scholarly journals The Conceptualization, Measurement, and Role of Humor as a Character Strength in Positive Psychology

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim R. Edwards ◽  
Rod A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Humor Styles ◽  
Prediction Of Outcome ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Character Strength

In positive psychology, humor has been identified as one of 24 character strengths considered ubiquitously important for human flourishing. Unlike the other strengths, humor was a late addition to this classification system and its status as a strength continues to be somewhat controversial. Therefore, the first purpose of this study was to explore the associations between humor and several outcome variables of relevance to positive psychology (happiness, routes to happiness, resilience, and morality). The second purpose was to explore how best to conceptualize and measure humor as a character strength by comparing the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) Humor Scale with the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) in their ability to predict the outcome variables. A sample of 176 participants completed questionnaires assessing the humor and positive psychology constructs. The results indicated that the humor measures significantly predicted most of the outcome variables, supporting the importance of humor in positive psychology. Furthermore, although the VIA-IS Humor scale and positive humor styles on the HSQ showed considerable overlap, the negative humor styles added significantly to the prediction of outcome variables beyond these positive humor measures, supporting the importance of assessing maladaptive as well as adaptive uses of humor in research on positive psychology. These findings suggest that the HSQ may be a more useful measure than the VIA-IS Humor scale in future research in this field.

How Politics and Institutions Shape Poverty and Inequality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Brady ◽  
Agnes Blome ◽  
Hanna Kleider
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
State Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Key Concepts

This article explores the influence of politics and institutions on poverty and inequality. It first considers the general contention that poverty is shaped by the combination of power resources and institutions. On one hand, scholars in the power resources tradition have emphasized the role of class-based collective political actors for mobilizing “power resources” in the state and economy. On the other hand, institutionalists have highlighted the role of formal rules and regulations. The article goes on to discuss the theoretical arguments of power resources theory and the evidence for key power resources (that is, collective political actors like labor unions and parties). It also reviews institutional explanations, focusing on the key concepts and theories and as well as the evidence linking the most salient institutions to poverty. Finally, it examines how state policy influences poverty and presents several challenges for future research.

scholarly journals A survey of social media use in emergency situations: A literature review

2020 ◽  
pp. 026666692091389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najeeb Gambo Abdulhamid ◽  
Daniel Azerikatoa Ayoung ◽  
Armin Kashefi ◽  
Boyce Sigweni
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Areas Of Interest

This study reviews literature on the use of Social Media (SM) in emergency response operations while identifying gaps in this research stream that need attention from Information Systems (IS) researchers. The research is grounded in past works and attempts to build on research on the application of SM in emergencies. It focuses on understanding the role of SM in the prevention, management and response to emergencies. The review contains a detailed literature exposition of IS and disasters journals. The appraisal of such research stream led the review to focus on the concept of digital volunteerism as an offshoot of crowdsourcing initiatives. Findings from the review reveal that previous studies overlooked the interfacing challenges between formal and traditional aid agencies on one hand and digital humanitarians on the other. Consequently, we identify gaps in the extant literature and propose areas of interest for future research.

The Emerging Science of Virtue

2020 ◽  
pp. 174569162092447
Author(s):  
Blaine J. Fowers ◽  
Jason S. Carroll ◽  
Nathan D. Leonhardt ◽  
Bradford Cokelet
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Mature Science

Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact–value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute E udaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.

scholarly journals Strength-based interventions

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
René T Proyer ◽  
Fabian Gander ◽  
Nancy Tandler
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
Review Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Gifted Children ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Positive Psychology Interventions ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
Future Research Directions

Positive psychology has revived psychology’s abandoned interest in the study of morally positively valued traits (the so-called character strengths) and virtues. We review literature generated on strength-based approaches and focus on applications in the so-called positive psychology interventions. There seems to be great potential in this approach for research in the field of giftedness and, of course, also when practically working with gifted children and adolescents. We highlight some ideas for future research directions.

Gender Differences and Socioeconomic Status Biases in Judgments About Blame in Date Rape Scenarios

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Black ◽  
David J. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Date Rape ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Bus Driver

Participants (80 men, 80 women) read hypothetical date rape scenarios, wherein the perpetrator’s socioeconomic status (bus driver versus doctor) and the victim’s level of resistance (verbal versus verbal and physical) were varied, and made judgments about who was at fault and what the consequences should be. In general, men assigned more blame to the victim and less blame to the perpetrator than did women. However, men assigned more blame to the bus driver than to the doctor. Women, on the other hand, assigned more blame to the victim who was raped by the bus driver than to the victim who was raped by the doctor. The results also indicated that participants recommended harsher punishments for the perpetrator when the victim resisted verbally than when she resisted verbally and physically. Future research on the role of the perpetrator’s, the victim’s, and the participants’ socioeconomic status in judgments about date rape is suggested.

scholarly journals Humor styles and empathy in junior-school children

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-166
Author(s):  
Caitlin Charlotte Halfpenny ◽  
Lucy Amelia James
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
School Children ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Humor Styles ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Aggressive Humor

