A Test of a Shorter Privacy Preference Scale

Summary

The development, rationale, and evaluation of the Privacy Activity in Vicarious Situations Scale (PAVSS) are described. The scale contains 12 vignettes designed to assess an individual's privacy needs associated with six subscale areas: anonymity, not neighboring, reserve, solitude, seclusion, and intimacy. Each vignette is scored on a five-point Likert-type scale. The scale was derived from the only other scale developed to measure an individual's privacy needs, the Privacy Preference Scale (PPS) with 56 items scored on a five-point Likert-type scale. Both scales were administered to 63 male and female graduate students (average age was 28.8 years). The PPS was completed once, the PAVSS twice with a two-week interval. Correlation coefficients between corresponding subscales within the PAVSS and the PPS suggested that the PAVSS has practical utility, as it is associated with the PPS but much shorter, relatively reliable, and more concrete through the use of vignettes.