Self-enhancing Humor Styles Research Articles

The impact of leader’s humor styles on creativity and work engagement of call center employees in Jakarta

This study aimed to analyze the impact of a leader's humor style dimensions: affiliate humor style, self-enhancing humor styles, aggressive humor styles, and self-defeating humor style on creativity and work engagement. Data collected from 138 call centers from some of the Cell Phone Companies in Jakarta. The data collection technique used in this study is non-probability sampling with a purposive sampling method. The techniques used to analyze this research are instrumental tests such as validity, reliability, and hypothesis testing using Multiple Regressions with SPSS 25. The results of hypothesis testing in this investigation indicate that there is a positive effect of affiliate humor style on creativity and work engagement, a positive effect of self-enhancing humor style to creativity and a negative effect to work engagement, an adverse effect of aggressive humor style on creativity and work engagement, and a negative effect self-defeating humor style on creativity and work engagement. Managerial implications can be given so the leaders can use appropriate humor styles to increase employee's spirit in the workplace.

Humor Styles Are Related to Loneliness Across 15 Countries.

The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower self-enhancing, and higher self-defeating humor style scores had higher loneliness scores. The results suggest that although national mean differences may be present, the pattern of relationships between humor styles and loneliness is consistent across these diverse samples, providing some suggestions for mental health promotion among lonely individuals.

Comparison of Sense of Humor and Burnout in Surgeons and Internal Medicine Physicians.

We aimed to evaluate humor styles in surgeons and internists and investigate the association between humor and burnout. A cross-sectional survey of physicians in surgical and medicine departments was conducted, assessing sense of humor and burnout using the Humor Styles Questionnaire and the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel. For 131 surgeons and 72 internists, no differences in humor styles were found. A sense of personal accomplishment was more common among surgeons (<i>P =</i> 0.03) and rates of burnout were lower for surgeons (<i>P =</i> 0.02). Physicians with a higher-than-average score in affiliative and self-enhancing humor were less likely to suffer from burnout (<i>P &lt;</i> 0.0001 and <i>P =</i> 0.03, respectively). Surgeons and internists have similar styles of humor. Surgeons suffer less from burnout. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles are associated with reduced burnout.

Örgütsel Muhalefeti İfade Etmenin Bir Yolu Olarak Mizahı Kullanma

Çalışmanın amacı, bireylerin mizahı kullanma biçiminin örgütsel muhalefet davranışları üzerindeki etkisini incelemektir. Bir devlet üniversitesinin çeşitli birimlerindeki akademik ve idari personel ile gerçekleştirilen bu çalışmada, bireylerin memnuniyetsizliklerini bildirirken hangi tür muhalefet davranışını sergiledikleri ve mizahı muhalefet mesajı olarak kullanıp kullanmadıkları araştırılmıştır. 152 akademik ve idari personelden gönüllülük temelinde toplanan verilerle gerçekleştirilen regresyon analizleri sonucunda, bireylerin mizahı kullanma biçiminin örgütsel muhalefet davranışlarının sergilenmesinde etkisi olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bireylerin kendini geliştirici mizah tarzına sahip oldukları durumda açık muhalefet stratejisi izledikleri ve dışsal muhalefet davranışından uzaklaştıkları görülmüştür.

Comedy Bootcamp: stand-up comedy as humor training for military populations

Abstract This paper details the results of an 18-month program impact evaluation (n = 72) on Armed Services Arts Partnership’s “Comedy Bootcamp,” a popular stand-up comedy course specifically tailored to military veterans. Based on literature around the benefits of sense of humor and humor training (e.g., 7 Humor Habits), we anticipated that participants in Comedy Bootcamp would show greater well-being relative to a control group, and that this effect would be mediated by an increase in sense of humor (i.e., self-enhancing humor style). Results largely supported the hypotheses, showing that Comedy Bootcamp participants experienced an increased self-enhancing humor style, which in turn yielded improved self-esteem, resilience, depression, and stress (though not anxiety). Further, longitudinal analyses demonstrated the benefits of the program persist at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Fear of being laughed at in Italian healthcare workers: Testing associationswith humor styles and coping humor.

Humor is a strategy that healthcare workers can use to help patients cope with stress and manage complex situations. However, people differ in how they deal with laughter. Our aim was to investigate gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) among healthcare professionals and its relationships with humor styles and inclinations to use humor for coping. A sample of 550 Italian healthcare-workers was assigned to three groups: Professional Hospital Clown Group (PHCG, people who trained as professional clown in health-care setting), Humor Training Group (HTG, people who attended health-care relevant training courses related to humor), or Control Group (CG, people who attended healthcare or professional training courses not related to humor), and provided self-reports in the GELOPH < 15 > , the Coping Humor Scale, and the Humor Style Questionnaire. Participants from humor-related interventions, in particular PHCG, were lower in gelotophobia and used humor as a coping strategy. Gelotophobia correlated negatively with coping humor, and affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles. We discuss the findings with regard to the use of humor and laughter in healthcare settings.

Relationship between humor styles and alternative five factors of personality

The aim of this study is to investigate relations between humor styles and Alternative Five-Factor Model of personality traits and to explain relations between personality and humor style on the basis of the idea of individual differences in optimal cortical arousal. Participants (N = 253) completed Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Auja Personality Questionnaire-Short Form and the Humor Style Questionnaire. Sensation Seeking was identified as a principal personality variable that correlated significantly with each humor style. Affiliative (0.57) and self-enhancing humor styles (0.47) both correlated strongly with Extraversion. A lower positive correlation was found between the aggressive humor style and Aggressiveness (0.22). Self-defeating humor style correlated positively with Neuroticism (0.33). Multiple regression analysis showed a good predictive power of alternative five personality traits for all humor styles. Factor analysis found both benign humor styles located in the Extraversion, self-defeating style in the Neuroticism and aggressive style in the Sensation Seeking factor.In general, the results suggest that cortical arousal might be an underlying variable common for each of the four humor styles. It can be concluded that the AFFM could be a useful framework for understanding the nature of humor styles.

Impact of Social Anxiety and Humor Styles on Mental Health

The present study is a “cross-sectional survey research”; aimed toward monitoring the impact of Social Anxiety and Humor Styles on Mental Health. For the study, 500 subjects (205 males, 295 females) were approached. The sample was obtained through the use of random sampling. “The age range” of the applicants was as of 18 to 31 years. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale by Michael Liebowitz was used to measure the Social Anxiety among the participants, the “four Humor Styles (Affiliative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive and Self-defeating)” be measured by means of Humor Style Questionnaire by Dr. Rod A. Martin, and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) by Veit and Ware was used to measure the Mental Health of the research participants. Results of the study revealed that Social Anxiety and Humor Styles have a significant impact on Mental Health. The study further monitored how men and women differ in terms of Social Anxiety, Humor Styles and Mental Health. The findings suggested that no gender differences exist in Social Anxiety and Mental Health. As far as the four Humor Styles are concerned, no gender difference was found in “Aggressive and Self-enhancing Humor Styles”; while Affiliative and “Self-defeating Humor Styles” varied in terms of gender. The findings of the study suggested that make use of the “Adaptive Humor Styles Affiliative and Self-enhancing” lessens the Social Anxiety and causes amelioration in the Mental Health; while the use of “Mal-adaptive Humor Styles (Aggressive and Self-defeating)” exacerbates the Social Anxiety and causes deterioration in the Mental Health.

Hindrance stressors, ego depletion and knowledge sharing

Purpose This study aims to use the ego depletion theory to examine the impact of hindrance stressors on knowledge sharing behaviors by investigating the mediating role of ego depletion and the moderating role of self-enhancing humor. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from a two-wave sample of 226 dyads, including employees in the manufacturing industry and their direct supervisors. The hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression analyzes and Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Findings The results demonstrated that employees’ self-enhancing humor style could alleviate the impact of hindrance stressors on employees’ ego depletion state and buffer the negative indirect effect of hindrance stressors on employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviors. Research limitations/implications Although the authors collected mediator and dependent variables from different sources, this study used a cross-sectional research design, making it difficult to draw causal conclusions. Besides, hindrance stressors, ego depletion and self-enhancing humor style were all reported by employees. Originality/value Through the study, the authors highlight the important role of the self-control view in explaining proactive behavior in the workplace and a great awareness of the unforeseeable consequences of ego depletion for employees.

Humor Use in School Settings: The Perceptions of Teachers

This study investigated teachers’ use of humor in school settings. Eleven lower secondary school teachers from different branches volunteered in this qualitative study. I collected data through individual, face-to-face interviews and used content and descriptive analysis methods for data analysis. In conclusion, the participants mostly said that they generally used positive humor types for useful goals in school settings. The results regarding the participants’ goals of humor usage indicated that using positive humor types in the styles of affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor can be useful for managerial and pedagogical efficiency in schools. As for the results of the metaphorical analysis, participants mainly use positive humor and, to some extent, situational humor. Affiliative humor style was the most preferred one. The results also implied that some participants use self-enhancing humor style and aggressive humor style as well. Overall, this research offers a more complete and detailed understanding of teachers’ use of humor in school settings and can be used to guide teachers and school administrators who want to use humor effectively in both managerial and educational contexts.

