Free self-tests · 2 min · 10 questions
Emotional awareness test: how closely do you notice your feelings?
Some people notice their feelings as they happen and often wonder why they feel the way they do. Others tend to get on with things and only realise later, sometimes much later, that something affected them.
This 10-item scale, developed by Kimberly Barchard as part of research on emotional intelligence and published in the free International Personality Item Pool, measures how much attention you pay to your own emotions. Neither end is right or wrong, and it is not a diagnosis.
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Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people you know of the same sex as you are, and roughly your same age. So that you can describe yourself in an honest manner, your responses will be kept in absolute confidence. Indicate for each statement whether it is 1. Very Inaccurate, 2. Moderately Inaccurate, 3. Neither Accurate Nor Inaccurate, 4. Moderately Accurate, or 5. Very Accurate as a description of you.
Your results
This is a self-report questionnaire, not a diagnosis. Only a qualified professional can assess you properly.
Talk it through: book a session
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The IPIP doesn't publish clinical cut-offs or population norms for this scale, so the bands above simply divide the answer range. A lower score is not a lack of feeling. Many people learned, at home or at work, that their emotions were inconvenient, and became very good at putting them aside.
Paying close attention to feelings is not always comfortable either. If noticing your emotions mostly means noticing sadness, fear or emptiness that won't lift, please talk to a GP or another qualified health professional. If you are struggling right now, the helplines page lists free support.
Person-centred counselling works closely with feelings as they arise, at your pace and without being told what you should feel. For people who have spent years putting others first, simply having a space to notice what is there can be new. I am a trainee counsellor working under supervision. You might read about family duty and the self, feeling stuck or online counselling for women.
How the Barchard, 2001; 10 items score works
10 questions, scored as the average of your answers; 5 are reverse-scored. These are the score ranges this page uses to describe your result. Where the questionnaire's authors publish official cut-offs, the ranges follow them; the sources are listed below.
| Score | Range |
|---|---|
| Less attention to emotions | 1 to 2.49 |
| Moderate attention to emotions | 2.5 to 3.5 |
| More attention to emotions | 3.51 to 5 |
About this questionnaire
IPIP Attending to Emotions scale (Barchard, 2001; 10 items) by Kimberly A. Barchard, via the International Personality Item Pool (2001).
Barchard, K. A. (2001). Emotional and social intelligence: Examining its place in the nomological network [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia]. Items published in the International Personality Item Pool: https://ipip.ori.org/newEmotionalIntelligenceKey.htm
Used in line with the published terms of use.
Questions people ask
What is emotional awareness?
Emotional awareness is noticing what you are feeling and having some sense of why. This scale measures one part of it: how much attention you give your emotions. It is one of several components that researchers have linked to the broader idea of emotional intelligence.
Is a low score the same as alexithymia?
No. Alexithymia is a specific difficulty in identifying and describing feelings, measured with different questionnaires. A low score here only means you don't often stop to attend to your emotions, which can have many reasons, including a busy life or a habit of putting others first.
Where do these questions come from?
They are the ten items of the Attending to Emotions scale developed by Kimberly Barchard in 2001, as part of research on emotional and social intelligence. The items are in the public-domain International Personality Item Pool.
Are my answers private?
Yes. Everything is scored in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent, and refreshing the page clears your answers. There is no account, no email and no tracking of your answers. If you want to keep your result, a screenshot is the simplest way.