Survey: Negative-Wording Questions

Negative questions or items are those items in a scale that differ in direction from most other items in that scale. Negative-wording questions, or negatively keying an item, is typically accomplished by negating an item thought to measure a construct of interest. If, for example, one wanted to create a scale to measure communication apprehension with romantic partners, one might include [Page 1714]the following four Likert items: “I am nervous when I talk with my romantic partner.”, “I am afraid to discuss important matters with my romantic partner.”, “I have anxiety when I think about starting a conversation with my romantic partner.”, and “I do not feel nervous communicating with my romantic partner.” The last item, “I do not feel nervous . . .” would ...