Life Position Scale Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Never
- Sometimes
- Half of the time
- Most of the time
- All of the time
- Never
- Sometimes
- About half the time
- Most of the time
- All the time
- Never
- Sometimes
- Half the time
- Most of the time
- All the time
Life Position Scale Test - Description and methodology of the test
People deciding whether to take the Life Position Scale Test may find it useful when they want a compact profile of two related attitudes. As a life position assessment, it returns separate indications for self and other people, helping a reader decide whether the profile merits further personal reflection. The result is a two-part profile rather than a single overall personality label.
What This Assessment Explores
What the questionnaire examines is the I-You pattern in transactional analysis: how a person evaluates self and other people. Self-directed items cover liking yourself, pride, confidence, helplessness, pessimism, and feeling valued; other-directed items cover trust, appreciation, irritation, suspicion, patience, and expectations of competence. Together, these themes indicate whether the respondent tends toward acceptance or rejection in each direction.
The result is organized into two displayed dimensions:
- You Scale, 10-50, reflects trust in and acceptance of other people: You- (less positive), 10-33, or You+ (positive), 34-50.
- Self, 10-50, reflects self-acceptance and self-esteem: I- (negative self-attitude), 10-37, or I+ (positive self-attitude), 38-50.
Taken together, this life position profile shows how “I” and “You” are positioned, rather than delivering a verdict on character. A higher result in one direction can coexist with a lower result in the other, so the two dimensions remain complementary indicators rather than a single label.
Methodology and Evidence Base
Each statement asks how often a thought, feeling, or interpersonal reaction applies, using five choices from Never through All of the time. The wording includes affirming and adverse experiences, so answer for typical experience rather than social desirability.
The items visibly group around two themes: experiences directed toward self and reactions or beliefs concerning other people. The displayed bands organize the two results; item contributions or reverse-coding should not be inferred from wording alone.
Conceptually, this transactional analysis questionnaire is consistent with Life Position Scale (Boholst, 2002), which operationalizes attitudes toward self and others. Berne’s transactional analysis model supplies the broader I’m OK/You’re OK perspective, while later work by Boholst, Boholst, and Mende relates life positions to attachment styles. The questionnaire’s self/other dimensions can therefore be read alongside Berne’s model as a conceptual description of interpersonal stances.
The online version should not be treated as having published norms or validation unless those properties are specifically documented; self-report responses may also shift with mood, relationships, self-awareness, or response bias.
- Boholst, Fredrick A. (2002). A Life Position Scale. Transactional Analysis Journal, 32(1), 28-32. 10.1177/036215370203200105
- Boholst, Fredrick A., Boholst, Giselle B., & Mende, Michael Mark B. (2005). Life Positions and Attachment Styles: A Canonical Correlation Analysis. Transactional Analysis Journal, 35(1), 62-67. 10.1177/036215370503500108
- Berne, Eric. (1972). What Do You Say After You Say Hello?: The Psychology of Human Destiny. New York: Grove Press.
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