THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE AFFECTIVITY ON STRESSOR STRAIN RELATIONS - A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION

The present study was a replication and extension of the results of Br ief et al. (1988), who found that partialling out negative affectivity reduced the magnitude of stressor-strain correlations considerably. T he effect of both trait anxiety and dispositional optimism was partial led out from stressor-strain correlations. Unlike Brief et al. (1988), however, work stress was measured with specific stressor scales rathe r than life events. Results from two samples of university employees s howed that partialling out trait anxiety, dispositional optimism, or b oth, reduced the magnitude of stressor-strain correlations very little . Thus, it does not appear that stressor-strain correlations can be at tributed to negative affectivity. The possibility that the results of the study by Brief et al. (1988) may have been due to problems with th e life events approach used to measure work stress is discussed. Futur e research on the impact of dispositions is suggested.