TY - JOUR
T1 - A comparison of younger and older adults' self-assessment Manikin ratings of affective pictures
AU - Backs, Richard W.
AU - Da Silva, Sergio P.
AU - Han, Kyunghee
N1 - Funding Information:
Received 18 August 2004; accepted 6 January 2005. The current address of Sergio da Silva is Department of Psychology, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. This research was supported by a Central Michigan University Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors grant to the first author. The authors thank Jamie Sicard for her assistance with programming and data collection. Address correspondence to Richard W. Backs, Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA. E-mail: richard.w.backs@cmich.edu
PY - 2005/10
Y1 - 2005/10
N2 - Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) ratings were used to examine whether groups of 21 younger (M age = 20.02 years, SD = 2.28) and 21 older (M age = 66.26 years, SD = 5.64) adults had similar affective experiences to pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). The psychometrics of the SAM valence and arousal scales were also compared across age groups. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was similar for younger and older adults, where both groups made less consistent valence ratings than arousal ratings. Both groups differed from the norms for valence for pleasant pictures, but were no more different from each other than they were from the norms. Age group differences were most evident in the pleasant region of the bivariate valence by arousal affective space, where younger adults found pleasant-aroused pictures to be more pleasant and arousing than older adults did. We suggest that this age group difference could be explained by greater affect intensity and surgency for the younger group and greater emotional control and leveling of positive affect for the older group.
AB - Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) ratings were used to examine whether groups of 21 younger (M age = 20.02 years, SD = 2.28) and 21 older (M age = 66.26 years, SD = 5.64) adults had similar affective experiences to pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). The psychometrics of the SAM valence and arousal scales were also compared across age groups. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was similar for younger and older adults, where both groups made less consistent valence ratings than arousal ratings. Both groups differed from the norms for valence for pleasant pictures, but were no more different from each other than they were from the norms. Age group differences were most evident in the pleasant region of the bivariate valence by arousal affective space, where younger adults found pleasant-aroused pictures to be more pleasant and arousing than older adults did. We suggest that this age group difference could be explained by greater affect intensity and surgency for the younger group and greater emotional control and leveling of positive affect for the older group.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=24144434417&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03610730500206808
DO - 10.1080/03610730500206808
M3 - Article
C2 - 16147461
AN - SCOPUS:24144434417
SN - 0361-073X
VL - 31
SP - 421
EP - 440
JO - Experimental Aging Research
JF - Experimental Aging Research
IS - 4
ER -