Audiovisual violence and its developmental effects: a theoretical and empiric study

Abstract

The present communication shows the results obtained from an academic work done between February & May 2005 in the seminary «Education and prevention of violence» taught by the professor Mª José Díaz-Aguado, in the context of the «School Psychology and Development» Doctorate Program of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid (Faculty of Psychology). The work consists of two clearly differentiated parts: a first part of theoretical kind, in which the main aim was the revision of the current state of the studies on violence in the media and its effects on people’s development, through the collect of relevant information and research done in the recent years, and a second part of practical kind, in which was elaborated an index for violence measurement in audiovisual documents, applying it consecutively to student’s samples with different characteristics and groups of ages (university and high school)..