Environmental Sustainabiltiy by Sociocognitive Deceleration of Population Growth

The present chapter addresses environmental sustainability through deceleration of population growth. Serial dramatizations founded on social cognitive theory serve as the principal vehicle for personal and society-wide changes. These mass media productions inform people, enable them with effective strategies and resilient efficacy beliefs, and guide, motivate, and support them in their efforts to exercise control over their rate of child bearing and otherwise improve their life condition. Global applications in Asia, Africa, and Latin America raise viewers’ perceived efficacy to determine their family size, increase approval of family planning, raise the status of women in familial, social and educational life, and increase use of family planning services and adoption of contraceptive methods. In applications in Africa, the media productions also increase condom use and reduce the number of sexual partners to check the spread of HIV infection. This generic model of social change can also promote environmental preservation practices. Bandura, A. (2002). Environmental sustainability by sociocognitive deceleration of population growth. In P. Schmuch & W. Schultz (Eds.). The psychology of sustainable development. (pp. 209-238). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.