Humor Styles as Mediators Between Self-Evaluative Standards and Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

The authors examined how certain humor styles mediate the relations between self-evaluative standards (which form the primary evaluative component of the self-schema) and psychological well-being. As predicted, greater endorsement of positive self-evaluative standards led to the use of more affiliative humor, which, in turn, led to higher levels of social self-esteem and lower levels of depression. Also, as predicted, greater endorsement of negative self-evaluative standards led to the use of more self-defeating humor, which resulted in lower levels of social self-esteem and higher levels of depression. Further, affiliative humor also mediated the relation between negative self-evaluative standards and well-being. In this study, the greater endorsement of negative self-evaluative standards led to the use of less affiliative humor, which led to a decrease in social self-esteem. These results suggest that specific features associated with these 2 humor styles may contribute in a differential manner to an individual's level of well-being. In particular, the increased use of affiliative humor may facilitate the development and maintenance of social support networks that foster and enhance well-being. Alternatively, the greater use of self-defeating humor may result in the development of maladaptive social support networks that impede psychological well-being.