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222 CHAPTER 5 LearningTelevision and Teen Pregnancy? Shownhere is a still from the hit TV seriesGossip Girl. Anita Chandra and her colleagues(2008) found that teen pregnancieswere positively correlated with exposureto sexual content on television.Compared to teens who watched low levels,teenagers who watched high levels ofsexual content on television were twice aslikely to get pregnant or get a partnerpregnant. Mainstream television showssuch as Sex and the City, That ’70s Show,and Friends were classified as having highsexual content. According to Chandra andher colleagues, the findings of their correlationalstudy suggest that such televisionshows emphasize only the positive aspectsof sexual behavior—while ignoring therisks.The serials dramatize the everydayproblems people struggle with, andmodel functional strategies andsolutions to them. This approachsucceeds because it informs, enables,motivates and guides people forpersonal and social changes thatimprove their lives.—ALBERT BANDURA (2004a)Applications ofObservational LearningBandura’s finding that children willimitate film footage of aggressive behaviorhas more than just theoreticalimportance. One obvious implicationhas to do with the effects of negativebehaviors that are depicted in filmsand television shows. Is there any evidencethat television and other mediacan increase negative or destructivebehaviors in viewers?One recent study conducted bypsychologist Rebecca Collins and hercolleagues (2004) examined the impactof television portrayals of sexualactivity on the behavior of U.S. adolescentsbetween the ages of 12 and17. Over the two-year period of thestudy, researchers found that adolescentswho watched large amounts oftelevision containing sexual contentwere twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual intercourse in the following year asadolescents who were the same age but watched the least amount of sexually orientedprogramming.Are we talking about X-rated cable programs or sexually suggestive music videos?No. Among the programs that the researchers rated as high in sexual content were suchpopular network programs as Friends and That ’70s Show. In fact, researchers found thatexposure to TV shows that simply talked about sex was associated with the same risksas exposure to TV that depicted sexual behavior. Although other factors contributed tothe likelihood that adolescents would become sexually active, the impact of TV programmingwas substantial. “The 12-year-olds who watched a lot of television with sexualcontent behaved like the 14- or 15-year-olds who watched the least amount of sexualtelevision,” Collins (2004) pointed out.Another important implication of Bandura’s research relates to the effects ofmedia depictions of violence on behavior. In the Critical Thinking box on page 224,we take an in-depth look at the relationship between media portrayals of violenceand aggressive behavior.Given the potential impact of negative media images, let’s look at the flip side. Isthere any evidence that television and other media can encourage socially desirablebehavior?A remarkably effective application of observational learning has been the use oftelevision and radio dramas to promote social change and healthy behaviors in Asia,Latin America, and Africa (Population Communications International, 2004). Pioneeredby Mexican television executive Miguel Sabido, the first such attempt was along-running serial drama that used observational learning principles to promote literacyamong adults. The main storyline centered on the experiences of a group ofpeople in a literacy self-instruction group. Millions of viewers faithfully watched theseries. In the year before the televised series, about 90,000 people were enrolled insuch literacy groups. In the year during the series, enrollment jumped to 840,000people (Bandura, 1997).Since the success of this program, the nonprofit group Population CommunicationsInternational (2004) has developed many such “entertainment-educationprograms” based on Bandura’s observational learning paradigm. Each series isdeveloped with the input of local advisers and is written, produced, and performed