Measurement and nonmeasurement processes with negative affectivity and employee attitudes.

The partial-correlation approach to investigating negative affectivity (NA) is discussed, and 2 alternative latent-variable techniques are presented. The results of these 3 analytic techniques were compared using a data set consisting of NA, job satisfaction, affective commitment, role stressors, leader-member exchange, and job complexity. The findings using the partial-correlation technique supported a biasing effect of NA on relationships between the substantive variables. Alternatively, although 2 latent-variable approaches provided evidence consistent with the measurement contamination and substantive influences of NA, relationships between the predictors and outcomes were not biased by NA. Both the measurement and substantive relationships effects of NA found in this study and implications for future research on self-reports are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of relations between job stressors and job strains while controlling for prior negative affectivity and strains.

Interpretation of observed relations between job stressors and job strains in cross-sectional surveys is often ambiguous because of possible 3rd variables (both stable background factors, such as personality, and transitory occasion factors, such as mood). In this longitudinal study, negative affectivity (NA) and strains were assessed both in college and later on the job. Stressors were assessed only on the job. Evidence was found that some background factors affected measures of job stressors and job strains in that college measures were significantly related to subsequent measures on the job. Relations between job stressors and job strains, however, were in most cases not affected significantly when prior strains and NA were controlled for. Furthermore, the results suggested that NA measures are subject to occasion factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative affective spillover from daily events predicts early response to cognitive therapy for depression.

This study evaluated the predictive role of depressed outpatients' (N = 62) affective reactivity to daily stressors in their rates of improvement in cognitive therapy (CT). For 1 week before treatment, patients completed nightly electronic diaries that assessed daily stressors and negative affect (NA). The authors used multilevel modeling to compute each patient's within-day relationship between daily stressors and daily NA (within-day reactivity), as well as the relationship between daily stressors and next-day NA (next-day reactivity; affective spillover). In growth model analyses, the authors evaluated the predictive role of patients' NA reactivity in their early (Sessions 1-4) and late (Sessions 5-12) response to CT. Within-day NA reactivity did not predict early or late response to CT. However, next-day reactivity predicted early response to CT, such that patients who had greater NA spillover in response to negative events had a slower rate of symptom change during the first 4 sessions. Affective spillover did not influence later response to CT. The findings suggest that depressed patients who have difficulty bouncing back the next day from their NA reactions to a relative increase in daily negative events will respond less quickly to the early sessions of CT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dispositional affect and work-related stress.

Trait negative affectivity (NA) has been asserted to be a factor that spuriously inflates relationships between self-reported stressors and self-reported strain outcomes. This hypothesis was tested with conventional work stress instrument responses and physiological assessments obtained from 311 fire and police department employees. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that NA did not measure a factor in common with measures of subjective strain. Latent-variable structural equations analyses, however, found that estimating the effects of NA on strain significantly attenuated the effects of work stressors. NA had no correlation with physiological stress outcomes. Trait positive affectivity did not attenuate relationships between work stressors and either subjective or objective stress outcomes. Implications for work stress research methodology and recommendations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, Quantitative Workload Inventory, and Physical Symptoms Inventory.

Despite the widespread use of self-report measures of both job-related stressors and strains, relatively few carefully developed scales for which validity data exist are available. In this article, we discuss 3 job stressor scales (Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, and Quantitative Workload Inventory) and 1 job strain scale (Physical Symptoms Inventory). Using meta-analysis, we combined the results of 18 studies to provide estimates of relations between our scales and other variables. Data showed moderate convergent validity for the 3 job stressor scales, suggesting some objectivity to these self-reports. Norms for each scale are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physician satisfaction in a changing health care environment: the impact of challenges to professional autonomy, authority, and dominance

Despite the widespread use of self-report measures of both job-related stressors and strains, relatively few carefully developed scales for which validity data exist are available. In this article, we discuss 3 job stressor scales (Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, and Quantitative Workload Inventory) and 1 job strain scale (Physical Symptoms Inventory). Using meta-analysis, we combined the results of 18 studies to provide estimates of relations between our scales and other variables. Data showed moderate convergent validity for the 3 job stressor scales, suggesting some objectively to these self-reports. Norms for each scale are provided.     

The Impact of Sense of Coherence and Negative Affectivity on the Work Stressor-Strain Relationship.

This study investigated different ways in which work stressors, sense of coherence (SOC), and negative affectivity (NA) might influence strain. Three models covering direct, moderating, and mediating effects between the variables were tested for hyperresponsitivity, causality, perception, selection, and stressor-creation mechanisms. The sample consisted of 205 hospital employees (nurses, physicians, and medical technicians). Work stressors, SOC, NA, and strain were measured and analyzed in structural equation models and with analyses of variance. Besides direct effects on strain, significant perception, selection, and stressor-creation mechanisms of SOC could be identified. After controlling for SOC and NA, work stressors remain substantial predictors of strain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee personality as a moderator of the relationships between work stressors and counterproductive work behavior.