Humor is a complex phenomenon. For one individual a joke may be perceived as comical, yet for another, the same joke may be deemed completely inappropriate. The appropriate use of humor is perhaps dependent on how a humorist relates to, understands and can empathize with their audience. Thus, the present research aimed to determine whether empathy is related to junior-school children’s use of different humor styles. It has been proposed that four styles of humor exist, two of which are thought to be adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two of which are thought to be maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating). However, research exploring the role of humor styles in younger children’s development has been limited. To investigate this the Humor Styles Questionnaire for young children (HSQ-Y) and the Thinking and Feeling Questionnaire were administered to 214 UK children aged 9-11 years old. Correlational analyses revealed that self-enhancing humor is associated with cognitive empathy, affective empathy and sympathy, affiliative humor is positively associated with cognitive empathy specifically and aggressive humor is negatively associated with affective empathy and sympathy. Possible explanations for these associations are explored, with a consideration of the direction for future research in this predominantly unexplored field of study.

scholarly journals The Role of Experiential Learning on Students’ Motivation and Classroom Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangtao Kong
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Method ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Classroom Engagement ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Determining Factor

Due to the birth of positive psychology in the process of education, classroom engagement has been flourished and got a remarkable role in the academic field. The other significant determining factor of success in education is motivation which is in line with classroom engagement. Moreover, based on the constructivist approach, experiential learning (EL) as a new method in education and a learner-centric pedagogy is at the center of attention, as a result of its contributions to improving the value of education which centers on developing abilities, and experiences. The current review makes an effort to consider the role of EL on students’ classroom engagement and motivation by inspecting its backgrounds and values. Subsequently, the efficacy of findings for academic experts in educational contexts is discussed.

scholarly journals Primal world beliefs correlate strongly but differentially with character strengths

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Stahlmann ◽  
Willibald Ruch
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Safe Place ◽  
Place Theory ◽  
Personality Differences ◽  
The World ◽  
German Speaking

Primal world beliefs–primals–are a category of beliefs about the overall character of the world (e.g., the world is a safe place). Theory suggests that such beliefs drive personality development–or at least reflect personality differences, such as character strengths. We examined the relationships of primals with character strengths among 1122 German-speaking adults. The primary primal good explained the most variance in the majority of character strengths, especially hope, spirituality, zest, gratitude, curiosity, and leadership. Including specific secondary (e.g., safe, enticing, alive) and tertiary primals (e.g., beautiful, needs me, funny) often yielded better predictions, but, with few exceptions, increments were typically smaller than that of the primary primal. We recommend including these primals in positive psychology interventions and describe three couplings of primals and character strengths that may prove especially fruitful for future research and practice.

Classifying and Measuring Strengths of Character

2009 ◽  
pp. 24-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Peterson ◽  
Nansook Park
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Life Worth Living ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Via Classification

What is the good of a person? Answers to this question lie at the heart of traditional moral philosophy as well as contemporary positive psychology. For the past few years, we have been involved in a project describing important strengths of character and ways to measure them. Our research program is sometimes identified as the Values in Action (VIA) project. The VIA classification includes two dozen strengths of character on which our research has focused. Various VIA measures comprise a family of assessment devices that measure individual differences in the strengths in the classification. The present contribution describes the process by which the VIA classification was created, the ways character strengths are measured, and empirical findings: distribution and demographics; correlates and consequences; origins and development; deliberate cultivation; interventions; and structure and trade-offs. Work is ongoing to refine our measures and to use empirical findings to generate theory. Especially important lines of future research include the relationship of character strengths to hard outcome measures, cultural differences and similarities, development, interventions, and the processes by which strengths of character give rise to actual behavior. Our project supports the premise of positive psychology that attention to good character sheds light on what makes life worth living.

scholarly journals Sensory functions of the liver--a review

1979 ◽  
Vol 236 (1) ◽  
pp. R5-R20 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Sawchenko ◽  
M. I. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Venous Pressure ◽  
Hepatic Metabolism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sensory Receptors ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Afferent Innervation ◽  
Lines Of Evidence ◽  
Sensory Functions

In this paper we critically review anatomic, electrophysiological, physiological, and behavioral evidence for neural receptors in the liver. Several lines of evidence suggest that the afferent innervation of the liver may be substantial, although few anatomic studies have directly addressed the question of an hepatic sensory supply. On the other hand, there is convincing functional evidence for a variety of hepatic sensory receptors. Hepatic osmo-, ion, and baroreceptors, sensitive to changes in the osmolarity and electrolyte concentrations in blood and to variations in portal venous pressure, modulate diuresis and natriuresis. Metabolic receptors, for which the adequate stimuli have not yet been specified, influence feeding behavior and gastric acid secretion in response to alterations in hepatic metabolism associated with changes in the supply of metabolic fuels. Directions for future research are suggested and general conclusions about the role of hepatic receptors in homeostasis are discussed.

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