The Influence of Negative Personality Factors on Choice of Humor: A Study on Undergraduate Students

The present study explored the correlations between the four humor styles and the Dark Triad traits of personality. Participants were 202 undergraduates from India who finished the humor Styles Questionnaire, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, and the MACHIV. Results intimated that member who scored higher on sub-clinical psychopathy and Machiavellianism exhibited a more inclination to utilise negative humor styles (self-defeating and aggressive). whereas, individuals who got higher scores on narcissism were progressively inclined to have a preference toward affiliative humor or style and self-enhancing humor style and they negatively correlated with negative humor styles. The study was conducted to help understand the personality traits of individuals with various genre of humor and help to explain the nature of the Dark Triad traits of personality. It said to shed light on the interpersonal styles employed by people who exhibit these attributes.

Humor and Expression of Anger in Socially Maladapted Youth

Appropriate regulation of emotions is important for maintaining physical and psychological health and well-being, as well as social adaptation and development. In the prevention of social maladjustment, it is particularly important to support factors that contribute to the proper control of emotions, especially anger. One such factor is humor, which helps to relieve emotional tension and express anger in a safe way. This research aims to identify the types of anger expression occurring in adolescents who are socially maladapted and determine whether there are significant differences in the use of humor between (sub)groups of minors due to their type of anger expression. The study was carried out in twenty-four juvenile correctional institutions in Poland and included a sample of 705 minors (29% females and 71% males, aged between 12 and 21 years old, with an average age of 17). Two research tools were used: the Anger Expression Scale (AES) and the Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ). K-means cluster analysis led to the separation of three types of anger expression in the group of socially maladjusted youth: Anger-out, Low-Anger, and Anger-control. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analysis revealed the statistically significant differences between the groups of minors (clusters) in their use of three styles of humor: affiliative, self-enhancing, and aggressive. These findings can be used in the design of modern interventions in the field of prevention and promotion of mental and social health.

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.

Self-Defeating Humor and Negative Emotionality

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between self-defeating humor style and features of negative emotionality.

Strengths and limitations of humor in educational organization staff's coping with work stress

Introduction.Humor as an element of the organizational system is relatively little studied in psychology, although humor is an important organizational resource, the skillful use of which can be helpful for organization managers in coping with work stress and promoting staff's psychological well-being.Aim: to find out the productivity of educational organization staff's humor styles and to determine the conditions for optimizing humor management in educational organizations. Methods.The author's questionnaire «Stress in Educators' Work and Communication», assessement questionnaires: «Methods of Assessment of Levels and Types of Sense of Humor»(I.S. Dombrovska,), «Self-assessment of Stress Resistance», «Coping Behavior in Stressful Situations»(E. Heim), «Test of Viability»(Muddy), content analysis of visual humorous content of educational sites and Facebook groups. Spearman's correlation analysis was used for statistical data processing.Results.The author has found a moderate relationship between the educational organization staff's humor style and stress copying, which allows defining a humor style focused on others as productive. The educational organization staff's self-humor with a hint of self-deprecation and staffʼs ability to passively perceive humor, did not associate with staffʼs stress coping. It has been found that educational organization staff uses mostly unproductive humor styles to overcome stress.Conclusion. The obtained findings offer a good possibility of training managers for conscious use of humorous interactions to reduce staff's work stress, given different effectiveness of different humor styles.

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 styles influence the perception of depression-related internet memes in depression

Previous research highlights the potential benefits of engaging with depressive Internet memes for those experiencing symptoms of depression, a phenomenon that can be explained by the humorous interpretation of depressive stimuli and perceived social support through symptom normalization. We examined whether individuals experiencing depressive symptoms would differ from controls in their interpretation of Internet memes related to depression, whilst incorporating the mediating role of humor style. N=78 individuals with self-reported depressive symptoms (≥24 on CES-D) and 67 controls (≤23) rated the emotional valance, humor, relatability, shareability, and mood-improving potential of 32 depressive and control memes (depicting neutral/positive social commentaries). Measures of depression and humor style were also completed. Perceived humor, relatability, shareability and mood-improving potential of depressive, but not control, memes were greater amongst individuals displaying depressive symptoms. However, differential ratings of humor, shareability and relatability were mediated by the extent of ones self-defeating humor style. These outcomes further evidence benefits of interacting with depression-related Internet memes for those with depression.

Self-deprecating humor and task persistence: the moderating role of self-defeating humor style

Over the past two decades a significant body of research has examined the effects of individual differences in humor style or humor occurrences (e.g. specific jokes, memes) on behavior. However, research examining whether these individual differences in humor styles influence the effects of humor occurrences on work behaviors has been scant. Drawing on Conservations of Resources (COR) theory, this paper seeks to fill this gap by examining one form of humor, self-deprecating humor, and its interaction with self-defeating humor style to influence task persistence behavior. Findings from an experimental study of 124 management students show that self-deprecating humor can bolster a person’s persistence at an assigned task. Findings also show that individual differences in self-defeating humor style influence the relationship between self-deprecating humor and persistence. Individuals low in self-defeating humor style show a significant increase in persistence while those high in self-defeating humor style did not show any significant increase.

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.