An Interactive Exercise

Your Affect Profile

The two emotional systems that shape your days
Based on the PANAS, a validated measure of positive and negative emotion

This is the PANAS, one of the most validated tools in the science of well-being. It measures two things: how much positive emotion you tend to feel, and how much negative.

Most people read those two numbers like a report card. High positive and low negative, I'm doing well. Low positive and high negative, something's wrong with me. Anywhere in the middle, I guess I'm fine. That's the wrong way to read them.

Here's the part that changes the picture: positive and negative emotion are not opposite ends of one line. They're two separate systems. You can run high on both, low on both, or high on one and low on the other. Your two numbers aren't a grade, they're a location. Together they place you in one of four profiles, and the profile tells you far more than either number alone: how you tend to experience a day, where your natural strengths and blind spots are, and what actually moves the needle for someone wired like you.

As you answer This version asks how you feel in general, not just today. Go with your honest average, not your best day or your worst. There are no right answers, and no profile is better than another. Each has real gifts and a real challenge.
The Words · Part One

How much do you feel this way, in general?

Each word describes a feeling. For each one, choose how much you tend to feel it in your life generally.

The Words · Part Two

A few more

Same as before. How much do you tend to feel each one, in general?

The Map

Where you land

Your two scores place you on the grid. Positive affect runs up the side, negative affect runs across the bottom. The four corners are the four profiles. Your marker sits where your answers put you.

Lines drawn at general-adult averages (positive 33, negative 18). Near a line means you share qualities with the neighboring profile.

Your Profile

Your profile

Hold this lightly This is a snapshot of your general emotional wiring, not a fixed identity. Affect shifts with circumstance, season, and the work you do. The profile is a lens for understanding your tendencies and where to put your effort, not a box you're stuck in.
The four-profile framework (Cheerleader, Mad Scientist, Judge, Poet) was developed by Arthur C. Brooks. Built on the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988), using general-adult norms from Crawford & Henry (2004).
This exercise is an educational reflection, not a diagnosis or a substitute for therapy. Your responses are saved only in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and no one else can see them. Clearing your results removes them from this device.