Negative affectivity and responses to work stressors: An experimental study

Abstract

An experiment tested the hypothesis that individuals high in negative affectivity (NA) show increased stress reactivity to stressors. There were three predictor variables: NA (measured 1 week prior to experimental participation), and two manipulated variables—demand (high/low) and behavioral control (high/low). First-year psychology students (n=256) were randomly allocated to one of the four experimental conditions. Measures obtained were initial and post-task negative mood, coping strategies, task satisfaction, and performance (subjective and objective). Participants with high levels of NA reported more post-task negative mood in response to high demand conditions, compared to participants with low NA. A similar pattern of results emerged for task satisfaction, particularly in response to high demand-low behavioral control situations. Mediation analyses suggested this was because participants with high NA used more emotion-focused coping strategies. The study provides support for the stress reactivity role of NA in the stressor-strain process.

Keywords:

• Negative affectivity
• stress reactivity
• demand
• control
• coping strategies

Notes

1. A second measure of quality of performance on the task assessed total qualitative task performance. It was computed as the sum of the qualitative ratings across all items (responses not completed received a score of 0). Hence, it took into account both the quantity and quality of performance. The total qualitative task performance score was not used in subsequent analyses because it was found to be highly correlated with the measure of quantitative task performance (r=0.94).