A temperament approach to humor

Ruch, Willibald; Köhler, Gabriele

doi:10.1515/9783110804607-011

Cited by 26 publications

(54 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, this approach will not lead to the description of the various forms of ineptness in humor, as these are typically not described in the literature. Hence, this is not a complete model of humor, and it needs to be supplemented by forms of humorlessness (e.g., Ruch and Hofmann, 2012; Ruch et al, 2014). Second, as the concepts of interest are complex by nature, they also require several elements to be present in the items to capture them adequately (e.g., “I am a realistic observer of human weaknesses, and my good-natured humor treats them benevolently”).…”

Section: Overall Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broadening Humor: Comic Styles Differentially Tap into Temperament, Character, and Ability

et al. 2018

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The present study introduces eight comic styles (i.e., fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) and examines the validity of a set of 48 marker items for their assessment, the Comic Style Markers (CSM). These styles were originally developed to describe literary work and are used here to describe individual differences. Study 1 examines whether the eight styles can be distinguished empirically, in self- and other-reports, and in two languages. In different samples of altogether more than 1500 adult participants, the CSM was developed and evaluated with respect to internal consistency, homogeneity, test–retest reliability, factorial validity, and construct and criterion validity. Internal consistency was sufficiently high, and the median test-retest reliability over a period of 1–2 weeks was 0.86 (N = 148). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the eight styles could be distinguished in both English- (N = 303) and German-speaking samples (N = 1018 and 368). Comparing self- and other-reports (N = 210) supported both convergent and discriminant validity. The intercorrelations among the eight scales ranged from close to zero (between humor and sarcasm/cynicism) to large and positive (between sarcasm and cynicism). Consequently, second-order factor analyses revealed either two bipolar factors (based on ipsative data) or three unipolar factors (based on normative data). Study 2 related the CSM to instruments measuring personality (N = 999), intelligence (N = 214), and character strengths (N = 252), showing that (a) wit was the only style correlated with (verbal) intelligence, (b) fun was related to indicators of vitality and extraversion, (c) humor was related to character strengths of the heart, and (d) comic styles related to mock/ridicule (i.e., sarcasm, cynicism, but also irony) correlated negatively with character strengths of the virtues temperance, transcendence, and humanity. By contrast, satire had a moral goodness that was lacking in sarcasm and cynicism. Most importantly, the two studies revealed that humor might be related to a variety of character strengths depending on the comic style utilized, and that more styles may be distinguished than has been done in the past. The CSM is recommended for future explorations and refinements of comic styles.

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Section: Overall Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broadening Humor: Comic Styles Differentially Tap into Temperament, Character, and Ability

et al. 2018

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“…State humor, defined as the situational “readiness to respond to a humor stimulus with positive affect” (Ruch & Kohler, 1998, p. 205) was measured using 10 minutes of videoed naturalistic observation at home, in which parents were directed to “Do whatever you normally do to get your baby to laugh or smile.” Videos of each infant at 3, 4, 5, and 6 months were coded in tandem for infant laughing and smiling, which were collapsed due to the frequency of their co-occurrence. Since the procedure allowed parents considerable mobility, the intensity and duration of infants’ smiles could not be reliably coded due to “floating camera angles”.…”

Section: 1 Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trait humor, defined as the “temperamental disposition for good humor” (i.e., towards positive affect; Ruch & Kohler, 1998, p. 208) was measured using the smiling/laughter subscale of the IBQ-R. This subscale is comprised of 10 items requiring parents to rate (0 = never, 7 = always) the frequency of their infant’s smiling/laughing in response to specific situations (e.g., bathing, playing, dressing, etc.)…”

Section: 1 Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, it is not known if humor is related to personality variables like temperament. In adults, Ruch and Kohler (1998) differentiated trait humor, a relatively stable dispositional quality (colloquially called a “sense of humor”), from state humor, a transitory state of readiness to respond to or with humor. Ruch (1997) has demonstrated that one quality of trait humor, cheerfulness, is related to higher frequency, intensity, and duration of smiling and laughter, although this finding has yet to be studied in infants or children.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Infant humor perception from 3- to 6-months and attachment at one year

Mireault¹,

Sparrow²,

Poutre³

et al. 2012

Infant Behavior and Development

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Infancy is a critical time for the development of secure attachment, which is facilitated by emotionally synchronous interactions with parents. Humor development, which includes shared laughter and joint attention to an event, emerges concurrently with attachment, but little is known regarding the relationship, if any, between humor development and attachment in the first year. Thirty 3-month-old infants were videoed at home each month until they were 6-months old while their parents attempted to amuse them. Frequency of infants’ smiles and laughs served as a measure of “state humor”, and the smiling/laughing subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised served as a measure of “trait humor”. State and trait humor were not correlated. Lower trait humor as 6 months predicted higher attachment security on the Attachment Q-sort at 12-months (r=. 46), suggesting that less good-humored infants elicit greater parental engagement, which works to the benefit of attachment, or vice versa. Future studies should examine the importance of smiling and laughter as they relate to other developmental phenomena in the first year.

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“…Therefore, given that trait cheerfulness is an important key to understand and produce humor, and trait cheerfulness has been associated to a high ability to cope with negative events (Ruch and Hofmann, 2012), people scoring high in trait cheerfulness might also have better executive functioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trait Cheerfulness Does Not Influence Switching Costs But Modulates Preparation and Repetition Effects in a Task-Switching Paradigm

et al. 2017

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Many studies have shown the beneficial effect of positive emotions on various cognitive processes, such as creativity and cognitive flexibility. Cheerfulness, understood as an affective predisposition to sense of humor, has been associated with positive emotions. So far, however, no studies have shown the relevance of this dimension in cognitive flexibility processes. The aim of this research was to analyze the relationship between cheerfulness and these processes. To this end, we carried out two studies using a task-switching paradigm. Study 1 aimed at analyzing whether high trait cheerfulness was related to better cognitive flexibility (as measured by reduced task-switching costs), whereas Study 2 aimed at replicating the pattern of data observed in Study 1. The total sample was composed of 139 participants (of which 86 were women) selected according to their high versus low scores in trait cheerfulness. In a random way, participants had to judge whether the face presented to them in each trial was that of a man or a woman (gender recognition task) or whether it expressed anger or happiness (expressed emotion recognition task). We expected participants with high versus low trait cheerfulness to show a lower task-switching cost (i.e., higher cognitive flexibility). Results did not confirm this hypothesis. However, in both studies, participants with high versus low trait cheerfulness showed a higher facilitation effect when the stimuli attributes were repeated and also when a cue was presented anticipating the demand to perform. We discuss the relevance of these results for a better understanding of cheerfulness.

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A temperament approach to humor

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Broadening Humor: Comic Styles Differentially Tap into Temperament, Character, and Ability

Broadening Humor: Comic Styles Differentially Tap into Temperament, Character, and Ability

Infant humor perception from 3- to 6-months and attachment at one year

Trait Cheerfulness Does Not Influence Switching Costs But Modulates Preparation and Repetition Effects in a Task-Switching Paradigm

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