The Social Cognitive Theory and Female Empowerment in Grey’s Anatomy

Abstract

With the rise of Medical Dramas, it is unclear how they are affecting their female viewers. Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most widely popular medical drama which averages millions of view each episode. The majority of these viewers are females, and according to the social cognitive theory, the depiction of the female characters in a show affects how female viewers are empowered. Therefore, my research will both analyze every episode of Grey’s Anatomy and question viewers of the show in order to determine how female characters are depicted in Grey’s Anatomy and how this depiction empowers female viewers. For the purpose of this study, I developed a quantitative content analysis to apply a quantitative analysis approach to a social cognitive theory and I developed a Female Depiction Score and Male Depiction Score to analyze this data. The results of this study give insight into the application of the social cognitive theory to medical dramas, how to promote female empowerment through medical dramas, and how to conduct a quantitative content analysis in regards to the application of the Social Cognitive Theory.