeing Human
- Attentional Retraining for Anxiety
- Behavioral Mimicry as an Affiliative Response to Social Exclusion
- Belonging Regulation through the Use of (Para)social Surrogates
- The Birth and Death of Belonging
- Looking Back and Forward: Lessons Learned and Moving Ahead
- Index