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The positive effects of humor on affect and coping skills

The present study examined the relationship of sense of humor to affect and coping with humor ability. The participants were 147 Introductory Psychology students from Ball State University. Participants first took the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ: Martin & Lefcourt, 1984), then observed 1 of 3 videos (i.e., sad, neutral, or humorous), which was then followed by the Coping with Humor Scale (CHS: Martin & Lefcourt, 1983) and the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL: Zuckerman & Lubin, 1965). The results indicate that sense of humor is inversely related to depression and hostility regardless of video condition but not with anxiety. Low sense of humor participants were influenced greatly as a function of the video condition but the high sense of humor paticipants were not. High sense of humor paticipants used humor to cope more than the low sense of humor participants in the sad video condition. The findings indicate that sense of humor is strongly related to depression, that depression levels can be reduced with a humor stimulus, and that those with a high sense of humor are more likely to use humor to cope with problems. / Department of Psychological Science

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/186053
Date January 1997
CreatorsSpatny, Jerry
ContributorsBall State University. Dept. of Psychological Science., Deckers, Lambert H.
Source SetsBall State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Formatiii, 67 leaves ; 28 cm.
SourceVirtual Press

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