The current study, which is framed within the context of the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, examined counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) as a response to ineffective coping with work stressors. More specifically, we examined whether the relationship between work stressors and CWBs was moderated by employee personality. Analyses using data collected from 726 adults employed in a diverse set of occupations found that work stressors were more strongly related to CWBs among workers who were low in conscientiousness, or high in negative affectivity (NA) than among workers who were high in conscientiousness, or low in NA. We found less consistent support, however, for the moderating effects of agreeableness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of the role of negative affectivity on the work stressor–strain process.

A significant proportion of previous research in the occupational stress area has tended to treat the personality variable negative affectivity (NA) as a nuisance variable. This perspective has led researchers to routinely control for the effects of NA. However, P. E. Spector, D. Zapf, P. Y. Chen, and M. Frese (2000) have proposed a number of different mechanisms by which NA could have substantive effects. The current research used a longitudinal framework to test several competing mechanisms proposed by Spector et al. (specifically, the perception, hyperresponsivity, and causality mechanisms) on the relationship between work stressors and psychological well-being. Customs workers and dentists constituted the longitudinal sample (N = 345). Results provided strong support for the perception mechanism, indicating that the effects of NA on psychological health were partially mediated by work stressors. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of the perception mechanism to occupational health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of stressful daily events on mood states: relationship to global perceived stress

This study used experience sampling methodology to examine the relationship between stressful daily events and mood. Eighty-five male white-collar workers completed self-reports 10 times a day for 5 days. Controlling for individual differences in mood levels, multilevel regression analyses showed that events were followed by increases in negative affect (NA) and agitation (Ag) and by decreases in positive affect (PA). More unpleasant events were associated with greater changes in all three mood dimensions; controllability mitigated the effects of events on NA and PA. Prior events had persistent effects on current mood. High perceived stress (PS) was associated with greater reactivity of NA and PA to current events, whereas trait anxiety moderated reactivity of Ag. Results indicate that PS is related not only to a higher frequency of reported events but also to more intense and prolonged mood responses to daily stress.     

Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity.

Most current models in health psychology assume that stress adversely affects physical health. We re-examined this assumption by reviewing extensive data from the literature and from six samples of our own, in which we collected measures of personality, health and fitness, stress, and current emotional functioning. Results indicate that self-report health measures reflect a pervasive mood disposition of negative affectivity (NA); self-report stress scales also contain a substantial NA component. However, although NA is correlated with health complaint scales, it is not strongly or consistently related to actual, long-term health status, and thus will act as a general nuisance factor in health research. Because self-report measures of stress and health both contain a significant NA component, correlations between such measures likely overestimate the true association between stress and health. Results demonstrate the importance of including different types of health measures in health psychology research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding psychiatrists.

The relations between psychologists and psychiatrists especially in psychotherapy is discussed in the light of two premises (1) the medical responsibility of the psychiatrist, and (2) the inseparability of somatic and psychic illnesses. However, many problems fall into educational or social categories rather than illness. "… any attempt by psychologists to take over the diagnosis and treatment of… functional psychiatric disorders generally is bound to be regarded by the psychiatric speciality as a basic challenge to its function… and will surely lead to a major professional struggle between psychology and the whole of medicine." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Optimizing work performance: A look beyond the bottom line.

Reviews the book, Optimizing work performance: A look beyond the bottom line by Martin Morf (1986). This book is an interesting addition to the rapidly growing list of publications which deal with "improving performance" or "increasing productivity" in the workplace. It is an addition, however, for which an appropriate audience may be difficult to find. Indeed, in attempting to be "of particular interest to those involved in personnel, corporate organization, or industrial relations, as well as to scholars and students of organizational psychology", the book may fail to appeal strongly to any of these groups. This is unfortunate because Martin Morf makes a number of interesting comments in his book--particularly about the relationship between the individual, his or her work, and society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping ability, stress, productive load, and symptoms.

A study of 450 college students demonstrated (1) the importance of a distinction between self-produced and externally produced stressors, (2) the usefulness of a construct of productive load, and (3) stronger relations of the Constructive Thinking Inventory than of the Hardiness Questionnaire with productive load and with mental and physical symptoms. Because a major path through which coping ability influences symptoms is negative emotions, the widely recommended practice of partialing self-reported negative affect out of relations among coping, stress, and symptoms is often inappropriate. However, as total daily stressors (e.g., hassles) consist largely of self-produced stressors, it is highly confounded with coping ability, and it is therefore important to partial coping ability out of relations between total stressors and other variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A Dialectical Psychology.

