Need for Privacy

Assessing the Need for Privacy

The need for privacy is often mentioned in every day life as well as privacy research, but existing measures do not capture all relevant application contexts. 

We understand the need for privacy as a personality trait, and as such as the stable tendency to purposely specify and pursue a desired level of privacy. Relying on Burgoon’s (1982) dimensions of privacy and Masur and Trepte’s (2017) preliminary work, we develop the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S). With two studies, we explore and confirm the multidimensional structure of the scale and validate it for the setting of online media usage. The goal is to provide a short, but comprehensive instrument to assess the need for privacy in any application context. 

Contact

Jana Dombrowski, M.A.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte

Dr. Regine Frener

 

Publications

Frener, R., Dombrowski, J., & Trepte, S. (2023). Development and validation of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S). Communication Methods and Measures, 18(1), 48–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2023.2246014 

Conference Talks

Frener, R., Wagner, J., & Trepte, S. (2022, September 10-15). Development and validation of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S). 52nd Conference of the German Psychology Society (DGPs). Hildesheim, Germany.

Wagner, J., Frener, R. & Trepte, S. (2021, September 8-10). Development and validation of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S). 12th Conference of the Media Psychology Division of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). Aachen, Germany.

Frener, R., Wagner, J., & Trepte, S. (2021, May). Development and validation of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S). 71st Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA). Denver, USA, Virtual.