Update: The Plural Spectrum Tool 2.0 is redesigned & now interactive! What started in 2021 as a printable image to color in has been fully reimagined for 2026. Take the quiz, get a personalized overview, save your finished spectrum as an image, and share a link with your results with your therapist or friends. Optionally send your results anonymously to TPA for community research purposes.
The Plural Spectrum Tool
There is no wrong way to be Plural.
Designed by and for Plurals, the Plural Spectrum Tool helps you and your System reflect on your unique experience of Plurality. Take the short quiz, or fill in the wheel yourself.
This is not a diagnostic tool. It is a peer made tool for self reflection. There is no wrong way to be Plural.
Your Plural Spectrum
Below is a brief overview of your answers. Use it as a starting point for reflection. Your spectrum is yours, and you can adjust the wheel below at any time.
Help our community research
With your permission, you can share your scores anonymously to help us better understand the diversity of Plural experiences. Clicking the button opens a short Google Form in a new tab with your 9 scores and your Plurality label already filled in. Just click Submit on that form to send it. We do not collect your name, email, or any identifying information. This step is completely optional.
The Plural Spectrum Tool, designed and created by and for Plurals, is an easy-to-use tool, that lets you and your System indicate your unique and individual experience(s) with Plurality!
The Plural Spectrum Tool 2.0 is a free, interactive self-reflection tool created by and for plural systems. If you’re plural, endogenic, a voice hearer, inner child plurality, an IFS system, a system with DID, OSDD, or any form of plurality, this tool helps you map your unique experience across nine key dimensions. It’s not a diagnostic tool — it’s a peer-made resource designed to support your self-understanding.
This tool can help you figure out where your System is currently at and what areas you want to work on together, to improve. This is not a diagnostic tool, but can help to self report different Plural experiences.
Using The Plural Spectrum Tool is easy. Simply take the quiz above or download the image below and just color the number of bars that matches your experience. The last category is left blank on purpose, as to allow you to fill in an experience you and your System have.
Our Plural Spectrum Tool is based on the notion that Plurality is not linear. There is no single line between Singlets and Plurals. Instead, we propose a spectrum where each System has a unique and individual experience with Plurality. There is no wrong way to be Plural.
The Plural Spectrum Tool is made to be used by all members of a System, not just the Host. When using the tool, it’s important to make sure you and your System are on the same page. This can be accomplished by spending some time discussing and planning how you and your system will use the tool. You can do this with internal communication or external communication, like journaling. You can also have different Headmates fill out their own version, to compare results.
Looking for more Plural resources? Click here.
Start Your TPA Fundraiser
Want to help power this movement? Set your own goal, tell your own story, and raise money for the Plural community your way. It only takes a few clicks to get started.
We first released the Plural Spectrum Tool in 2021 as a printable image to color in. We have been amazed by the response over the years. The tool has been shared widely across the community, linked from many other websites, and even featured in published books about plurality. Five years later, we are so excited to share this fully interactive version. You and your System can now take a short quiz that fills in your wheel for you, read a personalized overview of your answers, and save your finished spectrum as an image to keep, print, or share. The original printable is still available below for anyone who prefers paper.
We invite you to share the link to this tool freely, whether with your own results attached or as a blank tool for others to try for themselves. The new version also includes an optional anonymous research feature.
After the quiz you can choose to send your 9 spectrum scores and your plurality label to us anonymously, to help us better understand the diversity of plural experiences. This is the only moment any data is ever sent to us, and it is completely optional. Filling in the tool itself never saves anything to our servers, and we never collect your name, email, or any identifying information.
Thank you to the volunteers who helped create the original Plural Spectrum Tool in 2021, and thank you to everyone who has supported us since. We cannot wait to see what you do with it.
We hope this updated tool serves you and your System as well as the original has, and we cannot wait to see what you do with it.
Download and color in your own:
Definitions:
Memory Sharing: The more memories and time you share together, the more bars you can color in. The more amnesia and time loss you experience, the fewer bars you can color in.
Co-operation: The better you work together as a team, the more bars you can color in.
System stability: The more stability you experience, so the least clinical distress you face, the more bars you can color in.
Internal Communication: Are you able to talk internally with other Headmates? Can you see them? Feel them? Hear them? The more internal communication you have, the more bars you can color in.
Ability to switch: Are you or some of you able to switch and stay at the front? Are switches fluent? How much energy does it cost you? The easier your switching is, the more bars you can color in.
Co-consciousness: Can you time share together? Can you front at the same time? Can you communicate when others are fronting? The more consciousness you share, the more bars you can color in.
Elaboration: Elaboration is defined as how much individuality Headmates have. For example, if they have their own name, age, gender, opinions, hobbies, etc. The more elaboration or individuality, the more bars you can color in.
Overt: Is your Plurality visible to others? In a clinical setting? When you are with friends or a partner? In the candy aisle? The more visible and overt your System is, the more bars you can color in.
Pride: Do you experience Plural pride? Around your System? Survival? Neurodiversity? Or do you experience a lot of shame around your experience? The more pride you experience, the more bars you can color in.
….: This field was left blank on purpose, as to give you space to fill in your own individual Plural experience.
Image caption: An image of The Plural Spectrum Tool. It shows 10 topics. Each topic gets a number of between 0 to 10. Where 0 indicates the least and 10 indicates the most. The ten topics you can give a number are: Memory sharing. Co-operation. System stability. Internal Communication. Ability to switch. Co-consciousness. Elaboration. Overt. Pride. The last category is left blank on purpose, as to allow you to fill in an experience you and your System have.
As always, we encourage you and your System to follow your own truth, to soul search, to find words, labels, visions, theories and communities that aren’t only within your values but also match your lived experience and/or long term goals, so that you might find belonging and don’t have to try to fit in.
Thank you for investing the time to read this article. Please, feel free to leave comments or feedback in the comment section.
The Plural Association is the first and only grassroots, volunteer and peer-led nonprofit empowering Plurals. Our works, including resources like this, are only possible because of support from Plurals and our allies.
If you found this article helpful, please consider making a donation.
Together we empower more Plurals!
Disclaimer: Thank you for reading our peer article; we hope it was empowering, informative and helpful for you and your System. There are as many Plural experiences, as there are Plurals. So not all information on this website might apply to your situation or be helpful to you; please, use caution. We’re not doctors or clinicians and our nonprofit, our work, and this website in no way provide medical advice, nor does it replace therapy or medication in other ways.
About the authors
The Stronghold System are the proud volunteer founders & CEO of The Plural Association Nonprofit. They are from the Netherlands and reside in a 30-something-year-old body, are nonbinary, parents of an amazing child & 3 cats. They got diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder over 10 years ago & also self ID as Plural.
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how do we download the spectrum tool? did not see anything to get it to save?
it’s an image, you can right click on the image to download and then use an image editing tool to fill in the bars
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