Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire

This review discusses neurobiological and psychosocial factors associated with stress-induced depression and compares these factors with those believed to characterize stress resilience. Neurobiological factors that are discussed and contrasted include serotonin, the 5-HT1A receptor, polymorphisms of the 5-HT transporter gene, norepinephrine, alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, neuropeptide Y, polymorphisms of the alpha-2 adrenergic gene, dopamine, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), cortisol, and CRH receptors. These factors are described in the context of brain regions believed to be involved in stress, depression, and resilience to stress. Psychosocial factors associated with depression and/or stress resilience include positive emotions and optimism, humor, cognitive flexibility, cognitive explanatory style and reappraisal, acceptance, religion/spirituality, altruism, social support, role models, coping style, exercise, capacity to recover from negative events, and stress in...

The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: implications for prevention and treatment.

The Changing American Voter.

Humans exhibit a remarkable degree of resilience in the face of extreme stress, with most resisting the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Over the past 5 years, there has been increasing interest in the active, adaptive coping mechanisms of resilience; however, in humans, most published work focuses on correlative neuroendocrine markers that are associated with a resilient phenotype. In this review, we highlight a growing literature in rodents that is starting to complement the human work by identifying the active behavioral, neural, molecular and hormonal basis of resilience. The therapeutic implications of these findings are important and can pave the way for an innovative approach to drug development for a range of stress-related syndromes.

Neurobiology of Resilience

Purpose: This article presents a model for research and practice that expands on the biopsychosocial model to include the spiritual concerns of patients. Design and Methods: Literature review and philosophical inquiry were used. Results: The healing professions should serve the needs of patients as whole persons. Persons can be considered beings-in-relationship, and illness can be considered a disruption in biological relationships that in turn affects all the other relational aspects of a person. Spirituality concerns a person’s relationship with transcendence. Therefore, genuinely holistic health care must address the totality of the patient’s relational existence—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. The literature suggests that many patients would like health professionals to attend to their spiritual needs, but health professionals must be morally cautious and eschew proselytizing in any form. Four general domains for measuring various aspects of spirituality are distinguished: religiosity, religious coping and support, spiritual well-being, and spiritual need. A framework for understanding the interactions between these domains is presented. Available instruments are reviewed and critiqued. An agenda for research in the spiritual aspects of illness and care at the end of life is proposed. Implications: Spiritual concerns are important to many patients, particularly at the end of life. Much work remains to be done in understanding the spiritual aspects of patient care and how to address spirituality in research and practice.

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A Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model for the Care of Patients at the End of Life

Personal sense of humor has been recognized as a coping mechanism. Sense of humor as a construct, however, is multidimensional. Existing efforts to assess overall sense of humor are, for a number of reasons, deficient. The present study reports the development and factor analysis of a new Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale that may be useful in a variety of research and clinical applications.

Development and validation of a Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale.

Scores on the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) are shown to be related positively to a number of factors associated with psychological health, such as optimism and self esteem, and negatively with signs of psychological distress such as depression Humor is a multidimensional construct that seems to be intimately related to quality of life

Psychological health and sense of humor.

This article reports on the development and factor analysis of a Revised Death Anxiety Scale that has an acceptable level of reliability (Cronbach alpha—.83) and that has been shown to be age-sensitive. Five studies using different versions of the scale are detailed, and data differentiating constructions of death anxiety for those high and for those low in death anxiety are presented.

A revised death anxiety scale

The objectives of this study were: (1) to test hypotheses that women would have higher death anxiety than men and that older persons would have lower death anxiety than younger people; and (2) to probe for meanings of death among a large, heterogeneous sample. A group of 599 adolescents and adults completed a death anxiety scale; factor analysis of the resultant data revealed seven orthogonal factors. Both hypotheses were supported at acceptable levels of significance. Item analysis revealed additional information on meanings of death: Older respondents indicated a concern over the existence of an afterlife and over loss of personal control; women expressed more fear of pain and bodily decomposition. The strongest finding was variation in death anxiety by age, which confirms Butler's contention that the life review helps the aged to resolve conflicts and relieve anxiety.

Elements of death anxiety and meanings of death

The objective of this study was to simplify understandings of relationships between multidimensional elements of the fear of death and dying with a unidimensional construct of intrinsic religiosity. A total of 346 individuals who ranged in age from 18 to 88 completed a death anxiety scale and a measure of intrinsic religious motivation. Respondents who were older and who were higher in intrinsic religiosity were significantly lower in death anxiety. Differing constructions of death and dying are examined.

F. C. Powell

Papers

Development and validation of a Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale.

Psychological health and sense of humor.

A revised death anxiety scale

Elements of death anxiety and meanings of death

Meanings of death and intrinsic religiosity.