PANAS — In General (Trait Affect, 20 items)

Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988) developed the PANAS to measure the two dominant dimensions of affective experience. Positive Affect (PA) reflects the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active, and alert — high PA is a state of energy and pleasurable engagement; low PA is characterized by sadness and lethargy. Negative Affect (NA) is a general dimension of subjective distress encompassing a range of aversive states including fear, anger, guilt, and nervousness; low NA corresponds to calm and serenity.

PA and NA are largely independent dimensions — not opposite ends of a single scale — so a person can simultaneously score high on both, low on both, or high on one and low on the other. This two-factor structure is one of the most replicated findings in affective science.

The trait version asks you to rate each word to describe how you feel on average, in general. Use it to characterize your general affective disposition rather than a momentary state. Trait PA and NA show meaningful associations with personality (PA correlates with Extraversion; NA with Neuroticism) and are relatively stable across time.

PA and NA raw scores (range 10–50 each), population percentile, and a 90% confidence range. The normative comparison is from Watson et al. (1988), Table 1 (trait norms: PA M = 35.0, SD = 6.4; NA M = 18.1, SD = 5.9; N = 663 college students). Because this is a self-selected college sample, percentiles should be interpreted relative to that reference group, not the general adult population. The 90% CI uses the standard error of measurement computed from the published lower-bound reliability (PA α = .86, NA α = .84).