I agree. And if I understand your situation right, Ola, then you must range the items the same way as if you are going to calculate a simple scale of the items. In factor analysis this is not nessesary (here you just know then what negative loadings means), but in reliability analysis it is a must. Here the items are summed into a scale, and if some items is upside down this will give no meaning.

Best, Henrik

At 14:36 12-11-2004, Art Kendall wrote: >In an effort to reduce response bias it is customary to word half the >items are worded so items with high values on the response scale >indicate one end of the underlying construct, and half indicate the >other end of the underlying construct. > >When you reflect the scores on the item you cite, it sounds like the >underlying construct would be something like teacher confidence. > >When a response key change results in a higher internal consistency >result that means it is more likely the correct key. > >Look at the inter-item correlation in the first analysis. There are >likely to be sizable negative correlations.. Also take a look at the >corrected item total and squared multiple correlations associated with >each item. Large inconsistencies when comparing these two columns are >an indicator that items are incorrectly keyed. > >Hope this helps. > >Art >Art@DrKendall.org >Social Research Consultants >University Park, MD USA >(301) 864-5570 > > > >Ola S. Rostant wrote: > >>Dear List, >> >>I have a Likert scale with some negatively worded questions such as "I >>am afraid I may be a failure as a teacher" (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = >>disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree). >> >>A colleague of mine suggested I reverse code questions like these. Does >>anyone have an opinion on whether this is a plausible thing to do? >> >>I ran a reliability analysis on the entire survey and the alpha was .53, >>when I reverse coded the negatively worded questions, the reliability >>shot up to .89. >> >>All opinions and advice are welcome. >> >>Ola >> >> >>

*********************************************************** Henrik Lolle Associate Professor Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration Aalborg University Fibigerstraede 1 DK 9220 Aalborg East http://www.socsci.auc.dk/institut2/dansk/empl/lolle.htm ***********************************************************