Through creating the academic paper and oral defense question, I learned the importance of time management. I unfortunately made the mistake of not preparing efficiently before the presentation for the oral defense questions; thus, I was lacking confidence in my speaking. In the future, I plan on starting my assignments and research necessities long before their due date, so I can have as much time as I need to complete them without having to feel rushed. I failed to recognize the significant work and time that goes into every aspect of a research process. Getting an academic paper close to perfection requires time to re-read and re-word the paper several times as well as spending time to have a peer review because an outside perspective helps find issues you may not have previously found on your own. Additionally, reviewing the paper on a different day can allow for a fresh perspective and for finding changes that may not have been assessed when first writing the paper. An oral presentation, likewise, requires significant time to prepare and rehearse. To effectively present without relying on notecards and with confidence requires time to rehearse. Through these realizations, I will work to better manage my time during future endeavors. Especially in research, I will displace more time in reviewal and rehearsal.

Throughout this process, I learned a lot about myself as a researcher, a student, and a human being. As a researcher, I learned that I enjoy quantifying to draw conclusions. While conducting a literature review and even creating and conducting my own research, I found the validity in conducting statistical tests on quantified raw-data to draw conclusions. Ultimately, this taught me that I am more of a data-oriented researcher. As a student, I learned a lot about the importance of time management to most effectively conduct valid research. Having to create and send out surveys through snowball sampling, it was important for me to manage my time efficiently to get everything done. Finally, as a human being, I gained a greater appreciation for the ethical principles required in research. I never truly assessed the importance of ensuring that every participant is safe and satisfied with the research and the long process that is required in doing so. Through gaining IRB approval, I now understand the importance of risk-benefit analysis and ensuring that the benefits of the research outweighs the risks. By learning these key aspects about myself, I will work to attribute them to my future endeavors and apply them in future research projects. Hopefully continuing this research, I will apply these lessons to more effectively and efficiently conduct similar research with expanded demographics in the future.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me along the process in completing this research. To begin, Ms. Dobos has played an essential role in helping me find my research project, create my survey, prepare for IRB approval, and quantify my research. Without her help and expertise, this research project would not have been possible. Next, I would like to thank Ms. Donofrio and Ms. Lemeshewsky for supporting me by viewing my oral defense preventative and giving me supportive feedback. I owe significant gratitude to all of my peers, including Asmitha Muthukumar, Ella Daniel, Lily Smith, Samanvita Dronamraju, Zoe Wargin, and Jessica Wang for giving me valuable feedback throughout the process of completing this research. Finally, I would like to thank all the researchers whose published literature I reviewed prior to conducting my own research. 

In this research, individuals aged 18 and older are surveyed to examine which demographics correlate to the creation of parasocial relationships quantitatively. Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, often created with celebrities or inanimate objects. Parasocial relationships can have both positive and negative effects on individuals. On the positive side, these relationships can provide individuals with a sense of companionship, inspiration, and support. They may also provide an escape from loneliness or difficult life circumstances. However, on the negative side, parasocial relationships can become obsessive, and individuals may become overly invested in the media figure's personal life, leading to feelings of disappointment, anxiety, or depression when the media figure experiences negative events. Through surveying 51 participants of various demographics, each score was quantified on a point scale with 17+ points indicating the existence of a parasocial relationship. Statistical tests including an ANOVA and two T-tests were used to find the correlation between the strength of the relationship and age, gender, and race, respectively. It was hypothesized that there would be differences in age and gender; however, there would be no difference between races. It was determined that individuals aged 18-27 regardless of gender or race are significantly more likely to create stronger parasocial relationships in relation to older age groups; thus, the hypothesis was partially correct in that there was a difference between age; however, there was no difference in gender. Ultimately, it is important to recognize the benefits as well as the drawbacks provided by the strength of parasocial relationships; thus, awareness should be spread to the targeted demographic of Generation Z. In the future, this research can be continued by targeting a wider audience with a larger variation of demographics as well as observing parasocial relationships from a greater scope.