| Test: | Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, PANAS |
| Link: | persistent link: https://psytests.org/result?v=emopye |
Positive Affect | 27 | |
| low ⇒ average ⇒ high level | ||
Negative Affect | 32 | |
| low ⇒ average ⇒ high level | ||
norms for few weeks | in general (n=663)
Briefly, Positive Affect (PA) reflects the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active, and alert. High PA is a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low PA is characterized by sadness and lethargy. In contrast, Negative Affect (NA) is a general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasurable engagement that subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness, with low NA being a state of calmness and serenity.
These two factors represent affective state dimensions, but Tellegen has demonstrated that they are related to corresponding affective trait dimensions of positive and negative emotionality (individual differences in positive and negative emotional reactivity). Trait PA and NA roughly correspond to the dominant personality factors of extraversion and anxiety/neuroticism, respectively. Drawing on these and other findings, Tellegen has linked trait NA and PA, respectively, to psychobiological and psychodynamic constructs of sensitivity to signals of reward and punishment. He has also suggested that low PA and high NA (both state and trait) are major distinguishing features of depression and anxiety, respectively.