(the list includes all questions that showed the maximum absolute correlation specifically with this trait, and at the same time a substantially higher one than the correlation with questimity–declatimity)

NEGATIVISM:

1. I always lack in the object I am studying its useful and good possibilities; the negative possibilities are the ones that are immediately visible. -0.61
2. Most of the time I am rather dissatisfied with something than satisfied. -0.58
3. A heightened level of negative emotions is typical for me. -0.57
4. I am more a skeptic tuned to future troubles than a romantic tuned to future successes. -0.57
5. I feel anger more often than joy. -0.51
6. Negative emotions break out of me more often than positive ones. -0.49
7. I often find myself in a constant expectation of troubles. -0.48
8. What is more characteristic of you? – 1) I can enjoy comforts 5) I often pay attention to existing inconveniences -0.47
9. I more often reflect on human shortcomings than on human virtues. -0.46
10. I clearly lack optimism in life. -0.46
11. Being a skeptic by nature, I am prone to frequent doubts and hesitations; I notice all contradictions and imperfections of the surrounding world. -0.46
12. I am a master at making gloomy forecasts. -0.44
13. I am not very sensitive to the sweet lures of gain and success promised by a given situation; I pay more attention to the danger of loss and punishment. -0.44
14. I often experience a feeling that those around me are at fault toward me. -0.43
15. My attention is more often focused on searching for flaws in a newly purchased item than on its merits. -0.42
16. I frequently have depressive states when everything seems gloomy and hopeless. -0.40
17. I often feel annoyed and disappointed. -0.39
18. I often experience a feeling of disgust—almost daily for some reason or another. -0.38
19. I like to criticize. -0.37
20. I often express dissatisfaction about something. -0.36
21. I often expect some kind of trick from reality. -0.35
22. I often use in my speech the words “no,” “never,” “no way,” “under no circumstances,” “in no case.” -0.35
23. There are quite a few people among my acquaintances to whom I periodically point out that they are trying to ethically manipulate me and others. -0.35
24. Criticizing others’ views and statements is always pleasant for me. -0.34
25. I usually find it easy to understand whether another person is telling the truth or lying. -0.34
26. I often engage in thinking through possible troubles. -0.34
27. I more often try not to raise others’ enthusiasm but, on the contrary, to “lower” it or even ridicule it. -0.34
28. I cannot stand those who eternally “march in step.” -0.34
29. Quite unpleasant ideas and assumptions promising trouble often come into my head. -0.33
30. I often feel worried and tense. -0.33
31. When starting something, I tune myself in advance to imminent problems and fierce struggle. -0.33
32. I always think through my work from the point of view of what claims could be made against it. -0.32
33. I often express my dissatisfaction aloud toward close ones for one reason or another. -0.31
34. I think I have more ill-wishers than friends. -0.31
35. In any person, I quickly and perceptively see all their weaknesses and shortcomings. -0.31
36. I see flaws and imperfections in things faster than others and want to correct them. -0.31
37. I pay much more attention to unpleasant bodily sensations (itching, tingling, numbness, vibration, pain, heaviness, etc.) than to pleasant ones. -0.30
38. I suffer from heat more than other people—cold is preferable. -0.30
39. I tolerate hot weather very poorly (probably worse than many others). -0.30
40. I am perceptive to human shortcomings and often pay attention to them. -0.30
41. I always feel very well the boundary between myself and the surrounding world, my own and others’ thoughts, myself and other people. -0.29
42. The world is getting worse with each passing day. -0.29
43. I can instantly see and detect hidden danger. -0.29
44. I cling to past grievances (for a long time I remember only HIS, HER, THEIR mistakes). -0.28
45. I am very rarely completely satisfied with the quality of what has been done. -0.28
46. I think a lot about intrigues in my environment. -0.28
47. I can cast doubt on and see weak sides in any action (in this I often surpass others). -0.28
48. If my friends are frightened, I usually understand this immediately, although I do not share their fear. -0.28
49. Troubles strongly lower my mood. -0.28
50. I like to draw attention to someone’s mistakes and argue with them. -0.27
51. I like, in public, to rub the nose of a person who has a formally higher status in their mistakes. -0.27
52. I recover from anger very slowly and with difficulty—others’ repentance and apologies are not enough; afterward I need to be left completely alone for a long time. -0.27
53. I have often been plagued by obsessive suspicions and anxieties. -0.27
54. Sudden discoveries more often evoke tense apprehension in me than anticipation of joy. -0.27
55. The role of a critic would suit me more than that of a mediator or arbiter. -0.26
56. I like to mentally identify sources of errors and delusions in people I know. -0.25
57. With my thought and gaze (whether external or internal), I constantly and intently “probe” the situation. -0.25
58. By ear, I quickly and accurately catch all those thoughts that the interlocutor is trying to squeeze into their speech. -0.25
59. My favorite occupation is to “expose” coincidences, to search for the barely noticeable regularities behind them. -0.24
60. I often assume there is some kind of catch if everything is going too smoothly and perfectly. -0.24
61. Pressuring me with emotions is useless—it will only provoke my disrespect. -0.23
62. Shifts toward a more negative mood in my partner I catch more easily and observantly than shifts toward a more joyful, more positive mood. -0.23
63. The word “must not” is used in speech more often than the word “may” (this refers to the averaged speech of people around you—think about it, evaluate it). -0.21
64. I often do not get enough sleep. -0.21

