Introduction

There are many different ways to describe how you feel. Surely, you will know if your feelings are positive or nagative. This is considered an important dimention, and there are various scales to measure this. One is the well know Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).

One of the advantages of SPANE over PANAS is that SPANE focuses on feelings, whereas PANAS also includes other states (which are not really feelings). Read the paper to get a complete overview of the advantages. Another advantage is that the SPANE is shorter than PANAS (even though PANAS is not too long either).

Table 1. Average scores of 573 university students as cited in Diener et al., 2009.
Scale name Average score

SPANE Positive

22.1

SPANE Negative

15.6

SPANE Balance

6.5

Run the demo

The this scale has been translated in various languages. You can find the official translated version on the website of the authors of the scale.

According to the web page of the authors, "the scale is copyrighted but you are free to use it without permission or charge by all professionals (researchers and practitioners) as long as you give credit to the authors of the scale". The reference is at the bottom of this page.

Technically

This is a simple scale question.

The survey code for PsyToolkit

Copy and paste this code to your PsyToolkit account if you want to use the scale in your own online research project
scale: howoften
- Very Rarely or Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very Often or Always

l: spane
o: width 40%
t: scale howoften
q: Please think about what you have been doing and experiencing during the past four weeks. Then report how much you experienced each of the following feelings, using the scale below.
- Positive
- Negative
- Good
- Bad
- Pleasant
- Unpleasant
- Happy
- Sad
- Afraid
- Joyful
- Angry
- Contented

l: SPANE_P
t: set
- sum $spane.1 $spane.3 $spane.5 $spane.7 $spane.10 $spane.12

l: SPANE_N
t: set
- sum $spane.2 $spane.4 $spane.6 $spane.8 $spane.9 $spane.11

l: SPANE_B
t: set
- calc $SPANE_P - $SPANE_N

l: feedback
t: info
q: The measure can be used to derive an overall affect balance score, but
can also be divided into positive and negative feelings
scales.<BR><BR>Positive Feelings (SPANE-P): Add the scores, varying
from 1 to 5, for the six items: positive, good, pleasant, happy,
joyful, and contented. The score can vary from 6 (lowest possible) to
30 (highest positive feelings score). Midpoint is thus 18. Your score is
{$SPANE_P}.<BR><BR>
Negative Feelings (SPANE-N): Add the scores,
varying from 1 to 5, for the six items: negative, bad, unpleasant,
sad, afraid, and angry. The score can vary from 6 (lowest possible) to
30 (highest negative feelings score). Midpoint is thus 18. Your score is
{$SPANE_N}.<BR><BR>
Affect Balance (SPANE-B): The negative feelings
score is subtracted from the positive feelings score, and the
resultant difference score can vary from -24 (unhappiest possible) to
24 (highest affect balance possible).<br><br>
A respondent with a very high score of 24 reports that she or he
rarely or never experiences any of the negative feelings, and very
often or always has all of the positive feelings. Your score is
{$SPANE_B}<BR><BR>

References

  • Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi. D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2009). New measures of well-being: Flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 39, 247-266. Online available here.