Humor, stress, and coping strategies

This study explored relationships between sense of humor, stress, and coping strategies. Undergraduate students (N=258) from introductory psychology courses completed a perceived stress scale, an everyday problems scale, a state anxiety inventory, a sense of humor scale, and a scale assessing their preferred coping strategies. High and low sense of humor groups were determined by selecting participants with self-reported sense of humor at one standard deviation above and below the overall mean on the sense of humor scale. The high sense of humor group appraised less stress and reported less current anxiety than a low sense of humor group despite experiencing a similar number of everyday problems in the previous two months. The high humor group was more likely to use positive reappraisal and problem-solving coping strategies than the low humor group. A weaker relationship existed between appraisal of stress and number of problems in the low humor group because this group perceived greater stress at low and average number of everyday problems than the high humor group. The results were discussed as supporting the role of humor in restructuring a situation so it is less stressful, and the relationship of humor to both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies. Numerous studies have supported the anecdotal view that humor and laughter are therapeutic for relieving tension and anxiety (Kuiper and Martin 1998; Lefcourt et al. 1995; Moran 1996; Moran and Massan 1999; Yovetich et al. 1990). Whereas stress is linked to psychological distress (Gillis 1992; Spielberger 1979), humor appears to buffer an individual against the negative effects of stress (Abel 1998; Labbott et al. 1990; Humor 15–4 (2002), 365–381 0933–1719/02/0015–0365 # Walter de Gruyter Martin and Dobbin 1988; Martin and Lefcourt 1983). Furthermore, research reveals that a good sense of humor is related to muscle relaxation, control of pain and discomfort, positive mood states, and overall psychological health including a healthy self-concept (Deaner and McConatha 1993; Hudak et al. 1991; Kuiper and Martin 1993; Kuiper et al.1992; Kuiper et al. 1995; Labbott et al. 1990; Martin et al. 1993; Overholser 1991; Prerost and Ruma 1987; Ruch and Kohler 1998; Thorson et al. 1997). The positive effects of humor may be explained by the role of humor in the cognitive appraisal of threatening, hence stressful, situations and its function as a coping strategy in general. Kuiper and Martin (1998: 162) propose, ‘‘the stress-moderating effects of sense of humor appear to operate, at least in part, through more positive appraisals and more realistic cognitive processing of environmental information.’’ According to Kuiper et al. (1995) and Lefcourt and Thomas (1998), further studies are needed to address the lack of research on humor and cognitive appraisal. Therefore, this study was designed to address this need by examining relationships between humor, stress and its related constructs, and coping strategies. Humor has been described as producing a cognitive-affective shift or a restructuring of the situation so that it is less threatening, with a concomitant release of emotion associated with the perceived threat (Dixon 1980; Martin et al. 1993) and reduction in physiological arousal (Shurcliff 1968). Humor may thus afford the opportunity for exploring cognitive alternatives in response to stressful situations and reducing the negative affective consequences of a real or perceived threat. The cognitive-affective shift is related to the transactional model of stress proposed by Lazarus and his colleagues. According to this model, stress depends upon a person’s cognitive appraisal of events and circumstances and the ability to cope, the end result of the person’s transaction with the environment (Lazarus and Folkman 1984). Personality variables such as hardiness, have been offered for explaining individual differences in the cognitive appraisal of novel and threatening situations and consequent reactions (Lazarus 1993). McCrae (1990) also highlighted the influence of neuroticism, a personality trait predisposing an individual toward experiencing negative affect, another characteristic potentially influencing an individual’s appraisal of stress. Kuiper et al. (1995) proposed that a sense of humor is an additional individual difference variable worthy of consideration primarily because of its relationship to positive appraisals of challenge in lieu of threat. 366 M. H. Abel