By comparing soul mate theory believers to work-it-out theory believers this article shows how these beliefs impact a person in their relationship. Soul mate believers tend to have higher marital satisfaction, however, their views of their partner tend to be only illusions. They believe that’s how love should be so they distort what they see their partner doing to fit in their beliefs. Work-it-out theory believers may have lower marital satisfaction, however, it is a more realistic satisfaction. This article was extremely helpful because it showed the impact the soul mate belief has on a relationship and how it may, in the long run, be bad for the couple. This fits my research because I have the prescription of the soul mate myth. Since this article explains how people who believe this myth tend to see illusions about their partner it helps prove that believing that there is only one perfect soul mate out there for everyone is also simply an illusion.

Franiuk, R., Cohen, D., Pomerantz, E. M. (2004). The causal role of theories of relationships: Consequences for satisfaction and cognitive strategies. PSPB, 30(11), 1494-1507. 

Explains how the soul mate theory tends to lead to idealization or positive illusions about one’s partner/relationship that can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also explains how the work-it-out theory leads to realism and proactive coping unlike the soul mate theory which leads to disillusionment or passive fatalism in the face of difficulty. Also goes on about those who believe in soul mates rely heavily on initial satisfaction in a relationship where work-it-out theory believers will stick it out and see if it will work. They do not rely heavily on initial satisfaction. This article pointed out facts that the others did not about the initial part of the relationship. I found this information interesting. It is kind of repetitive to the first article by Franiuk, Cohen, and Pomerantz because it is written by the same authors however the experiment is different and provides different information. This article reinforces some of the information I learned in the other articles.

Knee, C. R., Nanayakkara, A., Vietor, N. A., Neighbors, C., Patrick, H. (2001). Implicit theories of relationships: Who cares if romantic partners are less than ideal?. PSPB, 27(7), 808-819. 

This article compares peoples beliefs on destiny (soul mate) and the belief that a relationship can grow and change. It compares four different beliefs people tend to have: high growth and destiny belief, high growth and low destiny belief, low growth and high destiny belief, and low growth and low destiny belief. It shows how people who don’t believe in growth or destiny tend to think relationships are doomed from the start. It puts a lot of emphasis on the cultivation belief (high growth and low destiny) as the healthy relationship belief. This article was helpful because it put the belief that a relationship can grow and change along with the belief of soul mates and shows how these two beliefs combined affect relationships. I didn’t find this article as helpful as the first article by Franiuk, Cohen, and Pomerantz because the belief on growth isn’t part of the prescription of the soul mate myth however it was interesting and slightly helpful.

Galician, M.-L. (2001). Sex, love, and romance in the mass media: Analysis and criticism of unrealistic portrayals and their influence.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    [Chapter 7, pg 119-123, about Myth #1]

Myth #1 “Your perfect partner is cosmically predestined so nothing/nobody can ultimately separate you” personifies the ideas of fate, destiny and soulmates.  Galician mentions in her chapter about myth what she found that her own students belief in the myth as well as Rutgers University study of marriage which talks about what some people really believe and how if affects them. The book also has examples of the myths as well as a good example of the prescription.  In the book it also talks about the origin of the myth from the Greek Gods (Galician, Ch 2). One thing the book does provide is good examples of the myth in movies, and how to dis-illusion them. The book also does provide some good additional research and insight into how Television writers write and why they write that way. The book is a good place to start but does not help all that much, it really doesn’t go into great detail about what affects come from the myth. 

Finkel, E. J., Burnette, J. L., & Scissors, L. E. (2007). Vengefully ever after: Destiny beliefs, state attachment anxiety, and forgiveness. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 92(5),  871-886.

The main focus of the article talks about how state attachment anxiety, destiny beliefs, and forgiveness and how they are all intertwined.   In the study they talked about how strong destiny beliefs are found to be negatively correlated with state attachment anxiety, as well how likely you are to forgive a person based on what exactly you believe. The article also mentions they difference in ways people react to romantic offenses based on if they are feeling state attachment anxiety or state attachment security.  The study provides a lot of good information when it talks about forgiveness and strong destiny beliefs and how they relate.  They give a good explanation of what they found in the study, and why strong destiny beliefs are negatively correlated with forgiveness.  It gives good insight into the thought process of a person who holds strong destiny beliefs. They could have done a better job of explaining the difference between state attachment anxiety and state attachment security.

Franiuk, R., Cohen, D., & Pomerantz, E. M. (2002). Implicit theories of relationships:  Implications for relationship satisfaction and longevity. Personal Relationships, 9(4), 345-367.

In this particular study they talk about three types of theorists, soulmate, destiny and work-it-out, and how they view satisfaction in a relationship. The study mentions the five main notions that soulmate theorists, and work-it-out theorists hold and how they are different.  In this article it also talks about how perception is altered when a they hold strong soulmate and destiny beliefs.  It also mentions many of the negative affects of holding strong beliefs soulmate beliefs on a relationship.  The article and study had a lot of good information about how perception plays a key role in happiness in a relationship.  They article also mentions about conflict and as well as the belief about a partner being able to change. It also cited many good sources.  The cited sources provided more information and more detail in how perception affects a relationship satisfaction. The article can be kind of confusing at times, but really helpful. 

Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (1996). The benefits of positive illusions: Idealization and the construction of satisfaction in close relationships. Journal of Personality Social Psychology, 70(1), 79-98.

This study is a really interesting study about how people press positive illusions on their partners to make their partner seem more perfect.  It also talked about how since they saw their partner is a more positive light they found that they had more satisfaction in a relationship. The article talks about how positive illusions can be good and bad for relationship. The article provided me with some really good information involving the use of positive illusions in a relationship.  It was very helpful when it talked about how people like to put the positive illusions on their partners to make sure they had more relationship satisfaction.  Another useful part of the article is when they mentioned that people might distort flaws to keep the positive illusions, and how this is harmful.