Reviews the book, A Dialectical Psychology by Allan R. Buss (1979). This collection of papers, most of them previously published, covers topics as diverse as attribution theory, life-span development, humanistic psychology, history of differential psychology, interactionism, the relations of fact and theory and of individual and society, and the future of psychology in general. Those who seek in this book a dialectical psychology will find it neither explained nor exemplified. While interesting connections are drawn from time to time between psychological theory and the social-historical context, it is not clear what is so "critical" about the way in which they are drawn, nor does one ever attain the feeling of having been led very far beyond "mere surface appearance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of negative affect and self-perceived competence in young adolescents.

In a 4-wave, 2-year longitudinal design, the authors obtained measures of negative affect (NA) and self-perceived competence from 220 boys and 216 girls who were 7th graders at the beginning of this study. NA was operationalized as the common dimension underlying self-reports of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and negative emotions. Self-perceived competence consisted of 2 higher order constructs: a well-behaved/good-student factor and an attractive/athletic/popular factor. Structural equation modeling revealed very high stability estimates for all constructs. Nevertheless, self-perceived competence in the attractive/athletic/popular domain predicted changes in NA. Conversely, NA predicted changes in self-perceived competence in the well-behaved/good-student domain. The primacy of NA versus self-cognitions depends, in part, on the type of self-cognitions being examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on introspection.

Reviews theoretical positions on introspection and its methods and the validity of the observations gained. Whether introspection is a method at all, whether one can be trained to perform introspection, and what the results of the process are, are discussed. Introspection as data and introspection as a method are distinguished; "data" refers to the statements or reports of introspection which can be used and measured as can any behavior. Introspection as method, however, involves "data" accessible only by observation. Several classifications of introspective methods are proposed (self-observation, self-reports, and thinking aloud) and related to historical definitions of psychology (e.g., W. Wundt, E. B. Titchener, and J. B. Watson). It is concluded that arguments about introspection and its methods are merely a question of what one is interested in; introspection is a technique which yields information that cannot be obtained in another way and arguments over its validity or definition are theoretically unhelpful. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Frazier et al. (2011).

Reports an error in "Perceived past, present, and future control and adjustment to stressful life events" by Patricia Frazier, Nora Keenan, Samantha Anders, Sulani Perera, Sandra Shallcross and Samuel Hintz (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 100[4], 749-765). There is an error on page 758. In the sentence “Present control predicted later event-specific distress in Sample 1(β = .17, p 2011-02001-001.) Perceived control is a central construct in psychology and is key to understanding individual differences in poststress outcomes (Frazier, Berman, & Steward, 2001). The goals of the current studies (using 4 samples of undergraduate students, total N = 1,421) were to examine the relations between different aspects of perceived control and poststress outcomes and to differentiate perceived control over specific events from related constructs (i.e., general control beliefs, coping strategies). To accomplish these goals, we first developed a new measure of perceived past, present, and future control over stressful life events. The data supported the content validity, factor structure, internal consistency and test–retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the new measure. Consistent with the temporal model of control (Frazier et al., 2001), these 3 forms of control had very different relations with adjustment. Present control was consistently related to lower distress levels in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and prospective analyses. Present control also predicted outcomes beyond the effects of general control beliefs and coping strategies. Past and future control had nonsignificant or positive relations with distress, although future control was associated with better outcomes (i.e., course grades) when the stressor was controllable. Thus, our measure can be used to assess the relations between perceived past, present, and future control and outcomes across a range of stressors. Because the relations between these 3 forms of control and outcomes differ markedly, measures that combine these aspects of control hinder the understanding of the important role of perceived control in adjustment to stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping, negative affectivity, and the work environment: Additive and interactive predictors of mental health.

The present study tested the hypothesis that direct coping would moderate relations between work stress and mental health outcome, whereas suppression (a form of emotion-focused coping) would show an overall effect on outcome. Data on coping, perceived work demand and support, and affective symptoms were obtained from trainee teachers (N?=?157). The results supported the hypothesis. Gender differences also were observed; men reported more use of suppression than did women. In addition, negative affectivity (NA) was examined as a confounding variable and as an index of reactivity in stress–outcome relations. NA acted to inflate associations between work perceptions and affective symptoms, but it was also a significant moderator variable; high NA subjects showed greater reactivity to work demand than did low NA subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology without p values: Data analysis at the turn of the 19th Century.

Although the fledgling psychology of 100 years ago was assertively empirical, there were no inferential statistics to guide psychologists' data analyses. However, l9th-century developments had left psychology with a rich array of techniques for analyzing and presenting data, some of which remain underutilized today. These include comparisons across replications, within-subject designs, reanalyses of data, analyses of factorial designs, and especially the use of tables and graphs. As the merits of hypothesis-testing statistics are debated at the turn of the 21st century, the history of data-handling practices can remind psychologists that there are many ways to overcome the current uniformity of statistical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)