Pictorial Databases for the Assessment of Affective Flexibility: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The present paper attempted to analyze the existing task-based measures of affective flexibility and to provide a strong database for further development and validation of culturally relevant task-based measures of affective flexibility. The Articles in which affective tasks were developed are included in this review. Only those articles which had been transcribed in English and published in peer-reviewed journals from the year 1995-to 2021, with a sample of youth (15-35 years) were included. Key terms were effective flexibility, emotional flexibility, assessment of affective flexibility, and measures of affective flexibility. A systematic search of multiple computerized databases including Science Direct, Pub Med, Google scholar, and Psyc INFO was accomplished to find out the relevant articles. Both keyword search and citation search was performed for the current review. A total of 116 relevant articles were initially evaluated, 101 of them were excluded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria, and finally, 15 articles were retained. Analysis revealed that utilization, psychometric properties, and measurement accuracy were higher for several databases. Most of the studies have used standardized picture databases as stimulus material using a switching paradigm predominately. Correlation and t-tests were predominately performed for statistical analyses of the data. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the databases for affective flexibility had also been discussed.