The science behind your portrait

We didn’t invent any of it. We read it — for you.

Twenty dimensions drawn from psychology, neuroscience and behavioural science, thirty-eight peer-reviewed papers, fifty years of research — assembled into one instrument, dimension by dimension, source by source.

The research behind your portrait.

Every dimension in your portrait is grounded in peer-reviewed psychological research. We don’t invent frameworks. We assemble decades of science into something that actually sounds like you.

20Dimensions
38Peer-reviewed papers
5Acts in the journey

Beyond assessment

What makes Sentira different

Seven distinct measurement formats

Traditional personality tests rely on Likert-scale self-report (“rate 1 to 5 how much you agree”). This captures what people believe about themselves, not how they actually operate. Sentira uses seven question formats designed to measure different cognitive and somatic layers:

Scenario immersion

Simulated decisions reveal implicit preferences

Timed gut response

Speed of response signals automatic vs. deliberate processing

Forced trade-off

Value conflicts surface when both options are desirable

Spectrum positioning

Continuous self-placement avoids categorical forcing

Body scan

Somatic attention maps interoceptive and polyvagal patterns

Ranking exercise

Ordinal preferences bypass social desirability bias

Open reflection

Narrative structure reveals identity themes

This multi-modal approach triangulates each dimension from multiple cognitive angles. When your scenario choice, your gut timing, and your self-placement all converge, we have high confidence. When they diverge, that tension itself becomes informative.

Grounded in your scores, not guesswork

Your portrait isn’t a horoscope or a hunch. It is built entirely from your twenty measured dimension scores, each computed the same way every time, straight from your answers, using validated scoring models. Re-take the journey and the scores land in the same place. What changes is you.

Every passage is anchored to those scores: a claim only appears if what we measured actually supports it. Nothing is asserted about you that isn’t grounded in a dimension we scored.

Why this matters: that grounding is what separates an instrument from a horoscope. Every sentence traces back to a specific dimension and the peer-reviewed research behind it, and you can follow any claim to its source, right here on this page.

Cross-dimensional synthesis

Individual dimensions are well-researched. What no existing tool does is model how they interact. Sentira identifies five “super-combinations” where specific configurations of dimensions create emergent patterns that none of the individual scores predict alone:

Conflict DNA

Attachment + Rejection Sensitivity + Polyvagal Profile

Predicts not just whether you avoid conflict, but the somatic sequence of your conflict response

Decision Architecture

Regulatory Focus + Construal Level + Maximizer/Satisficer + Defensive Pessimism

Maps your unique decision-making signature across stakes and uncertainty levels

Life Narrative

Narrative Identity + Possible Selves + Temporal Self-Continuity + Psychological Richness

Reveals the story you tell about your life and how it shapes what you pursue

Body-Psyche Bridge

Polyvagal Profile + Interoception + Chronotype + Sensory Processing

Connects your physical intelligence to your emotional patterns

Shadow Profile

Dark Factor + Values Circumplex + Self-Complexity + Affective Forecasting

Surfaces the contradictions between who you are and who you think you are

These combinations are derived from cross-referencing the research literature where dimensional interactions have been empirically observed (e.g., the well-documented link between attachment anxiety and interoceptive accuracy in Pollatos et al., 2014, or the regulatory focus and construal level interaction in Lee et al., 2010).

Portrait assembly

Your final portrait is not a template with numbers inserted, and not free-running AI prose either. The library is organised by score configuration: dimensional labels, axis positions, quadrant placements, cross-dimensional tensions. Your specific configuration selects and orders the passages, so the prose reflects the actual psychological interactions in your profile, not generic descriptions.

The result: two people with identical Big Five profiles will receive entirely different Sentira portraits, because their attachment styles, sensory processing patterns, narrative identities, polyvagal profiles, and value conflicts differ. The portrait captures the architecture, not just the traits.

Dimension by dimension

The twenty dimensions

Each dimension is grounded in a specific peer-reviewed construct. Expand “How we know this” on any of them to see the original research, sample sizes, and validation data.

Act 1 · Cognitive

The Surface

How You Move Through the World

Regulatory Focus

(Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 1997))Higgins, 1997

Whether you're driven by pursuing possibilities and gains (promotion) or by maintaining safety and avoiding loss (prevention). This invisible orientation shapes every decision you make.

Construal Level

(Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010))Trope, 2010

Whether you naturally think in abstractions and big-picture principles (high level) or in concrete details and specific actions (low level). This determines how you plan, communicate, and understand others.

Maximizer vs. Satisficer

(Maximization Scale (Schwartz et al., 2002))Schwartz, 2002

Whether you search for the absolute best option (maximizer) or accept the first option that meets your criteria (satisficer). Maximizers make objectively better choices but are paradoxically less satisfied with them.

Need for Cognitive Closure

(Need for Closure Scale (Kruglanski, 1993))Kruglanski, 1996

How much you need clear, definitive answers and how uncomfortable you are with uncertainty. High need for closure means quick decisions and preference for structure; low means comfort with ambiguity but risk of decision paralysis.

Act 2 · Emotional

The Depths

How You Feel and Connect

Attachment Style

(Adult Attachment Theory (Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007))Mikulincer, 2007

The template for how you connect with others, forged in your earliest relationships. Four styles: Secure, Anxious, Avoidant, and Fearful-Avoidant, each shaping how you love, fight, and trust.