This article focused on a study done by Dick Barelds and Pieternel Barelds-Dijkstra researching how being friends first, having an ‘in between’ relationship, or falling in love at first sight affects partner similarity.  The article goes into some background information about personality, trait similarity, relationship onset, relationship quality, and love before telling about the study they conducted.  Barelds and Barelds-Dijkstra then tell about the methods they used in their study, the results of the study, and finally they discussed some pertinent facts that the reader should know.  In their article, there were also easy-to-understand tables with statistics of the results.  This was a very useful article for my research on love at first sight, and the dangers it brings.  There was some confusion with understanding parts of their study, but for the most part it was easy to figure out.  Overall, I felt that this article was one of my more useful sources.  It gave me mostly statistics, but those are nice to understand what affects love at first sight can really have in a relationship.

Galician, Dr. M.L. (2004).  Sex, love, and romance in the mass media.  United States: Dr. Mary-Lou Galician. 

Dr. Mary –Lou Galician’s book, Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media, was an extremely helpful source for helping me understand the prescription more, and that is probably because she came up with this prescription!  The section I focused on was chapter eight, discussing love myth number two and its prescription.  There were many good examples of where people can see love at first sight in the media, and how we can avoid ‘falling’ into love.  This source was my most useful source overall.  Galician is very clear about what she wants readers to know about both the myth and prescription, and is also reliable since she is the writer of these myths and prescriptions.  I feel that this was a great source also because Galician is concise but very accurate and easy to follow.

Horton, Donald (1957).  The dialogue of courtship in popular songs.  American Journal of Sociology, 62, 569-578. 

This article was useful to read because it talked about how love and problems concerning love show up in a countless number of songs.  This article was written in 1957 and Horton’s study was actually done in 1955.  Although this study is old, it shows how even in the 1950s, the media was influencing it’s listeners through song.  Horton points out how the language in songs focuses on and manipulates adolescents.  This book was useful to support my point about how the media really influences people into believing unrealistic ways of love.  We know that this study is reliable because Horton not only states his findings, but cites other reliable sources to support his own findings.  I liked this source because it gave a sense of reality and related the media of the past with the media of the present.  I didn’t understand how much and how long the media has manipulated listeners, but Horton’s article really opened my eyes.

Sternberg, R.J. (1998).  Cupid’s arrow: The course of love through time.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Robert J. Sternberg, an expert on love, shows more of his expertise through his 1998 book, Cupid’s Arrow: The Course of Love through Time.  The book focuses on different aspects of what love is and how love develops, continues and then ends in our lifetimes.  Cupid’s Arrow was very useful to my research because it had examples of a variety of the love myths and also went into good depth on the different topics Sternberg discussed within his book.  Sternberg also does a good job of citing other sources to support what he has found.  In the book, Sternberg also adds diagrams to support his points.  This book is reliable because Sternberg has done such extensive research on love, and has published many books and articles about his studies.  I would use this book again for research on any love myth. 

Barelds, D. P. H., & Barelds-Dijkstra, P. (2007). Love at first sight or friends first? ties among partner personality trait similarity, relationship onset, relationship quality, and love. Journal of Social & Personal Relationships, 24(4), 479-496. 

This particular source of information that I used on my presentation of the media love myth, “There is such thing as love at first sight”, discussed a study of couples and how they first met and how well they know each other.  This study showed that the couples who fell in love at first sight had more dissimilar personalities, then couples who gradually entered a relationship and were friends first.  The dissimilar personalities showed a lower relationship quality compared the couples with more similar personalities.  The couples who were friends first also knew their mate better then the couples who became romantically involved first.  This article helped me in my research of the myth because it proves that if couples are friends first they have a greater chance of a successful and higher quality relationship.  The authors of this article are highly educated and did extensive research for this study.  They also have many reliable sources and data to back up their conclusion about this love myth.  This particular source was the most helpful and useful to support the love myth #2.

Perina, K. (2007). The first five seconds. Sussex Publishers Inc

 This editorial has a story about a couple who fell in love at first sight and lived happily ever after.  It also describes love at first sight in a very interesting way.  There are also interviews from couples who have fallen in love at first sight and how they knew right away that they were meant for each other.  This particular research article was not as helpful as other articles.  It conveyed only the stories that couples who fell in love at first sight were happily married and nothing went wrong in their relationships.  Although Petrina describes love at first sight as a gut instinct, so we are unable to not “fall in love”.   We also are aware that it is only a physical attraction not actual love.  This article is supportive in some aspects but also conveys that love at first sight can actually happen and shows many stories of successful relationships that have started off of a physical attraction and makes them seem like a fairy tale.  It relates to my myth because it has stories of love at first sight and many different insights about love at first sight.  Although it doesn’t necessarily support that love at first sight is a myth, this article provided me with a good definition of love at first sight, and it also was a very dependable source.

Lasting love takes effort and skill.(1995). USA Today Magazine, 123(2599), 3. 

 The article from USA Today Magazine showed many different options for couples to overcome differences in their relationships.  These differences may be caused by a lack of similar personalities.  Although physical attraction is said to be the starting point of a relationship, this article provides many relationship skills for a couple to try to make a relationship to grow and last.   It also points out that love takes time and commitment, not just a physical attraction. Lasting love takes effort and skill.   This statement supports that love at first sight is a myth, not reality.  This source helped me in many ways by providing tips for couples to help their relationships, and stating that love takes much more than just attraction.  This source related to my research because it agrees with the thought of love at first sight isn’t reality, but a myth.  This magazine article was very helpful to my presentation of the love myth and gave me ideas and examples to use in my speech.

Myth #3, “your soul mate should know what you’re thinking and feeling(without your having to tell), is the idea of mind reading within a relationship. Because of how media portrays relationships many people strive to achieve the same Hollywood love life but are disappointed by the effort needed to communicate properly. Galitian states the cure is to communicate and talk about what you want and don’t want instead of assuming that your partner will figure it out. She gives a few examples in media such as What Women Want and Dr. T and Women that support the claim of thorough communication being needed. The chapter is a basic reference for the idea of communication in a relationship and furthered research is needed to reach a scholarly level of presentation. (129)

Emmert Phillip, Brooks.  Interpersonal Communication 1980, W. C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 2nd Ed.