Pay attention to several important differences between this list and the previously presented list of questions on questimity.

• Many questions on questimity worked perfectly well without the word “often”—a single occurrence was sufficient for them. For questions on negativism, however, the word “often” in the formulations turns out to be almost obligatory.
• Questions on questimity almost did not concern forecasts about the future or outcomes of actions at all. In questions on negativism, by contrast, this is precisely what they primarily concern.

A forecast within the framework of negativism–positivism has a different, special meaning. It is not a substantive forecast, but merely an attitude, an expectation based on past experience of satisfactions and dissatisfactions (successes and failures)—that is, without any analysis of the object being forecast at all. This is precisely the difference between negativism and questimity. Questimity produces an evaluation, whereas negativism produces no evaluation at all; it merely uniformly shifts the criteria of any possible evaluations into the negative domain. Questim and declatim functions, on the other hand, are evaluative: they produce a separate reaction to each object and each individual concrete situation.

POSITIVISM:

1. I am more of an optimist than a pessimist. 0.72
2. Most often I am in a relaxed and bright mood. 0.58
3. My imagination has a more joyful than anxious tone. 0.53
4. Usually I see no dangers or problems at all, and in any case do not pay attention to them—life is beautiful! 0.52
5. I have a cheerful, light, and completely unobtrusive disposition; I know how to enjoy life and give joy to others. 0.51
6. I usually have an uplifted and cheerful background mood. 0.51
7. If I were a journalist, I would more often write about the merits of the surrounding life rather than about its shortcomings. 0.51
8. As a rule, I have an even, confident, calm, and optimistic mood. 0.51
9. I give optimistic advice more often than skeptical advice. 0.50
10. Bright joy or joyful clarity—call it what you will—but this is the usual background of my “daytime” mood. 0.50
11. I almost always have a bright, optimistic mood. 0.50
12. Which word is used more often in speech? – 1) Bad 5) Good 0.48
13. I almost never have a bad mood—I am, like an Airedale terrier, an optimist by nature. 0.46
14. I like to influence my partner’s psyche by improving it with my positive suggestions. 0.45
15. This resonates with me: “Think well of reality, and it will become what you want to see.” 0.45
16. I constantly see around me a diversity of positive possibilities. 0.45
17. My usual mood is joyfully uplifted. 0.45
18. What characterizes you more? 1) Distrustfulness. 5) Trustfulness. 0.43
19. I can quickly find my own advantage even in obvious disadvantages. 0.43
20. At first, I am more inclined toward acceptance than toward rejection. 0.41
21. I can find joy even in insignificant and ordinary events. 0.41
22. I am an optimist, confident in my health and my strength, striving for pleasant sensations; everything is fine with me. 0.41
23. Most of the time I am characterized by a feeling of comfort, satisfaction, contentment, happiness, relaxation, and optimism. 0.40
24. It is true that, as a rule, I do not feel a need to criticize or dispute anyone. 0.40
25. Usually (most of the time) I experience a feeling of inner peace, happiness, and harmony with my surroundings. 0.40
26. I can find advantages in things in which others do not find them. 0.39
27. Pleasant memories come into my head more often than unpleasant ones. 0.38
28. The phrase “what a beautiful day today!” comes easily to me. 0.37
29. I believe in the great power of suggestion and autosuggestion—of the kind “convince yourself that you can do it, and you will succeed.” 0.36
30. In my usual mood there is often a lot of carefree and “airy” euphoria. 0.36
31. I often experience a strong feeling of uplift, of approaching happiness. 0.34
32. I find arguments for agreement faster than for negation. 0.34
33. I am not vindictive and, depending on circumstances and tasks, I easily restructure my moral evaluations and my system of relations with people. 0.34
34. Thinking about the future, I usually see it in a “rose-colored” light. 0.34
35. When starting something, I believe in success and proceed from the assumption that things definitely will not get worse. 0.33
