Humor styles and borderline personality

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) and four dimensions of borderline personality disorder (affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships, self-harm) as well as a total borderline personality disorder score. Participants were 574 same-sex Australian adult twin pairs. At the phenotypic level, the two adaptive humor style dimensions (affiliative and self-enhancing) were found to correlate negatively with borderline personality and the two maladaptive humor style dimensions (aggressive and self-defeating) were found to have positive correlations with borderline personality. Bivariate genetic analyses demonstrated significant genetic, common environment, and unique environmental correlations. These results indicate that a large component of the phenotypic association between borderline personality disorder and humor style arises from the influence of shared familial and environmental factors associated with both phenotypes.     

Humour's role in the relation between attributional style and dysphoria

The present study empirically investigated the role of adaptive and maladaptive components of humour in the relation between attributional style and dysphoria. Four hundred eighteen students (134 male, 282 female; 2 respondents did not indicate gender) completed questionnaires measuring attributional style, humour styles and depressive symptoms. Among men and women, higher levels of affiliative and self‐enhancing humour, and lower levels of self‐defeating humour, were each associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Additionally, higher levels of affiliative humour provided a buffer against the deleterious effects of a negative attributional style in men, but not women. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Humor Styles Questionnaire: personality and educational correlates in Belgian high school and college students

Studies often treat sense of humour as a unidimensional construct. Recently, however, four different humour styles have been hypothesized and validated by the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). In the present two studies, first, the HSQ received cross‐cultural validation among French‐speaking Belgian students (94 high school and 87 college students). Second, apart from some similarities (Extraversion, low need for closure), the four humour styles were found to be differently related to personality. Social and self‐enhancing humour styles were positively related to Agreeableness, Openness, and self‐esteem, whereas hostile humour was negatively related to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Self‐defeating humour was negatively related to Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, security in attachment, and self‐esteem. Finally, students' humour styles were neither direct nor indirect predictors of school performance, but self‐defeating and hostile humour styles were typical of students with low school motivation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships between the Dark Triad and humor styles: A replication and extension

Two hundred undergraduate students completed paper-and-pencil measures of the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, which taps two adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating) styles of humor. The first purpose of the study was to replicate relationships between these variables reported by Veselka et al. (2010). The second purpose was to expand on their results by investigating relationships between several sub-factors of the Dark Triad (in addition to global scores) and the humor styles. Results provided substantial replication of Veselka et al. at the global level and, at the sub-factor level, provided additional insights into the potential role of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles in the personality dynamics of individuals characterized by the various facets of the Dark Triad.     

Relationship between types of humour and stress response and well‐being among children in Japan

This study examined the relationship between three types of children's humour (aggressive, self‐defeating, and playful) and the children's stress response and well‐being in the Japanese context, where a collectivistic culture is prevalent. To do so, 500 study participants (250 elementary and 250 junior high school students) were recruited. The participants reported the types of humour, stress responses, and level of well‐being that they experienced. After correlation analysis, aggressive humour and playful humour showed a positive correlation with stress responses; in addition, aggressive humour showed a negative correlation with well‐being. Self‐defeating humour showed a negative correlation with stress responses and a positive correlation with well‐being. We also conducted a cluster analysis using the scores for the three types of humour, analysing four groups: “aggressive humourists” (respondents who demonstrated above‐average aggressive humour and scored average for all other humours), “nonhumourists” (below‐average humour in all areas), “self‐deprecating humourists” (above‐average self‐defeating humour, below‐average aggressive humour, and average playful humour), and “multiple humourists” (above‐average humour in all areas). Upon comparing the results of stress responses and well‐being scores among the four groups, we found that self‐deprecating humourists reported the highest level of well‐being. These results show that in collectivistic cultures, self‐defeating humour may be adaptive.     

Humour styles,gelotophobia and self‐esteem among Chinese and Indian university students

This study examined the relationship between humour styles, gelotophobia and self‐esteem among 102 Indian and 101 Hong Kong university students. The Humour Styles Questionnaire, the GELOPH‐15 Scale and the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale were used. Indian students rated the importance of humour significantly higher than Hong Kong Chinese students and considered themselves as being significantly more humorous as well. Both Indian and Hong Kong Chinese students engaged in significantly more affiliative and self‐enhancing humour. Indian students engaged in significantly more affiliative and self‐enhancing humour and reported less gelotophobia than Hong Kong students. Gelotophobia was negatively correlated with self‐esteem and affiliative humour in both samples and was positively correlated with self‐defeating humour in the Indian sample only. Affiliate humour mediated the relationship between self‐esteem and gelotophobia in both samples whereas self‐defeating humour mediated the relationship in the Indian sample only. Taken together, both Indian students and Hong Kong students valued adaptive humour, but Indian students valued humour more than Hong Kong students. This study is a pioneering study of its kind conducted in a Chinese‐Indian sample.     

