Effetti delle scene di violenza su aggressività, depressione e ansia

Content analysis suggested that television programmes and films contain more and more violent acts. The aim of this research is to estimate the impact of violence film excerpts on young adulthood. In particular, we focused on attitudes, opinions and emotions of college students (aged from 19 to 31 years) before and after the view of eleven violence film excerpts in three different sequences: one presented at the last three positions justified violence scenes, another various violence scenes and the third unjustified violence scenes. We used: 1) Questionnaire on a wide range of aspects; 2) Aggressive behaviour I-R Questionnaire; 3) Self Depression Scale; 4) ASQ-IPAT Anxiety SCALE. Subjects, after every film excerpt and using a test, indicated the emotions experienced and their intensity. Furthermore, we assessed systolic-diastolic blood pressures and heart rate before and after every film excerpt. We examined 54 students (29 F., 25 M.) of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of Brescia University. Variables were explored using repeated measures mixed factorial analysis of variance. Results: females obtained higher mean scores than males in depression, total anxiety (latent and symptomatic) and two related factors (apprehension, tension) both before and after the experiment. Females and males, at the end of the experiment, got less latent anxiety scores while they increased symptomatic anxiety scores, even if not significantly. Finally, emotive instability increased in males and reduced in females.

Giorgio Tosini, Carlo Cristini, Alessandro Mahony, Bruno Mario Cesana, Effetti delle scene di violenza su aggressività, depressione e ansia in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 1/2007, pp 77-91, DOI: