Sense of humour and enhanced quality of life

Abstract

The present study focussed on the relationship between sense of humour and positive quality of life indicators, including personal role evaluations and positive affect in response to life events. To test these relationships, participants in this study completed a set of individual difference measures of humour and indicated the positive and negative life events that had occured to them in the past month. Important self-descriptive roles were also selected from a large, representative set, with participants then rating the degree of satisfaction and pleasantness associated with these roles. Finally, participants completed separate measures of positive and negative affect each day for a 2-week period. Overall, the findings offered empirical support for the proposal that greater humour facilities a more positive orientation towards life. With respect to role evaluations, for example, more humorous individuals rated their personal roles as significantly more pleasant and satisfying than less humorous individuals. Similarily, only those individuals with high levels of humour displayed higher levels of positive affect in response to more positive life events. Furthermore, when faced with negative life events, more humorous individuals continued to display high levels of positive affect, whereas those individuals with a poor sense of humour showed much lower levels of positive affect responding. These findings were then discussed in terms of the positive and beneficial aspects of humour on quality of life, with further directions for theory and research suggested.