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Positive and Negative Affect Schedule

PANAS
psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no licence fee. Cite the original publication.

A 20-item mood scale with two 10-item subscales, Positive Affect and Negative Affect, rated for a specified time frame (e.g., "right now," "past week").

Items
20
Response format
5-point intensity scale
Version
1.0
Subscales
2

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Affect was measured with the PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), whose Positive and Negative Affect subscales (10 items each) show strong internal consistency (α = .86 to .90 for Positive Affect and .84 to .87 for Negative Affect across time frames).

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Reliability & validation

Validation population
College students (Watson et al., 1988)
Cronbach's α
0.84–0.9

Subscales

Positive Affect (PA)Negative Affect (NA)

Response anchors

Very slightly or not at all · A little · Moderately · Quite a bit · Extremely

Known limitations

Captures high-arousal affect and under-represents low-arousal states (e.g., calm, sad); the two broad subscales are not intended as a full emotion taxonomy.

Original citation

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.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063

Questions researchers ask

What does the PANAS measure?

A 20-item mood scale with two 10-item subscales, Positive Affect and Negative Affect, rated for a specified time frame (e.g., "right now," "past week").

How many items does the PANAS have?

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) has 20 items across 2 subscales: Positive Affect (PA), Negative Affect (NA).

Is the PANAS free to use?

The PANAS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the PANAS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.84–0.9. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the PANAS, and how do I cite it?

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. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063

Or track new research mentioning PANAS as it publishes

Related scales

BFNEBrief Fear of Negative Evaluation ScaleAHSAdult Dispositional Hope ScaleAMS-C 28Academic Motivation Scale — College VersionBFI-2Big Five Inventory-2BFI-44Big Five InventoryBSCSBrief Self-Control Scale

Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.