36. I often experience a feeling of pleasant anticipation, from which I cannot sit still and my heart pounds. 0.33
37. I am better than others at deriving pleasure from life. 0.33
38. Accepting the desired as the real is often possible and necessary—because one must believe in a dream, thereby bringing the real world closer to the imagined one. 0.32
39. How often do you listen to music on your own initiative (during work or leisure)? 1) No more than 10 times a year 2) On average once every week or two 3) On average once every two to four days 4) Almost daily 5) Practically daily and on average at least two hours per day 0.32
40. It is simultaneously true for me that I always believe in success and react with irritation to bad forecasts; I like it when my faith is shared and people take my word for it; I do not like to prove anything. 0.31
41. A usual state for me is emotional relaxation (the absence of any emotional tension) combined with confidence that everything will be fine. 0.31
42. I can derive pleasure from the smallest trifles. 0.31
43. I can tune myself to enjoyment of almost anything. 0.31
44. At times I pester people with various questions. 0.31
45. Sometimes in company I clown around a bit—I am not ashamed to be someone whom friends are always allowed to laugh at. 0.31
46. I am more often satisfied with results than dissatisfied. 0.31
47. First and foremost, I see what connects, unites, and brings people closer together, rather than what divides their interests. 0.30
48. As a rule, I initially see joyful hope where later I discover only disappointment. 0.30
49. If I hear dissatisfied remarks addressed to me, I never snap back; I take it quite calmly, as something natural. 0.30
50. I have a special interest, and perhaps even a talent (explicit or hidden), for architecture and architectural design. 0.30
51. I often forget and confuse people’s names. 0.29
52. I have certain “super-ideas” that are always pleasant to think about (it is enough to recall them, and I immediately feel a surge of excited pleasure). 0.29
53. I would gladly jump with a parachute from a great height. 0.29
54. I most often do not pay attention to, and do not react to, random minor violations of my personal rights. 0.29
55. I would like to be a magician (illusionist) by profession. 0.29
56. I am usually indifferent to most hints of possible danger and rarely perceive them. 0.28
57. I am not afraid of making mistakes and do not worry about them—search is for that. 0.27
58. I usually involuntarily smile when I am frightened. 0.26
59. I like films about the heroism of pioneers of the unknown. 0.26
60. Parting with money is already a sign of weakness; I try not to pay and to “tighten” expenditures whenever there is such a legal opportunity. 0.25
61. The emotional subtext of some event is either not noticed by me at all and passes by, or, on the contrary, remains in memory for a long time and intrusively. 0.24
62. I usually enjoy situations that prompt me to change some of my views. 0.24
63. By an effort of will, I can so “freeze” my state and all my perception that for a minute or two nothing at all happens in sensations, no movement, except for minor fluctuations of the visual image. 0.24
64. In my sleep, without waking up, I sometimes start speaking aloud. 0.23
65. I like tourism along various rivers, mountains, and wilds—that is, where it is difficult. 0.23
66. It is true that I usually do not see dangers where they exist, but often see them where they are in fact minimal. Well, this is difficult for me. 0.23
67. In my youth, I often fantasized about passionate heroic feats, such as the exploits of kamikaze pilots. 0.22
68. They say that I have a poor sense of danger and often underestimate it. 0.22
69. If as a result of a discussion I remain misunderstood, this neither surprises nor upsets me. 0.22
70. I greatly value and respect luckiness in people. 0.22
71. When I articulate my thoughts aloud, to enhance meaning I sometimes gesture demonstratively and “point” into space with an extended index finger. 0.21
72. I look optimistically at the consequences of any revolutionary changes in the world. 0.21
73. I reassure my friends more often than I warn them. 0.21
74. I am a completely non-envious person—if someone is lucky, that is merely a fact, not a reason for envy. 0.21