Mood‐management during pregnancy through selective exposure to television

Abstract

Pregnant and non‐pregnant women and new mothers were given the opportunity to select comedy, action adventure, drama, and game show programs for an evening's worth of television viewing and then provided ratings of their affective dispositions. The results lent considerable support to the notion that viewers often employ television as a mood‐management device. Specifically, the findings showed that affective states during pregnancy strongly influenced television program preferences. A preference for comedy programs was apparent when dysphoric states attributable to physiological changes prevailed. A preference for action adventure programming was evident during times of physiologically induced heightened postive affect. Affect‐dependent preferences for game shows and dramatic fare were not apparent, however.