Humor Styles and Forgiveness of the Students Who Are in a Dating Relationship

Abstract

One way to reduce or minimize conflict in a dating relationship is forgiveness. One of the factors of forgiveness is the positive attribution of the victim to the perpetrator, which can be facilitated by perspective-taking empathy. Previous research has shown that a style of humor correlates with perspective-taking empathy and forgiveness. This study aims to further develop previous research by finding out whether humor style can predict forgiveness and focusing more on the dependent variable to be forgiveness for a partner in college students who are in a dating relationship. This study uses a quantitative approach with correlational design and multiple linear regression. The independent variable is humor styles, consisting of affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, and self-defeating humor. Otherwise, the dependent variable is forgiveness for a partner. The measuring instrument in this study used the adaptation of the Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ) and the Forgiveness for Partner Scale (FPS). This study involved 177 students of the FPPsi State University of Malang who were in a dating relationship. The results showed that the humor style could simultaneously predict forgiveness for the partner, but only aggressive humor has a significant effect.
 Keywords: humor styles, forgiveness for partner, dating relationship, college students.