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Humor Reduces Stress in a Challenging Task Samantha Bates and Breanna Williams Penn State Erie, the Behrend College

Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

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Page 1: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Humor Reduces Stress in a Challenging Task

Samantha Bates and Breanna WilliamsPenn State Erie, the Behrend College

Page 2: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Theories of Humor

Relief TheoryShurcliff, 1968Smuts, 2009

Incongruity TheoryShultz, 1974

Page 3: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Past ResearchMcCrae, 1984Found humor as a response to a challenge

Martin et. al, 2003 Identified 4 dimensions of humor and

created the Humor Style QuestionnaireAbel & Maxwell, 2002Experimental research that found videos

inducing laughter decreased anxiety.

Page 4: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

The Gap

Our research aims to bridge the gap between humor and the effects it has on an individual after completing

a challenge.

Page 5: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Methods Participants

64 Females and 37 Males Age Range: 18-29 Introductory psychology classes at Penn State Behrend Participants treated according to the ethical standards of the

American Psychological Association Stimuli and Materials

Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), (Martin & Doris, 2003) Feelings Questionnaire Modular Arithmetic (MA), (Bogomolny, 1996) Videos

Page 6: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Stimuli and MaterialsHumor Style Questionnaire Feelings Questionnaire

1=Totally Disagree 7=Totally Agree

1. I usually don’t laugh or joke around much with other people.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0=Not at all, 4=ExtremelyMood=9Tense 0 1 2 3 4 Unhappy 0 1 2 3 4Lively 0 1 2 3 4

Anxiety=6Strained 0 1 2 3 4Relaxed 0 1 2 3 4 Worried 0 1 2 3 4

Page 7: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Stimuli and Materials Modular Arithmetic (MA)

The object is to judge whether the answer was a whole number or not.

Easy Task Examples: 7 = 2 (mod 5) – True 7 = 2 (mod4) – False

Hard Task Examples: 51 = 19 (mod4) – True 51 = 19 (mod3) – False

Page 8: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Stimuli and Materials•Videos

▫Positive Humorous Whose Line is it Anyway?

▫Positive Non-humorous Documentary on Celine Dion

▫Neutral “How to draw a man sitting in a chair”

Page 9: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Easy Task

Informed Consent

Feelings Questionnaire

Hard Task

Feelings Questionnaire

Positive Humorous

Positive Non-

HumorousNeutral

Feelings Questionnaire, HSQ, Demographic

Page 10: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Hypotheses Hypothesis 1: Viewing the positive humorous video will

lead to more positive mood, lower worry, and lower strained scores compared to the other two videos.

Hypothesis 2: Completing the hard task will lead to an increase in negative mood compared to those who completed the least difficult task.

Hypothesis 3: Women would have a higher affiliative and self-enhancing humor score, whereas, men would have a higher aggressive and self-defeating score.

Page 11: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Effects of a Video on Mood

Humor Non-Humor Neutral0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Before After Task After Video

Video

Mea

n M

ood

Scor

eF (4,178) = 6.56, p < 0.001

Page 12: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Effects of Task on Mood

Easy Task Hard Task0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Before After Task After Video

Time Scale

Mea

n M

ood

Scor

eF (2,178) = 3.12, p < 0.001

Page 13: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Effects of Humor on Strained Mood Score

Humor Non-Humor Neutral0

0.20.40.60.8

11.21.41.61.8

Before After Task After Video

Video

Mea

n M

ood

Scor

eF (4,178) = 2.98, p = 0.02

Page 14: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Discussion Hypothesis 1: Viewing the positive humorous video will

lead to more positive mood, lower worry, and lower strained scores compared to the other two videos. PARTIAL YES!

Hypothesis 2: Completing the hard task will lead to an increase in negative mood compared to those who completed the least difficult task. YES!

Hypothesis 3: Women would have a higher affiliative and self-enhancing humor score, whereas, men would have a higher aggressive and self-defeating score. NO!

Page 15: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Limitation ImplicationsUnequal number of

females and malesGeneralized to

college studentsLaboratory settingCompleted in

groups rather than individually

Humorous videos are effective at relieving stress.

Page 16: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Future Research

•Personality Differences•Different stressor: loss or threat•Other humor differences among genders

other than the HSQ

Page 17: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Resources Bogomolny, A. (1996). Modular arithmetic. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.cut-the-

knot.com/blue/Modulo.shtml Martin, R., Puhlik-Dors., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in

uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 48-75.

Shurcliff, A. (1968). Judged humor, arousal, and the relief theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4), 360-363. doi: 10.1037/h0025493

Smuts, A. (2009). Humor. In Internet encyclopedia of philosophy Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/humor/

Shultz, T. R., (1974). Order of cognitive processing in humour appreciation. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 4, 409-420.

McCrae, R.R. (1984). Situational determinants of coping responses: Loss, threat, and challenge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 48-75.

Abel, M. H., & Maxwell, D. (2002). Humor and effective consequences of a stressful task. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21(2), 165-190. doi: 10.152/jscp.21.2.165.22516

Page 18: Sigma Xi Conference Oral Presentation

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Dr. Dawn Blasko for all her

time, effort, and valuable input throughout our project. We would also like to thank Dr. Rod. A. Martin, creator of the HSQ questionnaire, for providing us with a copy of the questionnaire for our experiment. Lastly, we would like to thank the Undergraduate Research Office grant program at Behrend College for providing us with a grant to fund our research project.