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

Openness to Experience is one of the 5 broad factors that subsume most personality traits. Openness is usually considered an intrapsychic dimension, defined in terms of characteristics of consciousness. However, different ways of approaching and processing experience lead to different value systems that exercise a profound effect on social interactions. In this article, the author reviews the effects of Openness versus Closedness in cultural innovation, political ideology, social attitudes, marital choice, and interpersonal relations. The construct of Openness and its measures could profitably be incorporated into research conducted by social psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and historians.

Social consequences of experiential openness.

ideas about causation are crystalized in a model for the statistics that can be derived from data on various sets of relatives. The "model" represents the bridge between theory and data, by translating the "semantic" components of a theory (Torgersen, 1958) into "syntactic" definitions so that the rules of logical and mathematical inference can be used to deduce new predictions about the results of empirical studies. Without such a quantitative model, it is impossible to know, for example, what parent-offspring correlation to expect from a knowledge of the correlations between twins. The model forces us to look more closely at the data by making us expect particular quantitative patterns. If these patterns occur then we may conclude that our model receives some support; if they clearly do not then our model is obviously wrong and some better alternative must be found. Figure 4 .1 summarizes the place of the model in diagramatic form. It is convenient to distinguish two important parts of the modeling process: model building and model fitting. The stage of model building consists in deciding how the causes of variation can be expressed in a mathematical form. The stage of model fitting consists of estimating the parameters of a model and deciding whether it fits the actual data. Each is considered separately. Elaboration/Decision Model f i t t ing Model building Experimental design Figure 4.1 The place of the model in the analysis of individual differences. 4. Introduction to Model Fitting 47 4 . 2 M O D E L BUILDING The way in which models are developed will become clearer by looking at the examples in the following chapters. However, we do not begin building models for personality differences in a vacuum. W e are guided by the cumulative experience of quantitative and behavioral genetics over the last eighty years. M a n y of the most informative studies have been conducted in plants and animals, which are far more amenable to genetic and environmental manipulation than man. This body of research suggests some of the broad features that models for human differences may encounter. 4 . 2 . 1 Genotype and phenotype The first basic distinction that we need to make is that made originally by Johannsen (1909) between genotype and phenotype. He observed that certain kinds of differences were transmissible between generations and could be modified b y selection within a population derived by crossing and recrossing pure breeding-strains. O n the other hand, even though pure breeding-strains were not uniform for many characteristics, such withinstrain differences could not be transmitted to subsequent generations or modified by selection. The discrimination between transmissible differences that were available to artificial selection and differences that were neither transmissible nor selectable led to the distinction between those characteristics of the organism that were expressed and measurable (the "phenotype") and those that influenced the phenotype but were capable of alteration b y selective breeding (the "genotype"). This basic idea can be represented by a (linear) model in which the phenotype of the zth individual (P,), expressed as a deviation from the average value of the population, is the sum of a "genotypic effect" G, and an environmental effect Thus Pi = G , +£,• (4 .1) Since we can only measure the phenotype of an individual directly, there is an infinite number of genetic and environmental effects that can satisfy the equation for each individual, so that neither the genetic nor the environmental effects can be identified statistically for any individual and there would be as many equations like (4 .1) as there are individuals in a sample. However, if genetic and environmental effects are independent (see Section 4 .2 .3 below) the phenotypic variance VP is the sum of the variances of the genetic effects G and the environmental effects E:

Genes, culture, and personality : an empirical approach

THE purpose of this work, which the authors regard as a pioneer attempt, is the accomplishment in the field of masculinity and femininity of something similar to Binet's early achievement in the field of intelligence, inasmuch as they have endeavoured to apply psychometric methods in the form of a test to the study of sex temperaments. The test was originally devised by the senior author, Lewis M. Terman, in 1922 in the investigation of intellectually superior children, and has since been applied in the examination of a great variety of groups, including college students, office workers, athletes, delinquents, homosexuals and prostitutes, the ages ranging from early adolescence to extreme old age.Sex and Personality': Studies in Masculinity and Femininity. By Lewis M. Terman and Catherine Cox Miles., assisted by Jack W. Dunlap, Harold K. Edgerton, E. Lowell Kelly, Albert D. Kurtz, E. Alice McAnulty, Quinn McNemar, Maud A. Merrill, Floyd L. Ruch, Horace G. Wyatt. (McGraw-Hill Publications in Psychology.) Pp. xii + 600. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1936.) 25s.

Sex and personality

All published research examining effects of humor and laughter on physical health is reviewed. Potential causal mechanisms and methodological issues are discussed. Laboratory experiments have shown some effects of exposure to comedy on several components of immunity, although the findings are inconsistent and most of the studies have methodological problems. There is also some evidence of analgesic effects of exposure to comedy, although similar findings are obtained with negative emotions. Few significant correlations have been found between trait measures of humor and immunity, pain tolerance, or self-reported illness symptoms. There is also little evidence of stress-moderating effects of humor on physical health variables and no evidence of increased longevity with greater humor. More rigorous and theoretically informed research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn about possible health benefits of humor and laughter.

Humor, laughter, and physical health: methodological issues and research findings.

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/77937/1/%5B9783110804607_-_The_Sense_of_Humor%5D_A_two-mode_model_of_humor_appreciation_Its_relation_to_aesthetic_appreciation_and_simplicity-complexity_of_personality.pdf

A two-mode model of humor appreciation: Its relation to aesthetic appreciation and simplicity-complexity of personality.

Thepresent article advances a model of humor development extending from late adolescence until about age 60 Previously advanced models of humor development during the preadolescent years are reviewed, and issues related to the proposal of models of adult humor development are discussed The developmental model presented here drawsfrom a series of factor-analytic studies which document the importance of two principal humor-appreciation factors (nonsense and incongruity plus resolution), andfrom a broad range of data demonstrating age-related changes in personality measures closely associated with these two factors Separate attention is given by the model to positive (funniness) and negative (aversiveness) aspects ofreactions to cartoons andjokes

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A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

The location of sense of humor within comprehensive personality spaces: An exploratory study

This study tested a model of the development of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood. Subjects were 4,292 14- to 66-year-old Germans. Twenty jokes and cartoons representing structure-based humor categories of incongruity resolution and nonsense were rated for funniness and aversiveness. Humor structure preferences were also assessed with a direct comparison task. The results generally confirmed the hypotheses. Incongruity-resolution humor increased in funniness and nonsense humor decreased in funniness among progressively older subjects after the late teens. Aversiveness of both forms of humor generally decreased over the ages sampled. Age differences in humor appreciation were strongly correlated with age differences in conservatism. An especially strong parallel was found between age differences in appreciation of incongruity-resolution humor and age differences in conservatism.

/pdf/age-differences-in-the-enjoyment-of-incongruity-resolution-5963xu1z09.pdf

Age differences in the enjoyment of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood.

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/77525/1/04_m_1983_RuchHehl.pdf

Franz-Josef Hehl

Papers

A two-mode model of humor appreciation: Its relation to aesthetic appreciation and simplicity-complexity of personality.

A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

The location of sense of humor within comprehensive personality spaces: An exploratory study

Age differences in the enjoyment of incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor during adulthood.

Intolerance of ambiguity as a factor in the appreciation of humour