Updated 3 November 2026
How emotionally stable am I?
IPIP Emotional Stability scale, 20 items, 3 minutes
Emotional stability is how steady your moods are and how readily stress, worry and irritation arise. It is the Big Five trait that neuroticism scales measure the other way up. These twenty statements are the public-domain IPIP markers of emotional stability.
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0 of 20 answered. 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.
Your results
Your answers and results are stored only in this browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to us. A share link carries your scores in the link itself.
Understanding your scores
Emotional stability
High. People who score high say they are relaxed most of the time, seldom feel blue, are not easily bothered by things, rarely get irritated and seldom get mad. In daily life that shows as being the steady one in a crisis, taking criticism without dwelling on it, and sleeping soundly. High scorers have the full range of emotions; they return to baseline faster. The trait is the other side of neuroticism, which the Big Five tests measure with six facets.
Low. People who score low say they get stressed out easily, worry about things, are easily disturbed, change their mood a lot, take offence easily and get caught up in their problems. In daily life that shows as feeling setbacks keenly, planning for what might go wrong, and taking time to settle after a bad day. It is a tendency everyone has to some degree, measured across a whole population; it describes how readily feelings arise, not whether anything is wrong, and it is not a diagnosis.
How reliable is this test
Internal consistency (coefficient alpha) per scale, as published:
| Scale | Published |
|---|---|
| Emotional stability | 0.91 |
Coefficient alpha as given on the key page, https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm, accessed 3 November 2026.
No published norms exist for this instrument, so the results show raw scores against the possible range and no percentiles.
The IPIP key page gives coefficient alpha of .91 for this scale and no test-retest figure. Personality scores are fairly stable over weeks; a change of a few points between attempts is usual.
Limits worth knowing: a self-report of how you see yourself, with no published norm sample for the 20-item scale on its own. The Big Five tests measure the same trait with norms and, in the 120-item version, six facets.
Guides that cover this
Questions people ask
Is this the same as neuroticism?
Yes, scored the other way up. A high emotional stability score is a low neuroticism score. The Big Five tests on this site report neuroticism (120 items, with six facets) or emotional stability (50 items), and the trait page explains both.
Can emotional stability change?
On average people become more emotionally stable from their twenties onward, and scores also move a little with circumstances. Retaking the test after six months shows whether anything has moved for you.
Why is there no percentile on this test?
No norm sample has been published for this scale on its own, and the site never estimates or invents norms. Your marker is drawn against the possible range instead, and the page says so. The Big Five tests do have published norms.
Is a high or low score better?
Neither. Each end has strengths and costs, and the research describes tendencies across large groups, not what any one person will do. The site never colours scores as good or bad.
Where do my answers go?
Nowhere. The test is scored in your browser and the result is kept only on this device. If you choose to share a link, your scores are inside the link itself and nothing is sent to this site.
Sources and licence
Instrument: Emotional stability. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26
Scoring key: https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm, checked 2026-11-03.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm Credit: International Personality Item Pool, https://ipip.ori.org/.