Humor styles predict emotional and behavioral responses to COVID-19

Abstract A correlational study (n = 180 adults) in the United States tested the hypothesis that self-directed humor styles predict emotional responses to COVID-19, specifically stress and hopelessness, and in turn predict engagement in protective behaviors. Results from a sequential mediation analysis supported our hypotheses. First, to the extent that people have a self-enhancing humor style they perceived less stress and hopelessness associated with COVID-19 and as a result reported engaging in more protective behaviors. Second, people higher in self-defeating humor style showed the opposite pattern; they perceived more stress and hopelessness due to COVID-19 and thus reported engaging in less protective behaviors. Implications for theory and application are discussed.

A Study on Humor Styles of Teacher Candidates

A teacher should have adaptive humor styles as well as knowledge, skills and attitudes about their profession. Humor styles affect many behaviors; from the relationships that teachers establish with their students to their characteristics. For this reason, this research was carried out to determine the humor styles of teacher candidates. 491 Teacher candidates have participated in this study, who were 3rd and 4th grade students in the faculty of education at 2 universities in Turkey. The researcher used the general survey model for the study. Data were collected using the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) developed by Martin et al. (2003). Findings showed that teacher candidates with the affiliative humor style had the highest average, those with the aggressive humor style had the lowest average. The averages of those with self-enhancing and self-defeating humor style were moderate. It was interpreted as positive that the average of those with self-enhancing humor style was high, as negative that the average of those with self-defeating humor style was moderate, and as positive the average of those with self-defeating humor style was low.

Depressogenic traits and depression: Are humor styles mediators?

Abstract Depressogenic traits are personality dispositions that put individuals at a higher risk for developing depression. Measured by the Depressive Experience Questionnaire (DEQ), self-criticism and dependency are two personality traits that are closely related to depression. The current study explored humor styles as potential mediating factors in the relationship between depressogenic traits and depression. Study 1: Given that the traditional Chinese version of the DEQ had not been validated psychometrically, we first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to determine the most appropriate DEQ scoring system among the existing ones. The results indicated that the reconstructed DEQ had the best psychometric properties for the traditional Chinese version of the DEQ. Study 2: The potential mediating effect of humor styles in the relationship between depressogenic traits and depression was examined. Results showed that two benign humor styles, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles, mediated the relationship between depressogenic traits (both self-criticism and dependency) and depression. The mediational strength was stronger for self-enhancing than for affiliative humor style. Malign humor styles, aggressive and self-defeating humor styles, did not emerge as mediators. Research and clinical implications for the findings were discussed.

Gaya Humor Mahalabiu

Humor has two types; there is a positive humor style, an affiliative and self-enhancing humor style, and a negative humor style. It is an aggressive and self-defeating humor style. Mahalabiu is a type of oral literature that contains a dual meaning (ambiguous), having a speech meaning. Usually, the listener defines another meaning or purpose behind Mahalabiu's humor. This study aims to describe Mahalabiu humor as a Banjarese people culture, whether Mahalabiu is a positive or negative style of humor. This research method is qualitative phenomenologies with data collection techniques using interviews as a significant technique and observations. Based on the results of the interview with Informant in this study, there were three people: the type of interview used is a semi-structured interview—the method of observation as a supporting method for understanding more in-depth information related to Mahalabiu humor. Interviews were conducted with three speakers who knew Mahalabiu Humor; they are one cultural expert in South Kalimantan, 1 Banjar Language expert, and 1 Banjar Language expert who is also a native of Alabi. Based on the research results, Mahalabiu humor style has its humor style, which can be positive and negative depending on who is presenting at the right time. Where Mahalabiu has its characteristics in which Mahalabiu depends on the person who delivered it, and depending on the situation, if the moment is right, then it might be that Mahalabiu becomes humorous affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor. However, if the moment is not right then, Mahalabiu will become aggressive humor and self-defeating humor .

Humor Styles as New Resources in a Primary Preventive Perspective: Reducing Resistance to Change for Negotiation.

Reducing resistance to change is fundamental to dealing with the rapid and continuous changes of the 21st century labor market. Personality traits have been widely studied in relation to resistance to change. However, personality is not completely suitable for primary prevention intervention, since it does not change over time. Instead, humor styles appear to be a promising preventive resource to facilitate the negotiation process by enabling individuals to cope with the current work environment. Using a sample of 149 university students, this study analyzed the relationship between personality traits, such as extraversion and emotionality, humor styles, and resistance to change. The mediation analysis highlighted that both affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles could promote integrative negotiations within organizations in relation to change, due to their negative relationships with resistance to change. Thus, implementing dedicated interventions to increase the usage of affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles could help in lowering the failure risk in negotiation processes, supporting changes.