Rejection Sensitivity

(Rejection Sensitivity Model (Downey & Feldman, 1996))Downey, 1996

How quickly you detect, expect, and react to signs of rejection. High sensitivity means reading neutral cues as rejection, a powerful lens that colors every social interaction without your awareness.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity

(Sensory Processing Sensitivity / HSP (Aron & Aron, 1997))Aron, 1997

Whether your nervous system processes stimuli more deeply than average. Highly Sensitive Persons (15-20% of the population) catch more nuance, overstimulate faster, and experience emotions more intensely. This is not weakness. It's depth of processing.

Dark Factor of Personality

(Dark Factor of Personality (Moshagen, Hilbig & Zettler, 2018))Moshagen, 2018

The shared core behind all 'dark' personality traits, your balance between self-interest and others' needs. Not a judgment: low D risks burnout from over-giving, moderate D means healthy self-assertion, high D reveals relational blind spots.

Act 3 · Narrative

The Story

The Narrative You Live By

Narrative Identity

(Narrative Identity / Life Story Model (McAdams, 2001))McAdams, 2001

The story you tell about your own life. Redemption narratives transform suffering into growth. Contamination narratives see good things destroyed. Agency measures whether you feel like the protagonist. This predicts wellbeing better than personality traits.

Possible Selves

(Possible Selves Theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986))Markus, 1986

The versions of yourself you hope to become, expect to become, and fear becoming. Behavior is driven more by the gap between these selves than by who you are today. When your feared self is closer to your expected self than you realized, that's a wake-up call.

Temporal Self-Continuity

(Future Self-Continuity (Ersner-Hershfield, 2009))Ersner-Hershfield, 2009

How connected you feel to your future and past self. People who feel disconnected from their future self literally treat it as a stranger: saving less, exercising less, taking more risks. This varies enormously and most people never realize it.

Psychological Richness

(Psychologically Rich Life (Oishi & Westgate, 2022))Oishi, 2022

The third dimension of a good life beyond happiness and meaning: a life filled with varied, complex, perspective-changing experiences. Some optimize for happiness, others for meaning, others for richness, a deeply personal preference most never reflect on.

Act 4 · Somatic

The Body

Your Physical Intelligence

Polyvagal Profile

(Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2011))Porges, 2011

Your autonomic nervous system's default state: ventral vagal (safe, social, present), sympathetic (fight/flight), or dorsal vagal (freeze/shutdown). Most people have a dominant baseline and characteristic triggers that shift them between states.

Interoception

(Interoceptive Awareness (Craig, 2002; Garfinkel et al., 2015))Garfinkel, 2015

Your ability to perceive internal body signals: heartbeat, hunger, breath, gut feelings. Three dimensions: accuracy (do you detect them?), sensibility (do you attend to them?), and awareness (is your perception accurate?). High accuracy correlates with emotional intelligence, and higher anxiety.

Chronotype & Circadian Personality

(Chronotype / Circadian Preference (Roenneberg et al., 2003))Roenneberg, 2003

Not just morning vs. evening, but your full circadian fingerprint: when creativity peaks, when discipline is strongest, when social energy is highest, and when you're most vulnerable to negativity. 50% genetic, enormous impact on performance.

Act 5 · Hidden Contradictions

The Paradox

Your Hidden Contradictions

Defensive Pessimism vs. Strategic Optimism

(Defensive Pessimism vs. Strategic Optimism (Norem & Cantor, 1986))Norem, 1986

Two equally effective but opposite strategies for managing performance anxiety. Defensive pessimists thrive by imagining worst cases first. Strategic optimists thrive by not thinking about what could go wrong. Forcing a pessimist to 'think positive' makes them perform worse.

Values Circumplex

(Theory of Basic Human Values (Schwartz, 1992))Schwartz, 1992

Ten universal values arranged in a circular structure where neighbors are compatible and opposites conflict. High scores on opposing values (like Self-Direction and Conformity) reveal fundamental inner conflicts that explain recurring feelings of being torn.

Uncertainty Orientation

(Uncertainty Orientation (Sorrentino & Short, 1986))Sorrentino, 1986

Whether you're energized or drained by uncertainty. Different from Need for Closure: this is about the energy you get from the unknown. Combined with NFC, it creates four archetypes that predict everything from career choices to travel habits.

Affective Forecasting Bias

(Affective Forecasting / Impact Bias (Gilbert & Wilson, 2003))Wilson, 2003

You're systematically wrong about your future feelings, but in specific, measurable ways. Impact bias: you overestimate how bad things will feel. Immune neglect: you underestimate your psychological resilience. These biases silently drive your biggest decisions.

Self-Complexity

(Self-Complexity (Linville, 1987))Linville, 1987

How many distinct self-aspects you have, and how independent they are. High self-complexity acts as a buffer against stress because a failure in one domain doesn't collapse your whole identity. Low self-complexity is a hidden vulnerability.

Twelve minutes from now

Your portrait is waiting to be written.

Three of your twenty dimensions are free to read. Read the first true words about yourself, and decide from there.

Discover your PortraitFree to try · ~12 minutes