Positive Affect/Negative Affect Scale for Mexicans (PANA-M): Evidences of Validity and Reliability

Abstract

The affective component of Subjective Well Being refers to the emotional evaluations people make regarding day-to-day life events. These emotional responses can be categorized into two: Positive affect and Negative affect. Positive affect usually indicate that life is going well, and everything is as expected; negative affect indicates the opposite. Despite the immense number of instruments and scales that currently exist around this topic, there’s still room for improvement regarding psychometric properties. To minimize some of the recent challenges, a new Affect scale was developed instead of adopting or adapting an existing one. Three independent studies use several techniques (Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Convergent validity, Cronbach’s Alpha, McDonald’s Omega, Tucker’s congruence coefficient) to show adequate validity and reliability properties. The final product, a Positive Affect/Negative Affect Scale -originally developed for Mexico-, shows adequate properties and even suggest proper functioning in an Argentinian sample. Strengths for this new scale are discussed and the relationship between positive/negative affect with other psychological variables is discussed as well.