Escala de Significados del Sentido del Humor / Sense of Humor Meanings Scale

Resumen El Sentido del Humor (SH) es considerado un fenómeno universal, pero al mismo tiempo culturalmente específico pues cada grupo posee particularidades que modulan la forma en la éste se percibe y conceptualiza. Aunque el trabajo empírico en torno al fenómeno es amplio, éste se ha centrado en la creación de escalas que miden estilos particulares de humor o ciertos dominios humorísticos, dejando de lado el interés por explorar lo más fundamental, es decir, las percepciones y significados generales del humor. Dado lo anterior, el presente trabajo tuvo por objetivos: 1) explorar el significado atribuido al SH por hombres y mujeres, 2) desarrollar un instrumento válido y confiable para adultos mexicanos, 3) examinar la invarianza de la medición de dicho instrumento en función del sexo de los participantes e 4) identificar posibles diferencias entre hombres y mujeres al respecto de los factores de la medida validada. Los resultados mostraron la obtención de tres categorías que son congruentes con los factores obtenidos en la escala diseñada. En cuanto a sus características resultó una escala válida y confiable, que mostró equivalencia entre los sexos.

Abstract The Sense of Humor (SH) is considered a universal phenomenon, but at the same time culturally specific, since each group has particularities that modulate the way in which it is perceived and conceptualized. Although the empirical work around the phenomenon is extensive, it has focused on the creation of scales that measure styles of humor or certain humorous domains, leaving aside the interest in exploring what is most fundamental, that is, the general perceptions and meanings of humor. humor. Given the above, the present work had the objectives: 1) to explore the meaning attributed to SH by men and women, 2) to develop a valid and reliable instrument for Mexican adults, 3) to examine the invariance of the measurement of said instrument based on the gender and 4) identify possible differences between genders regarding the factors of the validated measure. The results showed the obtaining of three categories that are consistent with the factors obtained in the designed scale. Regarding its characteristics, it was a valid and reliable scale, which showed equivalence between genders.

Distintos estilos del sentido del humor y su relación con las conductas agresivas físicas y verbales en adolescentes argentinos / Different styles of sense of humor and their relationship with aggressive physical and verbal behavior in Argentine adolescents

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar la relación entre los estilos de humor adaptativos (humor afiliativo y humor mejoramiento personal) y desadaptativos (humor agresivo y humor descalificación personal) propuestos por Martin (2003), y las conductas agresivas físicas y verbales. Se trabajó con una muestra de 100 adolescentes argentinos, entre 16 y 18 años, de ambos sexos, quienes respondieron dos escalas: el Cuestionario de Agresividad Física y Verbal (Caprara y Pastorelli, 1993, versión española de del Barrio, Moreno Rosset, López y Martínez, 2001), y la versión adaptada al español por Cayssials (2004) de la Escala de Estilos de Humor (Martin, 2003). Los resultados indican que el humor agresivo predice positivamente las conductas agresivas en general, tanto verbales como físicas, mientras que el estilo de humor de mejoramiento personal mitiga las conductas agresivas evaluadas en general y las conductas agresivas verbales. Por último, las conductas agresivas físicas únicamente fueron predichas por el estilo de humor agresivo.

Abstract The sense of humor gives a new perspective of life by turning the person into a spectator of what is happening, being able to laugh at oneself and to what happens to one. Because of that, it is considered that humor allows us to face problematic situations in a different way. Carbelo and Jáuregui (2006) argue that sense of humor is not a mere remedy to prevent or help overcome disease; instead, it has the capacity to promote greater well-being, enjoyment of life, growth towards greater humanity and fulfillment. These same authors add that sense of humor is a unique trait of the human species and it is possessed by all human beings of different cultures (Carbelo y Jáuregui, 2006). While each culture has its own rules about which facts or situations may be the object or cause of humor, "both humor and laughter are universal" (Cassaretto y Martínez, 2009, p. 289). Although humor has been associated with psychological, physical and social well-being, not all research show consistent results. This is because sense of humor does not imply only positive components, but also negative components (Martin, 2003; Cassaretto y Martínez, 2009). In general, the different studies carried out have perceived sense of humor as a positive feature with the potential to generate positive effects. However, there are negative elements of humor that have a negative correlation with psychological well-being (Martin, 2003; Grimshaw, Kirsh, Kuiper y Leite, 2004). Therefore, it is important to be able to consider the sense of humor not as a one-dimensional construct (taking into account only its positive components), but to be able to focus on a multi-dimensional approach capable of considering all the characteristics and consequences -positive and negative- of it. Martin (2003) postulates that humor is a personality trait composed of either healthy or adaptive components and of unhealthy or unadaptable components. This author proposes the following classification: Adaptive humor is formed by affiliative humor (the tendency to say funny things, to make jokes, and spontaneous and witty jokes to amuse other people) and self-enhancing humor (it implies having fun with the incongruities of life even in adversity and using humor as a strategy to face the vicissitudes), and unadaptive humor is formed by aggressive humor (the tendency to use humor for the purpose of criticizing or manipulating others by resorting to sarcasm, bothering with jokes, ridiculing others) and self-defeating humor (people who use this kind of humor are self-deprecating, make or say funny things at the expense of themselves and laugh with others while ridiculing or belittling). The aim of this work is to study the relationship between these two types of humor and physical and verbal aggressive behaviors. We worked with a sample of 100 adolescents from Argentina of both sexes, aged between 16 and 18 years, of the middle socioeconomic strata of Buenos Aires, Argentina. All participants responded to two scales: the questionnaire of physical and Verbal aggression (Caprara y Pastorelli, 1993, Spanish version of Barrio, Moreno Rosset, López Martínez, 2001), and the version adapted to Spanish by Cayssials (2004) of the scale of humor styles (Martin, 2003). The results indicate that aggressive humor positively predicts aggressive behaviors evaluated in a general way, and aggressive behaviors verbal and physical evaluated specifically. On the other hand, personal improvement humor style mitigates general aggressive behaviors and verbal aggression specifically. Finally, aggressive physical behaviors were only predicted by the aggressive humor style.

Moderating Role of Sense of Humor to the Relationship Between Stressful Events and Mental Health / 中国临床心理学杂志

Objective: To investigate moderating role of sense of humor to the relationship between stressful events and mental health. Methods: 836 middle-school students were investigated by MSHS, ASLEC and GHQ-20. Results: Sense of humor had a positive effect on students’ mental health, and strong humor could deduce the level of anxiety and depressed emotion. Sense of humor could buffer the relationship of stressful events and depression, but it could not adjust the relationship of stressful events with self-affirmation and anxiety. Conclusion: Sense of humor has a moderating effect on the stressful events and some aspects of mental health.