The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of humor as a coping strategy among Hurricane Katrina survivors. The data for this study were collected in the first wave of a larger project on families and disasters. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by combining Census data with storm damage estimates and purposive sampling, 50 participants affected by Hurricane Katrina from a single suburban community in Southern Louisiana in early spring 2006 were recruited and interviewed. When the interviews were qualitatively analyzed with a focus on humor, it became clear that families used humor even at such a devastating time. Based on a prior empirical conceptualization, five types of humor were found: language, expressive, impersonation, low humor and other orientation. The most frequent type of humor used was language with expressive humor as the second-most often used type of humor. The two new types of humor that emerged were post-disaster life and financial concerns. Because most of the families used humor in dealing with the devastation of the storm, disaster management professionals, including relief workers, should at the very least expect humor and might even encourage it depending on the situation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04162010-160714 |
| Date | 26 April 2010 |
| Creators | O'Connor, Bridgette Boe |
| Contributors | Sasser, Diane, Marks, Loren, Garrison, Mary Elizabeth |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04162010-160714/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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