Humor and Life Stress: Antidote to Adversity

ISBN-13: 9781461293521 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 142 str.

Herbert M. Lefcourt; Rod A. Martin

Opis

This monograph reflects a culmination of influences. Over a decade ago, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Carl Sordoni, had worked with one of the present authors (H.L.) to develope a dissertation concerned with humor. At that time, the literature on humor was scanty. There was much that had been written by philosophers and scholars in literature. But in psychology, especially empirical research in psychology, there was not an overwhelming literature to give substance to the belief that humor was an important element in human affairs. Memories of that dissertation are fond. The findings were disappoint- ing, but the execution of the research provided us with much hilarity. Though the dissertation research did not pan out as we had hoped, we had begun to look for the influence of humor in other investigations that we were conducting. Two published studies from that era are described in this book, one of which grew as an off-shoot of a dissertation by Dr. Paul Antrobus. In these studies not only did we find evidence that humor could be predicted and understood within particular contexts, but again we found enjoyment in doing the studies.

Spis treści

1 Theoretical Approaches to the Study of the Sense of Humor.- Arousal Theories.- Incongruity Theories.- Superiority Theories.- Conclusion.- 2 Questionnaire Approaches to the Assessment of the Sense of Humor.- The Sense of Humor Questionnaire.- The Situational Humor Response Questionnaire.- The Coping Humor Scale.- Conclusion.- 3 Validational Studies of the Sense of Humor Questionnaires.- Validity Study 1.- Validity Study 2.- Validity Study 3.- Validity Study 4.- Validity Study 5.- General Discussion.- 4 Sense of Humor as a Moderator of Life Stress.- Life Stress.- Humor as a Stress Moderator.- Study 1.- Study 2.- Study 3.- Conclusions.- 5 Experimental Studies of Humor in a Stressful Laboratory Situation.- Study 1.- Study 2.- General Discussion.- 6 Humor and the Sense of Mastery.- Study 1.- Study 2.- Study 3.- Additional Observations.- Conclusions.- 7 Sense of Humor and the Coping Process in Marriage.- Method and Procedure.- Results.- Discussion.- 8 Sense of Humor and Coping With Physical Disability.- Method and Procedure.- Results.- Discussion.- 9 An Overview.- References.- Author Index.