Humor, stress, and coping strategies

Abstract

This study explored relationships between sense of humor, stress, and coping strategies. Undergraduate students (N=258) from introductory psychology courses completed a perceived stress scale, an everyday problems scale, a state anxiety inventory, a sense of humor scale, and a scale assessing their preferred coping strategies. High and low sense of humor groups were determined by selecting participants with self-reported sense of humor at one standard deviation above and below the overall mean on the sense of humor scale. The high sense of humor group appraised less stress and reported less current anxiety than a low sense of humor group despite experiencing a similar number of everyday problems in the previous two months. The high humor group was more likely to use positive reappraisal and problem-solving coping strategies than the low humor group. A weaker relationship existed between appraisal of stress and number of problems in the low humor group because this group perceived greater stress at low and average number of everyday problems than the high humor group. The results were discussed as supporting the role of humor in restructuring a situation so it is less stressful, and the relationship of humor to both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies.

The Moderating Role of Employees’ Humor Styles on the Relationship between Job Stress and Emotional Exhaustion

“…People who have a good sense of humor are better in coping with different problems, because they have a positive approach to difficulties (Kuiper et al, 1995). They use reframing and problem solving methods more frequently, which makes them experience less stress in the face of daily challenges (Abel, 2002). Humor can help to diminish the negative effects of stress.…”

Influencia de los estilos de humor sobre las estrategias de afrontamiento en Entre Ríos

“…En consonancia con Kuiper et al (1993), Abel (2002), opina que el humor puede, permitir tener la oportunidad de explorar las alternativas en respuesta a las situaciones estresantes, y reducir las consecuencias afectivas negativas en la amenaza real o percibida. Por su parte Dixon (1980) y Martin et al, (1993) concuerdan en que el humor ha sido descrito como el responsable de cambios a nivel cognitivo/afectivo, o como reestructurador de la situación, de manera que sea menos amenazante, con una liberación emocional, asociada al percibir la amenaza (citado en Abel, 2002) y la reducción de la activación fisiológica (Shurcliff, 1968;citado en Abel, 2002).…”

“…Kuiper y Martin (1998) han propuesto que el humor puede tener efectos moderadores del estrés, que parecen operar, en parte, a través de valoraciones más positivas, y cogniciones más realistas de la información del ambiente (citado en Abel, 2002). Similarmente, Kuiper et al, (1995) han demostrado que los altos niveles de afrontamiento con humor están asociados con valoraciones cognitivas mas positivas, con altos niveles de motivación, y una mayor emoción positiva para completar una tarea (citado en Kirsh y Kuiper, 2003).…”

“…Lefcourt et al, (1997) propusieron más tarde, dos formas de estrategias de afrontamiento ligadas al humor, una estrategia centrada en la emoción, como una medida defensiva encontrando el humor en una situación estresante y reduciendo las reacciones emocionales negativas. Y una estrategia centrada en el problema, utilizando el humor para alterar la situación de amenaza (citado en Abel, 2002).…”

Sense of Humor and Emotional Intelligence as Predictors of Stress among EFL Teachers

“…Humor in the classroom is not the answer to all classroom management issues, but it is an excellent preventive measure and can often diffuse tense situations (Loomans & Kolberg, 1993). Humor, in fact, may be one way to decrease teacher burnout caused by unmediated stress (Abel, 2002;Kuiper & Martin, 1998;Talbot & Lumden, 2000).…”