Files
Abstract
Across the humanities and social sciences, researchers have explored the concept of celebrity; without a unified conceptual or operational definition the literature remains fragmented and difficult to synthesize. The fields of social and personality psychology, with their varied and rigorous methodologies and robust theoretical frameworks, are uniquely situated to unite these disparate works with a standard vocabulary and clarified nomological network of related constructs. After a brief survey of the problem area in the introduction in chapter one, chapter two organizes relevant psychological literature into a framework for understanding celebrity as a measurable social phenomenon. Chapter three offers validation for a text-based operationalization of a social process by which celebrity might be studied through media-mediated communication. Chapter four then applies this measure, as well as others, to a traditional lab experiment in which celebrity status is manipulated to explore its effects on participants’ communicative behavior. Finally, chapter five explores the importance of non-academic research for the continued exploration of empirical literature about celebrity. The final chapter ends with calls to action to address the necessary training needed to expand the number of social scientists in non-academic research roles in general, as well as those specifically interested in pursuing the continued refinement and advancement of celebrity studies.