When creating surveys, researchers sometimes rephrase “positive” questions in a “negative” way to make sure that individuals are giving consistent responses.
We say that these types of questions are reverse-scored.
When using a survey to assign a composite score to individuals, it’s important to make sure the reverse-coded questions are reverse-scored as well.
The following example shows how to reverse the scores on reverse-coded questions in Google Sheets.
Example: How to Perform Reverse Scoring in Google Sheets
Suppose a researcher administers a survey with 5 questions to 10 individuals in which the possible responses to each questions are:
- Strongly Agree
- Agree
- Neither Agree Nor Disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
The following dataset in Google Sheets shows the results of the survey in which “Strongly Agree” is assigned a value of 5, “Agree” is assigned a value of 4, and so on:
Suppose questions 2 and 5 are reverse coded, so we must reverse their scores.
In other words:
- 1 should become 5.
- 2 should become 4.
- 3 should become 3.
- 4 should become 2.
- 5 should become 1.
To do so, we can add 1 to the max possible score (5) to get 6. Then, we can subtract the original scores from 6 to get the reverse scored value.
For example:
- 5 becomes: 6 – 5 = 1.
- 4 becomes: 6 – 4 = 2.
- 3 becomes: 6 – 3 = 3.
- 2 becomes: 6 – 2 = 4.
- 1 becomes: 6 – 1 = 5.
To do this in Google Sheets, first copy and paste all of the original answers into a new area on the spreadsheet:
In cell B16 type: =6-B2. Then copy and paste this formula down to all other cells in column B.
In cell E16 type: =6-E2. Then copy and paste this formula down to all other cells in column E.
The values in column B and column E will now both be reverse coded:
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets:
Google Sheets: Use VLOOKUP to Return Minimum Value
Google Sheets: How to Use VLOOKUP to Return Max Value
Google Sheets: How to Highlight Max Value in Each Row