I nearly died laughing: Humor in funeral industry operators

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of humor in working environments in which professionals are constantly exposed to death, bereavement and to human suffering and its use in negotiating work experiences by workers. This study includes a qualitative research design with semi-structured interviews and focus groups as research tools. The sample involved 55 workers (54.5% males) who hold managerial, supervisorial and operatorial positions in four funeral industry sectors: morgues, cemeteries, funeral services and crematoria services. Template analysis technique was used to analyze the collected data. The study recognized different forms of humor which funeral professionals can use in facing daily contact with death. Nine themes were identified as humorous expressions in the workplace. Three sub-categories of the affiliative style (camaraderie, pranks and laughing along with other professionals) were identified, as well as six sub-themes of the self-enhancing humor style (cadaveric rhetoric, raw language, laughing along with clients, tragicomedy, context ambiguity and the undertaker’s humor) and one category (cynicism) of the aggressive style. A further theme labelled “behind the curtains” was identified as crosscutting to all four categories. The results of this study contribute to the functional and dysfunctional use of humor in work contexts, especially in those contexts where workers deal with death and bereavement on a daily basis. The peculiarity of this research concerns the work context studied, given that limited literature is found in regards.

Investigation of High School Students' Level of Cognitive Flexibility in Terms of Gender and Humor Styles

Bu çalışmanın amacı, lise öğrencilerinin bilişsel esneklik düzeyleri ile mizah tarzları arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesidir. Bu amaçla araştırmaya 402 lise öğrencisi katılmıştır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak Bilişsel Esneklik Ölçeği ve Mizah Tarzları Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada lise öğrencilerinin bilişsel esneklik düzeyleri ile katılımcı mizah tarzları arasında ve bilişsel esneklik düzeyleri ile kendini geliştirici mizah tarzları arasında pozitif yönde anlamlı bir ilişki bulunurken; bilişsel esneklik düzeyleri ile saldırgan mizah tarzları arasında negatif yönde anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmuştur. Araştırma sonucunda lise öğrencilerinin bilişsel esneklik düzeyleri ve kendini geliştirici mizah tarzlarının cinsiyet değişkenine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermediği görülmüştür. Araştırmada katılımcı mizah tarzının kız öğrenciler lehine anlamlı düzeyde farklılaştığı sonucuna ulaşılırken; saldırgan mizah ve kendini yıkıcı mizah tarzının erkek öğrenciler lehine anlamlı düzeyde farklılaştığı belirlenmiştir. Araştırma bulguları, ilgili literatür çerçevesinde tartışılmış ve öneriler sunulmuştur.

THE EFFECT OF HUMOR STYLES OF PREGNANT WOMEN ON DISTRESS

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the effect of pregnant women’s humor styles on distress. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted on pregnant women who have applied to the Maternity Hospital Non-stress Test unit in the city of Erzurum from 1 August 2014 to 31 December 2014. A total of 301 pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria participated in the study. Data were collected using the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale (TPDS) and Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). For statistical analysis, percentages, means, and Pearson, r correlation were used. Results: There was a negative (r= -0.149, p=0.01) relationship between a self-enhancing humor style and distress level. A negative significant correlation was found between the partner involvement sub-dimension and participatory (r= -0.270, p=0.000), self-enhancing (r= -0.289, p=0.000) and self-destructive humor styles (r= -0.156, p=0.007). Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between an aggressive humor style and the negative emotion sub-dimension (r=0.136, p=0.018). Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was determined that the use of positive humor styles by pregnant women was higher and their distress levels were low. Furthermore, as the use of a positive humor style increased, the level of distress decreased.

White-Matter Structural Connectivity in Relation to Humor Styles: An Exploratory Study.

To investigate the potential relationship between white matter (WM) microstructure and humor styles, diffusion tensor images of brain WM and humor style tendencies were obtained from thirty healthy adults. Using connectivity efficiency measures from graph theoretical analysis and controlling for the influence of gender, age, educational level, and the big five personality traits, we preliminarily examined the prediction of humor styles from brain network efficiency. The results showed that the local efficiency within particular brain networks positively predicted a self-enhancing humor style and negatively predicted an aggressive humor style. The node efficiency of the left superior temporal gyrus distinguished the benevolent or hostile way that individuals coped with interpersonal embarrassment. These findings from this exploratory study support the hypothesis that WM structure influences humor styles, and provide the initial evidence and implications regarding the relationship between biological mechanisms and mental health for future research.

The relationship between self-enhancing humor and precuneus volume in young healthy individuals with high and low cognitive empathy

A self-enhancing humor style (SEHS) plays an important role in the regulation of negative emotion through humorous perspective-taking. Following the mind-reading theories of humor, we investigated the relationship between gray-matter volume (GMV) of brain areas related to theory of mind and SEHS in young college students, using voxel-based morphometry analysis. We then performed a voxel-wise analysis of covariance to assess any moderation effect of cognitive empathy on the relationship. Results demonstrated that higher SEHS scores were associated with larger GMV of the precuneus in the group with high cognitive empathy, but there was no association in the group with low cognitive empathy. These results suggest that high cognitive empathy and increased precuneus volume can predict greater use of self-enhancing humor in young healthy individuals.