The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale‐Form A (DAS‐A) was completed by 664 university students and the results were factor‐analyzed. Approximately 61% of the variance was accounted for by two factors, labelled Performance Evaluation and Approval by Others. Analyses conducted on two subsamples indicated that the obtained factor solution was stable. The present results are discussed with respect to personality subtypes hypothesized to be vulnerable to depression.

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This study investigated relationships between sense of humour and cognitive appraisals and reappraisals of a potentially stressful event. Cognitive appraisals for an academic examination were obtained at several points in time. Consistent with our predictions, individuals with high scores on the Coping Humour scale appraised the exam as more of a positive challenge than did low humour individuals. In their reappraisals, high humour subjects' ratings of importance and positive challenge were positively related to performance on the exam, whereas for low humour subjects this relationship was negative. In predicting their performance on the next exam, high humour subjects adjusted their expectations on the basis of performance on the previous exam, whereas low humour subjects did not. In addition, humour was negatively related to both perceived stress and dysfunctional standards for self-evaluation. Overall, these results support the proposal that a sense of humour may facilitate coping and adjustment. Resume L'etude en question portait sur Ies relations entre le sens de l'humour et Ies appreciations et reappreciations cognitives d'une situation pouvant engendrer du stress. Les sujets ont fourni a plusieurs moments des appreciations cognitives d'un examen qu'ils devaient passer dans le cadre de leurs etudes. Comme nous l'avions predit, Ies sujets ayant obtenu des scores eleves dans l'echelle de mesure de l'humour face ii I'adaptation consideraient davantage l'examen comme un defi positif quc nc le faisaient les sujets ayant moins le sens de l'humour. En cc qui concerne la reappr£ciation, les points attribues a I'importance de l'examen ct au defi positif par Ies sujets ayant un grand sens de l'humour ctaient correles positivement au resultat de l'examen, alors que la correlation etait negative dans le cas des sujets ayant moins d'humour. Pour predire leur rendement au prochain examen, les sujets ayant un grand sens dc l'humour ont ajuste leurs attentcs en fonction du resultat de l'examen precedent, ce que n'ont pas fait les autres sujets. De plus, l'humour etait correle negativement au stress pergu par les sujets et aux normes dysfonctionnelles dans le cas de l'auto-evaluation. tin general, les resultats confirment l'idee que le sens de l'humour peut faciliter I'adaptation.

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