Trait emotional intelligence,psychological well‐being and peer‐rated social competence in adolescence

The trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) framework provides comprehensive coverage of emotion‐related self‐perceptions and dispositions. In this study, we investigated the relationship between trait EI and four distinct socioemotional criteria on a sample of Dutch adolescents (N = 282; 136 girls, 146 boys; mean age = 13.75 years). As hypothesized, trait EI was positively associated with adaptive coping styles and negatively associated with depressive thoughts and frequency of somatic complaints. It was also negatively associated with maladaptive coping styles, in boys only. Adolescents with high trait EI scores received more nominations from their classmates for being co‐operative and girls gave significantly more nominations to classmates with high trait EI scores for having leadership qualities. The discussion focusses on the operationalization of trait emotional self‐efficacy in adolescents.     

Productive procrastination: academic procrastination style predicts academic and alcohol outcomes

Productive procrastination replaces one adaptive behavior with another adaptive—albeit less important—behavior (e.g., organizing notes instead of studying for an exam). We identified adaptive and maladaptive procrastination styles associated with academic and alcohol outcomes in 1,106 college undergraduates. Cluster analysis identified five academic procrastination styles—non‐procrastinators, academic productive procrastinators, non‐academic productive procrastinators, non‐academic procrastinators, and classic procrastinators. Procrastination style differentially predicted alcohol‐related problems, cravings, risk of alcohol use disorders, and grade point average (all ps < .01). Non‐procrastination and academic productive procrastination were most adaptive overall; non‐academic productive procrastination, non‐academic procrastination, and classic procrastination were least adaptive. Productive procrastination differed from other procrastination strategies, and maladaptive procrastination styles may be a useful risk indicator for preventative and intervention efforts.     

The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space

The construct of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) provides a comprehensive operationalization of emotion‐related self‐perceptions and dispositions. In the first part of the present study (N = 274, 92 males), we performed two joint factor analyses to determine the location of trait EI in Eysenckian and Big Five factor space. The results showed that trait EI is a compound personality construct located at the lower levels of the two taxonomies. In the second part of the study, we performed six two‐step hierarchical regressions to investigate the incremental validity of trait EI in predicting, over and above the Giant Three and Big Five personality dimensions, six distinct criteria (life satisfaction, rumination, two adaptive and two maladaptive coping styles). Trait EI incrementally predicted four criteria over the Giant Three and five criteria over the Big Five. The discussion addresses common questions about the operationalization of emotional intelligence as a personality trait.     

Understanding the effects of exposure to humor expressing affiliative and aggressive motivations

Using humor, being funny, and having a good sense of humor are often reported as desirable qualities. However, little attention has been paid to possible differences in responses to humor reflecting affiliative as opposed to aggressive motivations. In evaluating a stranger, when examples of affiliative and aggressive humor were presented as the stranger’s preferred humor, aggressive humor led to more negative impressions (Study 1). To further explore the impact of humor reflecting affiliative versus aggressive motivations, participants were exposed to equally funny videotapes representing the two humor styles (Study 2). Women’s reported affective experiences varied across the humor styles, but men’s did not. Women and men rated the affiliative video as being more positive than negative, but no differences in the qualities were found for the aggressive video. Results across the two studies demonstrate the importance of considering not just the funniness of humor efforts, but also the social motives conveyed by the humor. Given the complexity of responses to humor, additional research is needed to better understand the contexts within which being funny might have social benefits versus social costs.     

A computational perspective on social attachment

Humans depend on social relationships for survival and wellbeing throughout life. Yet, individuals differ markedly in their ability to form and maintain healthy social relationships. Here we use a simple mathematical model to formalize the contention that a person’s attachment style is determined by what they learn from relationships early in life. For the sake of argument, we therefore discount individual differences in the innate personality or attachment style of a child, assuming instead that all children are simply born with an equivalent, generic, hardwired desire and instinct for social proximity, and a capacity to learn. In line with the evidence, this innate endowment incorporates both simple bonding instincts and a capacity for cognitively sophisticated beliefs and generalizations. Under this assumption, we then explore how distinct attachment styles might emerge through interaction with the child’s early caregivers. Our central question is, how an apparently adaptive capacity to learn can yield enduring maladaptive attachment styles that generalize to new relationships. We believe extensions of our model will ultimately help clarify the complex interacting mechanisms – both acquired and innate – that underpin individual differences in attachment styles. While our model is relatively abstract, we also attempt some connection to known biological mechanisms of attachment.     

