Self-report measure

Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Right Now (State Affect)

The 20-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, framed as a state measure: read each word and indicate to what extent you feel this way right now, today, at the present moment. Ten words measure Positive Affect (e.g., enthusiasm, alertness, energy) and ten measure Negative Affect (e.g., distress, fear, irritability). Rate each from "Very slightly or not at all" to "Extremely."

You learn the balance of positive and negative feelings you have at this moment.

For anyone who wants a snapshot of the feelings they have right now.

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Your answers stay private.

It comes from emotion research that treats positive and negative feelings as two separate dimensions.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Right Now (State Affect) box

What this test is

Welcome. The 20-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, framed as a state measure: read each word and indicate to what extent you feel this way right now, today, at the present moment. Ten words measure Positive Affect (e.g., enthusiasm, alertness, energy) and ten measure Negative Affect (e.g., distress, fear, irritability). Rate each from "Very slightly or not at all" to "Extremely."

The measure

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Right Now (State Affect) was developed by Watson and colleagues (1988). It has 20 items, each answered on a 5-point (Very slightly or not at all … Extremely) scale. Its scores cover Positive Affect and Negative Affect.

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.

At a glance

Items

Response scale

5-point (Very slightly or not at all … Extremely)

Est. time

~3 min

Subscales

Access

Free to take · Full report and PDF for $5, or $3 to repeat

Scales

Positive and negative affect

Time frame

Right now

What it measures

Twenty words describe feelings, and the person rates how much they feel each one right now. Ten describe positive affect, a state of energy, concentration and pleasurable engagement: interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive and active. Ten describe negative affect, a state of distress and unpleasurable engagement: distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery and afraid.

Watson and Tellegen (1985) found that self-reported mood is organized around two broad and largely independent dimensions, positive and negative affect, rather than a single continuum from happy to sad. Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988) developed the schedule to measure both briefly, with instructions that can be set to different time frames, from the present moment to in general.

Each dimension is scored from its ten words. Higher positive affect describes feeling energetic, engaged and enthusiastic at this moment; higher negative affect describes feeling distressed or upset. Because the two dimensions are independent, a person can feel a good deal of both, or little of either. The scores describe the present moment and are expected to change from one occasion to the next.

The state form is used in experiments on emotion and in repeated measurement, for example before and after a session. On this site, the PANAS in-general form describes typical rather than momentary affect, the WHO-5 Well-Being Index describes well-being over two weeks, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) describes how emotions are managed.

Validity evidence

The two-factor structure is robust across instruction sets (state, trait, general, today, past year) and is replicated across diverse adult populations. The subscales show high discriminant validity from each other (r typically near zero) and convergent validity with theoretically related constructs (Watson et al., 1988).

Subscales

Positive Affect 10 items

how much you feel enthusiasm, alertness, and energy

Negative Affect 10 items

how much you feel distress and unpleasant emotion

Example item

“Interested”

Very slightly or not at allA littleModeratelyQuite a bitExtremely

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

References

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063-1070.
Crawford, J. R., & Henry, J. D. (2004). The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): Construct validity, measurement properties and normative data in a large non-clinical sample. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43(3), 245-265.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule — Expanded Form. University of Iowa.

Sample report preview

The report opens with a profile of your scores on each of the 2 scales (Positive Affect and Negative Affect), drawn on a common scale so the highest and lowest areas stand out. Each one then receives a short plain-language explanation of what a higher or lower standing describes. It closes with guidance on reading the results and on the limits of self-report.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Subscale scores	Your score on each of the 2 subscales.
Comparisons	How your scores compare with a published comparison group.

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