Item Details

title

THE USE OF HUMOR IN SELF-DISCLOSURE: A COPING STRATEGY FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

author

Chen, Peiqi

abstract

Research on the effect of humor on health of individuals has been underway for several decades. The present study sought to extend previous findings by (1) investigating the effect of humor on emotional improvement in a communicative context wherein one person enacts humor to disclose stress with another individual, (2) explore the role of reappraisal in the relationship between the use of humor and emotional improvement, and (3) explore the role of received social support in the relationship between the use of humor and emotional improvement. A total of eighty-three undergraduate and graduate students at a Southeastern University participated in the online survey. The respondents were instructed to take a moment to recall a recent conversation where they used humor to talk about their stress with another person. Afterwards they completed a series of online questionnaires, including measures of humor types, perceived emotional improvement after the conversation, reappraisal of stress after the conversation, received support from conversational partners, coping humor, humor orientation and perceived stress. Results indicated that humor was positively associated with emotional improvement. Mediation analyses revealed that the positive relationship between humor and emotional improvement was mediated by reappraisal and received social support.

subject

College Students

Emotional Improvement

Humor

Perceived Stress

Reappraisals

Received Social Support

contributor

Giles, Steve (committee chair)

Priem, Jennifer (committee member)

Gladding, Samuel (committee member)

date

2016-08-25T08:35:22Z (accessioned)

2018-08-19T08:30:10Z (available)

2016 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

embargo

2018-08-19 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/62640 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis