Self-defeating humor promotes psychological well-being

Every person at one point in time or another must face some personal struggles in their life. How an individual copes with these struggles is a crucial factor in their recovery process. Some coping methods are healthy and would evoke results that are beneficial to a person’s well-being; such as speaking with a therapist. Whereas other coping methods can be quite unhealthy and yield unpleasant behaviors that can cause psychological damage or even be detrimental. For instance, people may seek refuge from a bottle and turn to alcoholism, fall victim to drugs and other vices or they may just not try to deal with the issue at all which can cause an internal dissonance which may eventually lead to suicide. What about self-defeating humour though? If this coping mechanism healthy or not?

Self-defeating humour is where one puts themselves down in a “joking” fashion so as to seek the approval of others and try to fit it. Maybe it is even a case of making fun of yourself before someone else has the chance to do so. Up until now, a significant deal of the research literature has suggested that self-defeating humour is exclusively associated with negative psychological effects among individuals who regularly employ this style of humour. However, a research team at the University of Granada (UGR) from the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC) have established that individuals who frequently use self-defeating humour aimed at gaining the approval of others through self-mockery exhibit greater levels of psychological well-being.

The main objective of the present research was to develop a comprehensive assessment of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) in independent large samples of the Spanish population thus the study was carried out in Spain. To achieve this goal, researchers Jorge Torres-Marín et al performed traditional psychometric analyses to examine the internal consistency and factor structure of the HSQ. Moreover, they conducted a series of three studies to obtain external validity evidence by replicating the relationships between humor styles and psychological well-being and personality variables.

Humor styles have been defined as behavioral tendencies related to the use of humor in everyday life and in this study they were divided into four independent although related dimensions: affiliative, aggressive, self-enhancing, and self-defeating. Affiliative humour, is aimed at strengthening social relationships. Self-enhancing humour, meanwhile, entails maintaining a humorous outlook in potentially stressful and adverse situations. These types of humour have consistently been linked to indicators of positive psychological well-being such as happiness, satisfaction with life, hope, etc. but also to more negative states such as depression and anxiety.

A total of 1068 people were divided into 5 different samples based on their ages, educational backgrounds and work experience. The items on the HSQ were rated on a seven-point Likert-scale format ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). On one hand, the results regarding the relationship between the use of humour and anger management suggest that the capacity for maintaining a humorous perspective in adverse situations, i.e. the use of self-enhancing humour, is typically found among people who manage anger more effectively, as well as among those with lower tendencies to exhibit angry feelings or reactions. On the other hand however, people who tend to use aggressive or self-defeating humour do not manage anger or rage as well. Meanwhile, self-defeating humour was linked to a greater tendency to suppress anger. However, this suppression does not necessarily a good thing and it does not mean that the anger directed at others is reduced or controlled, but rather that the triggers eliciting such angry reactions are concealed or not explicitly stated.

The research carried out at the UGR provides a highly useful tool (HSQ) for exploring predispositions related to the use of humour among the Spanish population and can be further used and analysed in other countries and cultures.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180208104225.htm

Researchers: Jorge Torres-Marín, Ginés Navarro-Carrillo, Hugo Carretero-Dios