title: Applicability of the International Affective Picture System in Chinese older adults: A validation study.
abstract: The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is a standardized tool widely used to induce emotions in psychological studies. The present study examined the reliability and validity of the IAPS in Chinese older adults. A sample consisting of 126 Chinese older adults (86 females; aged 67.3 ± 4.96 years; 13.2 ± 2.75 years of education) was recruited to rate valence and arousal for 942 IAPS pictures. The results showed a satisfactory reliability and validity of the IAPS among these participants. The reliability was supported by high internal consistency and low inter-individual variance of participants' ratings; the validity was supported by high similarities (in rating scores and in the distribution of the pictures in the valence-arousal affective space) and small differences (in mean ratings) between Chinese and German older adults. In conclusion, the study adds supportive evidence to the cross-cultural validity of the IAPS in older adults, and provides a set of normative emotional ratings that could be adopted as a criterion in the selection of emotional pictures in future studies engaging Chinese older adults. Comparison of the IAPS ratings across cultures and ages is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Xianmin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dahua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: International Affective Picture System (IAPS); cross-cultural comparison; emotional rating; older adult; validation