ON BABIES AND BATHWATER - DISEASE IMPACT AND NEGATIVE AFFECTIVITY IN THE SELF-REPORTS OF PERSONS WITH RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

The degree to which self-reports of health and functioning reflect neg ative affectivity (NA), a dispositional tendency to emphasize the nega tive, was examined with data from a 7-year longitudinal study of adapt ation to rheumatoid arthritis. Principal component analyses performed on each of 8 waves of data consistently indicated that the dominant fa ctor in these data was defined by measures of pain and functional impa irment. In the final wave, Disease Impact, a scale derived from this c omponent, was directly compared to NA. The 2 scales demonstrated consi derable discriminant validity, and most of the significant intercorrel ations among Disease Impact and the other variables examined remained statistically significant after the influence of NA was partialed out. These results suggest that reports of pain, impairment, and associate d variables reflected disease-related outcomes and processes and not s imply NA.