Do Humor Styles Mediate or Moderate the Relationship Between Self-Criticism and Neediness and Depressive Symptoms?

Abstract

This study examined whether, in a community sample of Israeli adults (N = 335), benign (i.e., affiliative and self-enhancing) and injurious (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) humor styles mediated or moderated the relationship between self-criticism and neediness, two traits that confer vulnerability to depression, on the one hand, and levels of depressive symptoms, on the other. There was no evidence of any moderating effect of humor styles on the relationship between self-criticism and neediness and depressive symptoms. However, results indicated that the use of injurious styles of humor mediated the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms as well as the relationship between neediness and depressive symptoms. Moreover, the relationship between neediness and depressive symptoms was also mediated by low levels of benign humor. These findings may have important implications for theories concerning vulnerability to depressive symptoms and intervention strategies.Key Words: Self-criticism, neediness, humor, depression, affect regulation. (J Nerv Ment Dis 2011;199: 757Y764) G rowing evidence indicates that high levels of self-criticism and neediness (i.e., maladaptive dependency) are associated with increased vulnerability to depression (see Blatt and Luyten, 2010;Mongrain and Leather, 2006;Schulte et al., 2008;Zuroff et al., 2004). However, the mechanisms by which these personality dimensions confer vulnerability to depression are still relatively poorly understood. Increasing evidence suggests that both self-criticism and neediness are associated with maladaptive affect-regulation strategies, particularly in the context of close interpersonal relationships, which may partially explain their association with depression [see Blatt and Luyten, 2009, for a review]. Humor, particularly the use of benign versus injurious styles of humor, may play an important but, until now, relatively neglected role in this context. Indeed, studies increasingly point to the importance of humor as an affect-regulation strategy, particularly in interpersonal relationships (e.g., Besser A, Luyten P, Mayes LC Adult attachment and distress: The mediating role of humor styles [submitted for publication, 2011]; Besser and Zeigler-Hill, 2011;Martin, 2007;Miczo et al., 2009;Taber et al., 2007;Zeigler-Hill and Besser, 2011). Congruent with these findings, it has been suggested that humor may play an important role in resiliency in the face of adversity (Fonagy et al., 1994;Luyten et al., 2011;Martin, 2001Martin, , 2007Vaillant, 1977Vaillant, , 2000. In light of this previous work, the present study explored the roles of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles as mediators or moderators of the associations of depressive symptoms with the vulnerability factors of self-criticism and neediness. Self-Criticism, Neediness, and DepressionPersonality development, according to Blatt (1974Blatt ( , 1991Blatt ( , 2004Blatt ( , 2008, involves the integration of a person's development of selfdefinition with the capacity for...

Neediness and depression in women

“…In self-critical depression, individuals are preoccupied with issues of self-definition such as self-worth, failure, responsibility, and guilt. This differentiation between excessive preoccupation with issues of interpersonal relatedness or with issues of self-definition in depression has stimulated a great deal of research (e.g., Besser, Luyten, & Blatt, 2011;Besser & Priel, 2003a, 2003b, 2005a, 2005bBesser, Vliegen, Luyten, & Blatt, 2008;Blatt, 2004;Blatt & Luyten, 2009;Blatt & Zuroff, 1992;Luyten, Blatt, Van Houdenhove, & Corveleyn, 2006;Zuroff, Mongrain, & Santor, 2004). Investigators from different theoretical orientations (e.g., Arieti & Bemporad, 1980;Beck, 1983;Blatt, 1974) have investigated the two independent dimensions in depression-an interpersonal dimension reflecting high levels of dependency or a self-definitional dimension involving high levels of self-criticism.…”

Laughing at the Looking Glass: Does Humor Style Serve as an Interpersonal Signal?

“…A rapidly expanding body of research has shown that the benign and injurious styles of humor are differentially related to emotional and psychosocial well-being in the ways that would be expected (e.g., Besser, Luyten, and Blatt, 2011;Besser, Luyten, and Mayes, 2012;Besser and Zeigler-Hill, 2011;Zeigler-Hill and Besser, 2011). For example, the benign styles of humor (i.e., affiliative and self-enhancing) have been found to be associated with positive personality features such as high levels of extraversion, openness, and self-esteem.…”

Motives for viewing animated sitcoms and their associations with humor styles, positivity, and self-criticism in a sample of Hungarian viewers

“…According to Cheng and Furnham [37], females tend to report higher self-criticism, while age is unrelated to this construct. With regard to humor styles, the strongest association was found between self-defeating humor and self-criticism [39,40], while affiliative and aggressive humor were weakly associated with self-criticism [39].…”

“…In the present study, viewers' attitudes towards criticism were approached from the perspective of self-involvement. Therefore, the construct of self-criticism was investigated, which was negatively related to happiness [37] and psychological well-being [38,39]. Self-criticism is defined as "an exaggerated, distorted emphasis on self-definition associated with harsh personal standards" [39, p. 757].…”