Evaluation-Before-Pleasure (EBP): A Brief Self-Report Construct for the Developmental Gating of Positive Affect

This technical note introduces Evaluation-Before-Pleasure (EBP), a brief self-report construct intended to capture a common but under-measured phenomenon: the tendency for evaluative cognition (judgment, justification, optimization, self-monitoring, validation-seeking) to precede and constrain the onset of enjoyment. Where standard measures typically operationalize positive affect in terms of intensity, frequency, or trait disposition, EBP focuses on a specific cognitive ordering: evaluation first, enjoyment second. The note proposes an 8-item scale (EBP-8), a minimal developmental add-on for retrospective timing (adolescence onset), and a set of falsifiable predictions for empirical validation, including dissociations from standard positive affect measures (e.g., PANAS-PA) and associations with self-consciousness, rumination, and experience-optimization tendencies. This document is a construct proposal and measurement note. No empirical validation is claimed.