Should Negative Affectivity Remain an Unmeasured Variable in the Study of Job Stress?

We predicted that the dispositional construct negative affectivity (NA) would be related to self-report measures of job stress and job strain and that observed relationships between these stress and strain measures would be inflated considerably by NA. Results of a study of 497 managers and professionals were largely consistent with those expectations. Thus, we discuss implications for NA as both a methodological nuisance and a substantive cause of stressful work events, and conclude that NA should no longer remain an unmeasured variable in the study of job stress.