Abstract

Aim of this research is to understand what kind of representation 220 university and high school students have about the experience of "sballo" ("to be revved up") and their attitudes towards discos. Furthermore, we looked into possible similarities and differences in the representations evoked in relation to the "sballo" experience, and the discos. The saple is made up of subjects varying in sex, age, familiarity with the use of psychoactive substances, importance attributed to the "sballo" experience, frequence with which they go to discos and sensation seeking orientation. Results show that the attitude towards the "sballo" is strectly associated with the behavior and this type of experience is conceptualized prevalently in terms of changing states of awareness mainly reached by taking psychoactive substances. The association between the frequence with which the interviewees go to discos and the importance they attribute to the "sballo" is relatively week. Finally, the familiarity with substances use does not consistently discriminate the images expressed in relation to the discos.