This book, although being on the old side and nearly outdated, offered substantial examples of myth #3 affecting society. The example found about WWII soldiers and “easy” girls was a unique and interesting additive to support the information I provided. There were other credible examples, too, and although the information is old I found it in agreement with some of the same information I found in other books and was able to align it with all the other evidence I found. (81) There was also information about nonverbal behaviors and communication which aligned with the book Gender and Nonverbal Behavior but the information was not as organized and structured. The book did provide a good basic understanding of the myth because of the examples used because of their uniqueness. (129)

Henley, Nancy, Mayo, Clara. Gender and Nonverbal Behavior. 1981, Springer-Verlag, New York

This book offers an in depth explanation and detailed experiments that validate the myth of a soul mate reading one’s mind. This book is on the old side also but some of the same information is found in this book which is found in other researched media I have found. There are many experiments that are described in the text and there is a mixture of good and bad experiments; some are reliable and validated while others remain inconclusive or biased. The book is somewhat of a catalog of experiments dealing with human behavior with specific instances of situations involving human behavior, such as female and male interpretations which I found useful. This book offered credible experiments which would support my claims and credibility as a speaker. (127)

Meyers, Nancy. What Women Want.  2000, Paramount Pictures and Icon Productions, Hollywood, CA

After an accident makes Nick Marshall read minds of women he manipulates the women in his life in order to achieve a greater lifestyle and to advance himself. The movie depicts Nick, for the first time in his life, able to understand women but then counteracts this and gives him confusion yet. He ends up falling in love with the woman he despises after trying to sabotage her and declares his love to her. The ending is the romantic story ending with the two falling in love but this just provides the idea of changing a beast into a man. In a deeper reading of the story one sees that relational conflict is a big issue to the idea of a satisfactory romance between a couple. This media worked well as to provide a supportive idea of the myth yet also involved other myths. (141)

Spielberg, Steven. Saving Private Ryan 1999, Dreamworks, Paramount Pictures, Universal City, CA

This movie is about searching for a WWII soldier in order to save his mother from having lost all of her sons in the war. It is a very accurate description of the war and the lives of the soldiers and represents truths of WWII that were often hidden or not talked about. Although the story has very little to do with the myth, an example is found when soldiers find the European girls “easy.” This was used to reinforce the examples of WWII soldiers in the book Interpersonal Communication. This was especially a good example because of the amount of people that could relate to the movie because it was a large grossing movie. For those that hadn’t seen it, they could still relate. I found this movie to be a small additive to increase my credibility. (138)

Brooks states that many males suffer from what is called “The centerfold syndrome,” and this goes along with myth number 5. It talks about how the belief in this myth causes them to not be able to have successful relationships with women. It gives steps to overcome this syndrome and how to manage good relationships. It gives examples on relationships that have overcome this syndrome and then others that have not been so successful. This book is helpful in demonstrating that there will always be part of relationships that need work. The author spoke of how he once stayed in a relationship because the sex was satisfactory. He thought that since the sex was great and that he was physically attracted to his partner, every other part of the relationship would fall into place. That however did not happen. This is the opposite of myth number 4. I feel that this helps disprove my myth greatly. It was more focused on myth number 5, but had some points for myth number 4 also.

Shapiro, J. & Kroeger, L. (1991). Is life just a romantic novel? The relationship between attitudes about intimate relationships and the popular media. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 5, 3, 226-236. 

This article is about a study that was done to see how media and unrealistic beliefs about romance. There were three beliefs that were commonly believed by people: Mind Reading Is Expected, Sexual Perfectionism, and Disagreement is Destructive. The study found that people who state that they have media in their lives also believe these myths. This article helped me by showing me how many people really do believe myth number 4. It talks about how the media may make a person feel like the relationship they are in is not good enough or that they are stuck. It was also shown that people who listen to rock music, read self-help books, or watch daytime television are more susceptible to believe this myth.

Straus, J. (2006). Unhooked generation: The truth about why we’re still single. New York: Hyperion. 

Straus analyzes what she calls the “unhooked generation.” She states that there are many beliefs that are causing our generation to not be able to have successful relationships. There are many unachievable qualities or expectations that we are looking for in a future partner. Many people make checklists of qualities that they would like fulfilled and if all the qualities are not achieved, they decide to move on. This book talks about that people need to realize this syndrome and also how they can move on to better and happier lives.  This book supports the thought that there are many myths or beliefs people have that have a negative effect on relationships. It does specifically talk about how people are looking for good sex. They have become more adventurous and are only seeking pleasure. If they find sex that is satisfying, then they think about finding starting or committing to relationship. Since they are only seeking the sex first many relationships do not work out because they are not willing to work in other aspects of the relationships.

Eidelson, R. J., & Epstein, N. (1982). Cognition and relationship maladjustment: Development of a measure of dysfunctional relationship beliefs. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50, 715-720. Retrieved october 18, 2007, from psychinfo.

Eidelson and Epstein explain the harmful effects of unrealistic beliefs in a relationship. The article describes the basic concepts of five commonly believed myths about intimate relationships. These beliefs include: disagreement is destructive, mind reading is expected, partners cannot change, sexual perfectionism, and the sexes are different. Eidelson and Epstein conducted a Relationship Belief Inventory (RBI), where a number of participants were analyzed to determine correlation between the dysfunctional beliefs and satisfaction in an intimate relationship. The study found that there is a positive correlation between belief in these myths and relationship dissatisfaction. This article relates directly to prescription number four because it discusses the notion of sexual perfectionism and the dangers of believing in such a concept.  Eidelson and Epstein’s research is helpful in that it discusses the belief of sexual perfectionism, explains what it is and the harmful effects of the belief, and gives concrete statistics relating to this information. The research in the article was conducted with a careful procedure and a random selection of participants. The article specifies the exact process of calculation and clearly explains all results and procedure. Even though the article is a little dated, the Relationship Belief Inventory is strong, reputable research that is still commonly used. 

Shapiro, J., & Kroeger, L. (1991). Is life just a romantic novel? the relationship between attitudes about intimate relationships and the popular media. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 19, 226-236. Retrieved october 18, 2007, from psychinfo.

This article includes information related to the twelve love myths and specifically the
effects that media has on dysfunction beliefs. The article describes the results for a study conducted to analyze the relationship between couple satisfaction and media exposure. The study more specifically analyzes the correlation between Relationship Belief Inventory scores and media use. The article specifically addresses sexual perfectionism and its relation to media exposure. In depth analysis found the dysfunction belief in sexual perfectionism often stemmed from specific media: rock music and self help books. Rock music influenced this belief more than any other media. Self help books also increased the belief in sexual perfectionism. This research directly relates to the thesis of the speech because it proves that belief in sexual perfectionism is indeed unhealthy and that the prescription for these dysfunctional beliefs is necessary. Later in the article, suggestions are given to disregard dysfunction beliefs. It suggests that people raise awareness about the media and accept the fact the media does influence us. This source is very helpful and it includes many specific examples for each dysfunctional belief. It not only explains the results from the study, it also gives solutions for the dysfunctional beliefs. 

