PDA Test for Adults

The PDA Test for Adults is a questionnaire that tests how much you may align with Persistent Drive for Autonomy (PDA) traits.

It was created by Riko Ryuki and Sally Cat using questions from other inventories and research comparing PDA and non-PDA autistic people in 2016. There are 50 questions measuring PDA traits and 40 measuring autistic traits in general.

There is currently no standard assessment to diagnose someone with PDA, so many resources are made by PDAers themselves. Thus, this quiz is not an official diagnostic tool, just an inventory to see how much you might resonate with PDA experiences.

I've taken this test twice, and my scores were nearly identical — 41/50 for PDA and 36-37/40 for autism, indicating that I am "very likely" to have both. I am indeed a PDA autistic person (for better or worse), so the results were accurate for me, at least.

Some of the questions I found to be a bit vague and difficult to answer, and I do think many could be quite relatable to people outside of the PDA profile as well.

The questions I thought were the most relevant, discerning, and specific to my own PDA experience were:

 

• Does praise always make you feel good?
• Do you find it helpful if someone reminds you to do a task?
• Does lack of choice make you feel out of control/panicky?
• Do you feel constrained by social expectations, such as having to say 'please' or 'thank you,' or having to smile?

Praise feels good to me if it's for something I chose to do; but if it's for something someone else made me do, it feels like they're saying "Great job doing what you're told! Keep doing it the way I want you to do it!"

Reminding me to do a task often makes me less able to do it, because it makes it feel like it's not my choice anymore. (Which is horrifying!) Similarly, as a kid, I refused to follow politeness norms because it felt like it meant others had power over me, an idea that made my skin crawl. 

If I could edit the test, I might focus more on asking whether demands (even ones you agree with and want to follow) make you feel not just discomfort or annoyance, but rage and panic that is disabling and, in some cases, meltdown-inducing. But this is based on my own PDA, so the experiences of others may vary! Frankly I hope they do, because mine are not great.

Overall, it's not a guarantee that you have PDA and/or autism if you score highly on this test. However, if you find the traits measured here to be consistently disabling, you might want to look into PDA further and see if it resonates with you.