Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale

The "PANAS" is a scale measuring emotions (PANAS = Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale). The emotions measured can be general and also specific ones (i.e. at a cretin moment or event). Therefore, the PANAS can be used to measure emotions in the following time periods (the PANAS questionnaire instructions chances accordingly):

*Moment (the way a person feels at the present moment)
*Today (the way a person feels this day)
*Past few days (the way a person felt during the past few days)
*Week (the way a person felt during the past week)
*Past few weeks (the way a person felt during the past few weeks)
*Year (the way a person felt during the past year)
*General (the way a person feels on the average)

The PANAS scale has two independent dimensions: one for positive affect and the other for negative affect. The Positive Affect and Negative Affect are factors that represent affective state dimensions. Tellegen [Tellegen, A. (1985). Structures of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self-report. In A. H. Tuma & J. D. Maser (Eds.), Anxiety and the Anxiety disorders, (pp. 681-706), Hilssdale, NJ: Erlbaum.] has demonstrated that they are related to corresponding affective trait dimensions of positive and negative emotionality (individual differences in positive and negative emotional reactivity). However, a person can feel positive emotions and negative emotions simultaneously.

The scale consists of words that describe different feelings and emotions. The subjects should indicate the strength of their emotion and to mark the appropriate answer next to the word. The answer is on a five point Likert-type scale; ranging from 1 ("very slightly or not at all") to 5 ("extremely").

The PANAS Developmental History

Numerous PA (Positive Affect) and NA (Negative Affect) scales have been developed and studied in a variety of research areas. The findings from these studies indicate that the two mood factors relate to different classes of variables. Anomalous and inconsistent findings have also been reported. For example: some mood scales have been developed through factor analysis (e.g., Stone, 1981) [Stone, A. A. ( 1981). The association between perceptions of daily experiences and self- and spouse-rated mood. Journal of Research in Personality, 15, 510-522.] , but others have been constructed on a purely ad hoc basis with no supporting reliability or validity data (e.g., McAdams & Constantian, 1983)¹.Therefore, raised the need for reliable and valid PA and NA scales that are also brief and easy to administer.

The development of the new scale by Watson, Clark & Tellegen (1988)⁵ was based on previous measures existed in the area.The starting point was 60 terms included in the factor analyses reported by Zevon and Tellegen (1982)⁶. Through a factor analysis the authors reduced the terms pool and yielded a final list of 10 descriptors for PA scale ("attentive, interested, alert, excited, enthusiastic, inspired, proud, determined, strong and active"); and 10 descriptors for NA scale ("distressed, upset-distressed; hostile, irritable-angry; scared, afraid-fearful; ashamed, guilty; nervous, and jittery").

The basic data was gathered primarily from undergraduates enrolled in various psychology courses (at Southern Methodist University - SMU [http://www.smu.edu/ SMU University] ). Likewise, groups of SMU employees completed questionnaires asking how they felt during the past few weeks and past few days. A sample of adults not affiliated with SMU also filled out a mood form with "today" time instructions. Preliminary analyses revealed no systematic differences between student and non-student responses, and they have been combined in all analyses. The PANAS scales also work reasonably well in adult and clinical samples.

Subjects were asked to rate how they felt in7 different time periods: (a) present moment; (b) today; (c) past few days; (d) past week; (e) past few weeks; (f) past year; (g) on the average (general).

The PANAS scales exhibit a significant level of stability in every time frame. No consistent sex differences were found, so the data was collapsed across sex.

The PANAS scale intercorrelations and internal consistency reliabilities are all acceptably high (ranging from 0.86 to 0.90 for PA and 0.84 - 0.87 for NA). The reliability of the scales is unaffected by the time instructions used.The PANAS has high scale validity and high item validity.

In summary, the PANAS scales provide reliable, precise, and largely independent measures of Positive Affect and Negative Affect, regardless of the subject or the time frame and response format used.

----References:

1. McAdams, D. P., & Constantian, C. A. (1983). Intimacy and affiliation motives in daily living: An experience sampling analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psycholog3A 45, 851-861.

2. Stone, A. A. ( 1981). The association between perceptions of daily experiences and self- and spouse-rated mood. Journal of Research in Personality, 15, 510-522.

3. Tellegen, A. (1985). Structures of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self-report. In A. H. Tuma & J. D. Maser (Eds.), Anxiety and the Anxiety disorders, (pp. 681-706), Hilssdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

4. Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The diposition to experience negative aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465–490.

5. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. 1988. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54: 1063-1070:

6. Zevon, M. A., & Tellegen, A. (1982). The structure of mood change: An idiographic/nomothetic analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 111-122.

References