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93, 119-135.  Retrieved october 18, 2007, from psychinfo.

Sternberg’s article gives a very in depth explanation of his triangular theory of love. He begins by giving an overview of the three necessary components of consummate love. He explains the importance of all three elements together in a relationship and then goes on to explain the types of love that come as a result of missing components. The article clarifies basis of his research and theory. Later, he compares his theory to other famous love theories. This article has lots of important information that relates directly to the thesis for this topic. Sternberg’s triangle, including the three necessary aspects of love, is a model for a healthy romantic relationship. The theory explains that sex/passion is an important and necessary part of a relationship but it is not the only aspect. Without the other aspects, love is merely infatuation. Sternberg uses other research to support his own extensive research to prove that his theory is very credible. Robert J. Sternberg is the author of this article and the creator of the theory. All explanations within the article are valid because they are Sternberg’s direct words. Sternberg is notorious for his triangular theory of love. 

This book is about body image in people, specifically about dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. It looks at how body image is different in each gender, as well as how it is affected by the culture, the mass media, age, social class, and ethnicity. The author, Sara Grogan, is the Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University. This book is very strong in its evaluation of body image and the effect that it has on different people. Throughout her book, Grogan cities many different studies that have been conducted in many different settings and by many different people. She also provides many vivid examples that are often accompanied by illustrations, which make the examples easier to understand. She concludes with ways to develop a more positive body image, which was helpful when researching the prescription.

Park, S-Y., Yung, G. W., McSweeney, J. H., & Gunther, A. C. (2007). Do third-person perceptions of media influence contribute to pluralistic ignorance on the norm of ideal female thinness?. Sex Roles, 57, 569-578. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from academic search premier. 

This article is about a study done by the four people that wrote the article. The study that they did investigates people’s ignorance of the ideal body image for women and how media messages are the cause of this misperception. It describes what exactly was done during the study, how it was done, and the different conclusions that were made about things such as the perceived norm of ideal female thinness among different groups, and the influence that the media played in those perceptions. All of the authors are part of the Communications department at either Bowling Green State University, or University of Wisconsin, Madison. This source has a very strong study that can be used in many different ways to better understand this myth. It goes very in depth and gives all of the specifics about the study and the conclusions drawn from that particular study. It is a very useful first hand source. 

Wolf, N. (1992). The beauty myth. New York: First Anchor Books ed. 

This book first talks about the beauty myth in general and then it talks about the myth in many different aspects. It talks about it in a work setting, as well as in regards to culture, religion, sex, hunger, violence and beyond. It also talks about how images of beauty are used against women. The part that I found most helpful was the chapter called “Beyond the Beauty Myth” which talks about how we can change our beliefs about beauty. Naomi Wolf graduate from Yale and has written many other books on similar issues. This book is helpful because it talks about why women feel pressure to look a certain way. The prescription to the beauty myth is discussed as well. Wolf gives specific examples of how to change your perception beauty. This book is very empowering for women of all ages and in many different stages of life. 

Bessenoff, G. R., & Del Priore, R. E. (2007). Women, weight, and age: Social comparison to magazine  images across the lifespan. Springer Science and Business Media, 56, 215-222. Retrieved Oct. 16,  2007, from Carl B. Ylvisaker Library. 

This article discusses how the media affects women, particularly younger women. They support the idea that the way the media projects models effects how young women learn to accept body image and what is appropriate. They also discuss how a great deal of pressure is put on young women to look thin because that’s what will make them acceptable in society. Only when they have achieved this perfection will they be accepted by society, both women and men. This article pertains to my myth, that a women should look like a model or centerfold, in that is discusses how the social norm has made women think that to be accepted they must look a certain way. It will destroy relationships because women don’t believe in an inner attractiveness, they believe in what that have been taught matters, which is the exterior.  It also helps support the idea of social comparison, because the women are so affected by what they are seeing that it changes their views both emotionally and socially. 

Galician, M. L. (2004). Sex, love, and romance in the mass media. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum  Associates. 

Myth number five, “To attract and keep a man, a woman should look like a model or centerfold,” projects the idea that women must have the ideal body to be accepted both by men and society in general. The media reinforces this idea by constantly showing images of ultra thin women who are happily in relationships. They also project women who aren’t this ideal as the goof ball who can’t have a man and is seen as more of the friend figure. The idea is also perpetuated greatly in magazines by the perfect bodies that are on the covers of both men’s and women’s magazines. Women see this and think that since it is projected to both sexes that is what they need to become because that is what’s normal. This information is helpful in that it gives the basic information and defines myth number five. While the research isn’t particularly in depth it gives good beginning ideas and references to what focuses can be taken with further research.

Grogan, S. (1999). Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. New York: Routledge. 

This book talks a great deal about how the media has affected body image in women. Grogan talks about how women are portrayed on a much more ideal basis then men are and how that effects what women believe they should look like in a relationship. She also puts a great emphasis on how the media has connected having perfect looks with having happiness and being socially acceptable as well as just how much the media influences compared to other sources such as friends and family. Grogan also gives background and examples in connection with social comparison theory. This book is helpful in understanding my topic in that it compares how men and women are portrayed differently and how women have a much stricter image to adhere to. It also clarifies how the media promotes being thin as being happy and having that “perfect” relationship; along with how much the media really influences us day to day. The book also offers understanding of the social comparison theory, which relates to why we are so affected by the media. 

Wykes, M., and Gunter, B. (2005). The media and body image. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 

In The Media and Body Image Wykes and Gunter discuss how the acceptance of ultra thin women started in the mid 1990’s and continues through to today. They also discuss how magazines portray an unrealistic image of what is possible in life with articles about losing fifteen pounds and making your marriage better. The magazines also promote articles about addressing a “problem body” which is actually a normal, healthy body. Wykes and Gunter also discuss how they found that magazines targeting young girls also fixate and body image and sex. There is also a section discussing social comparison theory, particularly in relation to magazines. This book is helpful in relation to my topic because it discusses how the infatuation with an ultra thin body began. The book also gives a great deal of examples of how magazines promote unrealistic ideas and images of what the normal body should be like. Wykes and Gunter and comment on how these ideas are promoted to girls beginning at a very young age, which supports the idea that these ideas are ingrained in the minds of women from a very young age. This book again also has a great deal on the social comparison theory, particularly in relation to magazines, which helps clarify both the theory and one of my media examples. 

 In this book Advances in Gender and Communication Research, it discusses the similarities of the sexes rather then the less often differences. The book is broken down into five different parts about genders and the way they communicate. Those five parts are; “The Role of Gender in Organizational Communication,” “Gender Issues in Interpersonal and Professional Relationships,” “Gender and Advocacy,” “The Communicative Influence of Gender on Politics and Culture” and “Gender Communication Pedagogy.” The one that helped the most with my speech on creating coequality in the relationships was the section that discussed Gender Issues in Interpersonal and Professional Relationships. This section talked about empowerment to both of the sexes in the work place. It also states the benefit of having balanced personal relationships can lead to success in professional relationships and vise versa. 

Bianchi, S.M., Robinson, J.P. & Milkie, M.A. (2006). Changing Rhythms of American Family Life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

   In the next book that I used for my myth speech it discusses parenting and how it has changed. In one specific chapter of the book it states many old myths about parenting, and how it should be a balanced team effort and not one sided. This book Changing Rhythms of American Family Life goes very in depth about the new revolution of stay-at-home fathers. With talking about that subject it states how a male has to have a high level of confidence and tons of self esteem to be able to hold this normally female position. The author writes about gender equality and each partner having their “role specialization.” That chapter goes more in depth in talking about the male and female both having equal amounts of control in power to create a healthy relationship. Overall this book gave very good information on how roles in the family have changed and the many benefits of that transformation. 

Brothers, B.J. (1992). Equal Partnering: A Feminine Perspective. New York: Harrington Park Press.

The other book Equal Partnering: A Feminine Perspective was very helpful for there were chapters in the book that were basically stating my myth and its prescription. It discussed in on section partnership and ego equality in the marital system. In that chapter the author created a term “Ego Equality” and that it meant that an individual has the ability to be a peer and to engage in peer interactions. This book also helped a lot in the prescription aspect for it stated many empowerments themes for couples. This particular chapter discussed the empowerment process in which all participants in the relationships interact in a manner which establishes connection. Also empowerment strengthens each person’s sense of self worth and personal power. In general this book helped me extremely with my prescription, for its main focus was on the concept of relationships between couples with equal partnering as a goal. 

This is an encyclopedia full of different emotions listed in alphabetical order, each with its own description.  For myth #7 (“the love of a true and faithful woman can change a man from a beast to a prince”) I used information under “emotional abuse.”  This encyclopedia gives you insight on facts about the emotion, how you can tell the emotion is being displayed, why someone may feel this emotion, and (for emotions like emotional abuse) it lists ways to help people get out of a bad situation.  One nice thing about this encyclopedia is that it covers a lot of topics with statistics and illustrations, but there are only about 10-15 pages on each emotion.  It is really helpful because they list a lot of facts and organize the information in an easy to use way compared to having to skim through a book to find key words.

Levy B. (Ed). (1990). Dating violence: Young women in danger. Seattle, Washington: Seal Press.

This book acts as a self help guide for young women.  With stories from women who used to be involved in abusive relationships, to stories from teachers who noticed a personality change in their student, this book acts as a way to show that dating violence is too common, and lends a hand for those who need help getting out of a relationship to giving ideas on how other people can help those who don’t know how to help themselves. It gives a variety of stories like a young girl who was murdered by her boyfriend, to a teacher who helped her student leave a boy who wasn’t treating her right.  It shows examples of what can happen to girls if they do not leave that “beast.”  There is also a big section on programs that are out there to help people in abusive relationships, which many other books I cited did not do.  This book gives facts about abusive relationships, how to notice if someone is in a bad relationship, and where to go for help. 

Gaddis DS. (2000). Dangerous Dating: Helping young women say no to abusive relationships.  Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers.

Patricia Gaddis is the director of woman’s shelter and is a certified crisis intervention counselor.  She has been involved in helping women for the last decade and wrote a book on how to help young girls read the signs of a dangerous relationship.  She knows that the love of a true and faithful women can get severely hurt from an abusive man whether there is love in the relationship or not.  She wrote this as a guide for others to prevent relationship abusive, because it is a common occurrence now.  Unlike the other books I found about women in unhealthy relationships, Patricia Gaddis makes people aware of signs of an abusive relationship that are usually missed by other people.  The strength of this book is just how real she writes.  She gives startling facts about relationships, but also examples of relationships that start out as normal as ever.  This is a great book to use for examples of what can happen in a relationship, and how everyone can help. 

Crompton, V., & Kessner, E.Z. (2003). Saving beauty from the beast. New York: Crompton and Kessner.

This book discusses the prevalence of teenage dating violence, dating violence prevention, and interpersonal relations in adolescence.  The authors, Crompton and Kessner, state reasons why teenagers are accepting emotional and physical abuse.  A few of those reasons are low-self esteem and media influences.  One out of five teenage girls is a victim of physical abuse.  When you add in threats and emotional abuse, two out of three teenage girls are victims.  These statistics were cited by a survey conducted by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  Since the belief in this myth underlies dating violence, according to researches such as Galician, this book helped in my research about why dating violence is occurring in teenagers and how we can prevent it.  Vicki Crompton is a strong supporting of teen dating violence education, and she is also a consultant to the Office of Violence Against Woman in the U.S. Department of Justice.  This book provides background knowledge to how believing in myth number 7, changing a man from a “beast” into a “prince”, can be detrimental. 

Slagle, R.A., & Yep, G.A. (2007).  Taming brian: Sex, love, and romance in Queer as folk. In M. Galician & D. L. Merskin (Eds.), Critical thinking about sex, love, and romance in the mass media (pp.194-195). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

The authors, Slagle and Yep, analyze Galician’s myth and prescription number 7.  They argue that one of the dangers of believing in this myth can lead to the responsibility of changing a relationship be placed on just the woman.  They say that the woman believes she is not good enough or trying hard enough if she fails in changing her significant other to a better person.  Slagle and Yep say that people are responsible for their own behaviors, not the behaviors of other.  This statement supports Galician’s prescription, “cease correcting and controlling; you can’t change others (only yourself)”.  People need to decide whether to stay in relationship without trying to change another person’s way of living.  This chapter is helpful in that it refers to Galician’s myth and prescription number seven, explains the prescription in more detail than Galician, and supports the prescription.   Dr. Slagle researches communication and gender, and he has won an award from the Speech Communication Association for his research in communication.  Dr. Yep, a Professor of Speech and Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, has had his work in many journals and anthologies such as Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, for example.  Their research for this particular chapter is cited by 25 reliable references. 

Sullivan, B. F., & Schwebel, A. I. (1995). Relationship beliefs and expectations of satisfaction in marital relationships: Implications for family practitioners. The Family Journal, 3(4), 298-305.

This article explained the findings of two studies that measured the relationship expectations of young adults, the level of unrealistic beliefs, and their satisfaction in their current relationship. One couple went to therapy and lowered their expectations by creating a set of favorable expectations; now they are in a healthier relationship.  This article helped me because in order to explain my prescription, I needed to find healthier approaches to relationship problems.  The authors, Sullivan and Schwebel, state that the unrealistic expectations that people hold only lead to dissatisfaction in their relationships.  They support Galician’s prescription by saying we should focus on fixing ourselves rather than fixing our significant other.  Bryce Sullivan is a doctoral student in psychology and Andrew Schwebel is a professor in the department of psychology at Ohio State University.  Their research in this article is support by 36 references with many being reliable journals.  The findings of Sullivan and Schwebel are similar to the article written by Slagle and Yep. 

This book was written as a guide for newly engaged or married couples to help them through different conflicts and issues that may arise in their relationships.  It discusses how important first impressions are, ways to communicate problems, sexual intimacy in relationships, work verses leisure time, money, children, dealing with in-laws and other relatives, planning weddings and honeymoons, and lastly the first year after the wedding.  This source is about helping out couples with different problems that may come up in the beginning stages of their lives together. I used this book for its chapter on communication in couples.  In this chapter it talks about the different ways to communicate with your spouse or partner.  It also talks about divorce.  It provided me with specific reasons why divorce is a bad way to handle conflict while also providing information on ways to communicate. Mary Ann Bartusis is a psychiatrist that provides marital and sex therapy.  She is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. 

Cupach, W. R. & Canary, D. J. (2007) Couple relationships. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from dogpile. 

This article is all about conflict in relationships and how people should deal with it.  The article talks about different marital problems and reasons why these problems may arise.  It talks about how stress in relationships is a major problem and one of the major reasons why conflict arises.  The article also talks about divorce and behaviors that impact conflict in relationships.  Defensiveness is another big topic they talk about.  They discuss how defensiveness can lead to conflict and divorce. William R. Cupach is a professor at the University of Southern California.  He is very interested in conflict management and interpersonal communication. Daniel J. Canary is the editor for Sage Publications. 

Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum. 

This book was written in order to help couples understand marriage and the conflicts that arise in marriages.  It also talks about how to properly deal with conflict.  This book covers many different topics.  These topics range from what a healthy marriage is to what types of behaviors can predict unhealthy and unstable marriages.  The book concludes with recommendations for a stable marriage.  While researching I used the chapters title “Marital Processed That Predict Disillusion” and “Is Conflict Avoidance Dysfunctional”.  These chapters provided background information about conflict in relationships.  I used these chapters to also figure out what behaviors predict conflict in relationships and even divorce.  Gottman has been studying marriage and couples for over three decades.  He is a professor at the University of Washington. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology.  He founded the family research lab and the co-founder of the Gottman Institute. 

Galician, M.-L. (2004). Sex, love, and romance in the mass media: Analysis and criticism of unrealistic portrayals and their influence. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

Galician’s book was essential in my presentation.  It was her myth #8 that stated “Bickering and fighting lot mean that a man and woman really love each other passionately” This was the background to the information that I presented. The point that she drove home behind this myth was that conflict is normal and should occasionally happen in a relationship.  Her example of the using the ratio 5:1 states that for every five positive interactions you should have one negative one as well.   In this chapter she uses many different examples to convey her idea that media is the one that influences us to believe that fighting is normal.  One of her examples is “Sara”.  After watching the movie When Harry Met Sally Sara thought it was cute and appropriate to pick fights with her significant other and slap him through out the fights.  She also uses the movie, The Mexican, where the main characters have constant conflict throughout the film, but of course in the end their love will prevail and they will “live happily ever after”.   The example the Galician uses as a counter in the media is the song, The Light.  In this song the songwriter encourages that in order to have a successful relationship one must have positive communication.  I found that Galician’s information aided me in getting the background information I needed to start researching myth number eight.  Although I found this to be helpful she didn’t have the depth that we needed for our presentation so this is what lead me to finding other sources like Gottman.

Gottman, J.M., & Silver, N. (1999). The seven principles for making marriage work. New York: Three Rivers Press. 

Gottman agrees with Galician in that conflict is not a bad thing in relationships and it is essential in having a healthy relationship. Gottman states that “Even happily married couples can have screaming matches-loud arguments don’t’ necessarily harm a marriage”.  This reinstates that  fighting in a relationship is normal and that screaming and yelling can even be okay, but it’s the number of times that you fight that can potentially harm your marriage and/or relationship.  If your relationship is base solely around fighting it will not be a successful relationship.  The communication and interactions in your relationship need to be mostly positive but you must also balance that out with some negative interactions as well.  Those interactions can be small fights or they can be your loud screaming matches.  As long as you don’t allow them to control your relationship you will be successful.  Gottman was a very strong source because he had a lot of research and he supported it well.

Nadig, Larry A. (2006, 12, 21). Guidelines on effective communication, healthy relationships & successful living. Retrieved October 16, 2007, from Larry Alan Nadig, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist Marriage and Family Therapist Web site: http://www.drnadig.com/ 

Dr. Nadig’s research is what really helped in me in defining the difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict.  He was very adamant in agreeing with both Gottman and Galician in supporting some conflict in the relationship.  He focused mostly on resolving the conflict in the relationships.  Although this pertained more to the prescription aspect on the speech his introduction helped me in his talking about what conflict in relationships can do.   He was very supporting in saying conflict is the reality of the relationship and that it is not necessarily bad.  In his research and education he has found that conflict can create deeper understanding and can establish a stronger relationship.  The statement that was the most important from him that I really wanted my audience to understand was “How the conflicts get resolved, not how many occur, is the critical factor in determining whether a relationship will be healthy or unhealthy”.  This is the epitome in disillusioning this myth.  People need to realize they shouldn’t fight just to fight or avoid it just because that’s “right” conflict happens and it can be healthy for your relationship.  Dr. Nadig I viewed as a very reliable source.  He has a Ph.D. meaning he is very educated and understands the research/experiments he has performed.

Advocates for Youth, (2002). Healthy vs. unhealthy relationships. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from Advocates for Youth Web site: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/youth/health/relationships/healthy.htm 

This source I used very briefly, but I also found helpful in my research.  From this source I used the comparison table of unhealthy relationships vs. healthy relationships.  Although my topic was on communication it helped to understand thoroughly the difference between the two types of relationships.  Some of the things listed in the unhealthy side of the table were also things that could apparently cause conflict in a relationship.  An example of that would be, “One of you has to justify what you do, where you go, and who you see.”  This could easily be a source of conflict if someone feels trapped in the relationship.  My goal was to convey to the audience was that conflict like this is completely normal but what matters is how you would handle this conflict.  I couldn’t really go too in depth on this topic because that pertained more to the prescription.  I found this source to be very reliable.  It was an organization that was well represented and accredited.  The motive of this organization was to discourage against abusive and unhealthy relationships.  This was not what my topic was fully on so it did not correlate perfectly with my topic, but some of the information it contained was useful.

By working with couples with communication problems, Cutter concludes that gender is not what creates differences. She classifies people as “right brained” or “left brained”. This book is designed to help couples who are opposites work out their problems and communicate effectively. She believes that just because two people have many differences doesn’t mean they can’t be together. This book offers advice for couples, explains unrealistic expectations many people hold, and shows dialogue of some couples she has worked with. This book supports one part of Myth #9 by implying that couples who have different values can be together, but goes against it by saying that love is not all you need to make a relationship work. Support in this myth, while also giving healthier ways to act in a relationship made this book relevant and helpful to my research for the support of the myth.

Edyvane, D. (2003). Against unconditional love. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 20, 59-75.

This article by Edyvane works to disprove the belief that the best type of love is unconditional. 
The first part of the article takes a critical look at what those say who defend unconditional love. They believe that conditional love is love based on the properties of others, so that if those properties change at all, so does the love. The second part of the article defends conditional love. Edyvane is saying that even though one should not have a list of qualities and love a person only if they retain these certain qualities, one should have standards and not love illogically. This article helped in my research by giving views of those who believe in unconditional love, while showing arguments for conditional love. Myth #9 is basically saying that love should be unconditional, so this article showed belief in the myth. The main idea of the article showed the unhealthiness of this belief and supported the prescription for this myth.

Jacobs, J.W. (2003, March). 7 myths that can kill your marriage. Psychology Today, 34-42.

This article is about unrealistic expectations that many people hold. These expectations lead to problems in marriages and other long term relationships. It talks about the concept of soul mates, commitment, conflict, differences between people, and working on individual success versus working on relationships. In this article, seven commonly held romantic myths are addressed, including “all you need is love” and “great sex is easier than ever”. This article was beneficial to my research because it talked about the unhealthy ideas people hold towards relationships. It doesn’t support myth #9; by saying that shared values are important in a relationship, it goes along with the prescription. John W. Jacobs is a psychiatrist who has written a book on myths about marriage. 

 I used this excerpt from Gorski’s book because it gave an opinion to why we search for someone else to complete our lives.  Gorski also talked about how difficult, or impossible, it is to stay merged with one person.  He did say that we can find moments of “completeness,” but he pointed out that we are individuals and we can never merge completely with another person because of this.  I found this excerpt useful because it backed up my idea that we cannot merge into one person with another person.  It is impossible to create one whole person from two half people.

Dreikurs, R. (1964).  The challenge of marriage (9th ed.).  New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce. 

This excerpt nailed the idea of Myth #10, you cannot depend on destiny. If you rely on destiny to bring you the right mate to complete you, you either will not find it or won’t recognize it.  This quote can also be tied in with myth #1 - You mate is cosmically predestined.  Nobody is one half of a person, this is just a thought engraved into us.  This excerpt tells us that we cannot sit around waiting for love, we need to search for it.  However, love isn’t perfect, and we need to realize that a healthy relationship includes fighting and arguing.

Justin Luyt (n.d.). Romantic relationships: a spiritual perspective.  Retrieved October  25, 2007 from , KTL Enterprises Pty. Ltd. Web site:  http://www.spiritual.com.au/articles/relationships/romanticrelationships_jluyt.htm 

This excerpt looked at a more fresh idea of myth #10.  The quote talks about viewing your partner’s beauty, however we clutch to our partner to fill our emptiness.  In reality, we cannot clutch onto another person and expect to feel complete and whole.  That is too much dependence on our partner to provide us with emotional support.  Luyt explains that because we put so much pressure onto our relationship for support, the relationship ends, generally resulting in a lot of pain.  We do not need someone to complete us, it is simply a “thought,” Luyt explains.  This quote was very helpful for supporting my speech, it gave an outlook to myth #10 that was not completely negative, it was a more positive look  at why we feel like we need someone to complete us.

Buck, R. (2002). The genetics and biology of true love: Prosocial biological affects and the left hemisphere. Psychological review, 109(4), 739-744. 

The author of this article talks about the relationships between the hemispheres of the mind and selfishness.  The different hemispheres right and left, control different functions of a person.  Emotions that might be related to selfishness, but are overlooked are sex, bonding, and attachment.  This article talks about true love being hard to connect with biology or genes.  No one knows which controls whom you truly love.  Prosocial biological affects can change the two hemispheres by evolution some believe.  This article is helpful because it tells what emotions may affect love and also what other authors have to say about love.  It talks mainly on the scientific side of emotions, which is helpful, but more research needs to be done to clarify and elongate ideas.  Ross Buck is credible through the University of Connecticut in which he is writing for. 

Diekman, A. B., McDonald, M., & Gardner, W. L. (2000). Love means never having to be careful: The relationship between reading romance novels and safe sex behavior. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24(2), 179-188. 

The media show love as swept off your feet and so in love nothing could change the relationship.  This article talks about how the media influences women and their choice about condom usage.  For example romance book make sex look wonderful and safe, thus condoms are not in the picture.  Women now believe that taking time to use a condom will ruin the mood and make sex less loving.  The results say that women need to be empowered to in the decision making about using condoms.  Love can be great while still being safe and careful.  This is a useful article because if gives examples on how the media affects women.  Reading romance novels can have the power to change your relationships.  It also gives many references that may be helpful to do other research.  These three authors are all from well-known universities and Cambridge University Press published this article. 

Segrin, C., & Taylor, M. (2007). Positive interpersonal relationships mediate the association between social skills and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(4), 637-646. 

The authors of this article talk about the connection between social skills and psychological well- being.  The article shows survey results on the life satisfaction, positive relations with others, environmental mastery and self- efficacy.  Participants volunteered to fill out questions and the questions were measured out into theses categories.  The results show that social skills are a main factor to positive psychological happiness.  This article was useful since it gave categories to what makes people happy and it also states that interpersonal happiness is key to social happiness.  There were many references from this article that could be useful for other sources.  The other articles talked about happiness, romantic relationships, and personality differences in couples.  This source is very recent being from 2007.  The authors are both professors of Communication at Arizona University and Bloomsburg University. 

This article is about a study done to evaluate the relationship between celebrity idols and feelings of self-worth in teenage to young adults.  They took a survey to see the levels of attachment and chose the participants accordingly.  After analyzing their findings, they then go on to discuss how their idols have influenced their feelings of self-worth.  This article was very helpful because it gave me a lot of information about how we become attached to these TV/movie personalities.  It also showed how these relationships can affect us.  It was interesting to see how they especially affect the development of teenagers and young adults.

Leets, L., De Becker, G., & Giles, H. (1995). Fans: Exploring expressed motivation for contacting celebrities. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 14, 102-123.

The authors of this article wanted to focus on a different aspect of communication in their research.  They decided to look at the visual affects.  They went about this by analyzing fan letters written to celebrities.  They compared normal fan behavior with excessive fan behavior.  They wanted to see what makes people go to lengths to contact these celebrities they do not even know. They came to the conclusion that it has to do with the concept of Para-social relationships.  This article provided me with most of the information I needed to talk about Para-social relationships.  It was really helpful in explaining the concept. 

Key, W. B. (1993). Age of Manipulation, the Con in Confidence-the Sin in Sincere. Maryland: Madison Books.

This book is about how the media uses techniques to trick consumers into taking in messages that they present.  The author goes on to talk about how people believe that they are not being affected by the media and that they can think for them selves. He talks about how this is a big misconception because the media use several different techniques to mold our minds and make us take things in that we might not if we were consciously thinking about it.  This book really helped me understand how the media is not always the best source for information and that we need to be able to filter what is true or not for ourselves.  It gave me the information I needed to present the tactics the media takes to subliminally trick us to my audience in my speech. 

Hoffner, C. A., Levine, K. J., Sullivan, Q. E., Crowell, D., Pedrick, L., & Berndt, P. (2006). TV characters at work: Television's role in the occupational aspirations of economically disadvantaged youths. Journal of Career Development, 33(1), 3-18. 

This article researches the correlation between occupational portrayals of television characters and their affects on disadvantaged youth. The authors of this article are professors from a range of Midwest universities. In this study telephone interviews were conducted asking people what their dream job was and who their favorite television character was. Results showed that there was a positive correlation between the two answers; the concept of this correlation is called wishful identification. Wishful identification is a big part of my project, because it tells us why we relate to actors. This article approaches two aspects of socialization: firsthand experience and observation.  This article states that because disadvantaged youth do not usually have real life role models, they turn to television which provides them many attractive role models that they can determine their values and beliefs from.  This article was very interesting, because it researched in-depth about wishful identification and how different occupations are portrayed as more glamorous and therefore are more desired by youth.  This was very useful, because it related to my project by showing how actor’s characters influence us even if we don’t see it. All of the sources used for this research were very current and there were over forty-five different sources. The research taken for the telephone interviews in this article was not done over a long period of time; therefore, we do not know if the desired occupations would change if the mass media changed what its glamorous occupations were.  I would recommend this article; I found this article very credible and useful for my project.

McCourt, A., & Fitzpatrick, J. (2001). The role of personal characteristics and romantic characteristics in parasocial relationships: A pilot study.2(1) 

This article was written by Matthew Thomson and researched for the Journal of Marketing Affairs.  This article researches people’s attachments to celebrities and labels them “human brands”. This article went into detail about different needs for attachments and why these attachments matter to our society. Three different studies were designed to test the validity of celebrity attachments and their influence. These studies were very in-depth and professional. I found this article very helpful in providing media examples of celebrity attachments.  Since my project involved the attachments people have to celebrities it was very useful to see what these attachments were based off of and different aspects that make these attachments weaker or stronger.  Over sixty references were used to create this article and most of them were scholarly journals.  This reference is very useful in presenting foundational concepts of celebrity attachments.

Thomson, M. (2006). Human brands: Investigating antecedents to consumers' strong attachments to celebrities. Journal of Marketing, 70(3), 104-119. 

This article states that a person develops parasocial relationships, because of his or her personal characteristics.  The authors’ research focuses mainly on parasocial relationships, the mass media, and romance and friendship.  This article was done for family studies by the Texas Tech University.  The authors examined characteristics such as openness and loneliness as factors in developing unrealistic celebrity relationships.  Much of this article focuses on why certain people develop stronger attachments, but does not extensively give information concerning how to control theses attachments.  I found this article was interesting, because it provided me with reason why people become so attached to actor’s characters.  I could use a lot of information in this article to explain how parasocial relationships form and how that affects our real life relationships.  I would recommend this article as a good place to start when researching parasocial relationships, because it covers a lot of basic information about different concepts and studies versus focusing mainly on one concept.