The role of personality in defeat: a revised social rank model

This study sought to test the role of personality within the social rank theory of depression. Specifically, self‐criticism was hypothesised to be a risk factor for mechanisms underlying involuntary subordination, while self‐efficacy was hypothesised to have a protective function. Involuntary subordination has been implicated as an underlying cause of depression and it was therefore important to determine the personality variables and other intrapsychic mechanisms that lead to this condition. The sample consisted of 115 participants (average age of 20.2 years) who were involved in athletic competition. Participants were evaluated at baseline for personality and social rank variables and for mood immediately before and after a competitive match. Two models were tested: the first model showed that self‐criticism and neuroticism predicted a heightened perception of defeat following a loss. Self‐criticism also predicted an inability to accept defeat which was associated with a latent variable interpreted as involuntary subordination. The second model demonstrated that self‐efficacy was associated with a more adaptive response to defeat, being negatively related to the perception of defeat. Both models proved to be viable and suggest that different personality styles confer specific vulnerabilities to involuntary subordination in the context of defeating events. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response styles in factual items: Personal,contextual and cultural correlates

This study investigated response styles in factual items and explored their associations with personal, contextual and cultural factors. Responses on various factual questions, cognitive tests and interviewers' observational data from a total of 152,514 respondents in 22 countries in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) were analysed. Indexes of extreme, midpoint and acquiescent response styles were extracted from Likert‐scale and dichotomous responses of factual items. A general response style (GRS) with a positive loading of extreme response style and negative loadings of midpoint and acquiescent response styles was confirmed. This factor showed a similar cross‐cultural patterning as another general factor from attitudinal and self‐evaluative items of Likert scales in a previous study, which indicated the pervasiveness of response styles irrespective of types of survey items. In a multilevel analysis, the individual‐level GRS was found to be negatively related to being male, educational level and literacy competency, and positively related to 3rd‐person presence and background noise, and at country level negatively associated with socioeconomic development. Cross‐level interactions were also found. Implications on the pervasiveness and nature of response styles are discussed.     

I'm Mad as Hell,and I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore: Reports of Negative Emotions as a Self‐Presentation Tactic1

This research investigated how self‐presentation goals can influence public expressions of negative emotions. In Study 1, participants were asked how individuals would present their negative emotions if they were trying to create each of 5 different impressions, which corresponded to 5 self‐presentation strategies identified by Jones and Pittman (1982). Results show that individuals were expected to systematically understate or exaggerate their negative emotions, depending on the impression/strategy. In Study 2, participants discussed with another person a course they were taking where they were not doing as well as they had hoped. They were instructed either to present their feelings honestly, to ingratiate, or to intimidate the other person. Compared to the honesty condition, ingratia‐tion led to fewer negative emotions being expressed, whereas intimidation led to more negative emotions being expressed. Taken together, these studies provide initial evidence about when and how self‐presentation motives can influence reports of negative emotions.     

“A joke a day keeps the doctor away?” Meta‐analytical evidence of differential associations of habitual humor styles with mental health

Humor and mental health are interconnected as is evidenced by a large number of studies. However, associations are only small and inconsistent as the operationalization of humor poses a methodological challenge. The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ ) differentiates four humor styles that might be beneficial or harmful to mental health. The aim of the present study was to meta‐analytically aggregate studies using the HSQ to assess the associations of different humor styles with four areas of mental health (self‐esteem, life satisfaction, optimism, depression). An extensive electronic database literature search identified 37 studies that reported correlations between the HSQ scales and the four areas of mental health in 45 independent samples (total N = 12,734). In total, 16 meta‐analyses were conducted. Moderating effects of participant age, sex, and geographic region were examined via subgroup analyses and meta‐regression. Humor styles differed in terms of their associations with mental health. Health‐promoting humor styles were overall positively correlated with mental health (small‐to‐medium effect sizes). Self‐defeating humor was overall negatively correlated with mental health. Aggressive humor was overall unrelated with mental health. Moderator analyses suggested geographic differences (Eastern vs. Western samples) and sex differences for some of these associations. Fostering specific humor styles may be beneficial for mental health. In addition, observing the habitual use of humor styles might help therapists to develop a better understanding of their clients. Differences in the utilization and the correlates of humor styles in Eastern and Western societies, and sex differences, need to be addressed in future research.     

Are Actual and Perceived Intellectual Self‐enhancers Evaluated Differently by Social Perceivers?

Do actual and perceived self‐enhancement entail differing social impressions (i.e. interpersonal evaluations)? Actual self‐enhancement represents unduly positive self‐views, as gauged by an objective criterion (in this case, IQ scores), whereas perceived self‐enhancement involves the extent to which an individual is seen by informants (i.e. peers or observers) as self‐enhancing. In an online survey (N = 337), a laboratory experiment (N = 75), and a round‐robin study (N = 183), we tested the effects of actual and perceived intellectual self‐enhancement on (informant‐rated) emotional stability, social attractiveness, and social influence. Actual self‐enhancers were rated as emotionally stable, socially attractive, and socially influential. High perceived self‐enhancers were judged as socially influential, whereas low‐to‐moderate perceived self‐enhancers were deemed emotionally stable and socially attractive. Privately entertained, illusory positive (even extreme) self‐beliefs confer social benefits, whereas being perceived as self‐enhancing buys social influence at the cost of being despised. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy,Impression Management and Meta‐accuracy

In this paper, we investigate personality expression and impression formation processes in online social networks (OSNs). We explore whether, when and why people accurately judge others' personalities (accuracy), successfully manage the impressions that others form of them (impression management) and accurately infer others' impressions of them (meta‐accuracy) at zero acquaintance. On the basis of targets' OSN profiles (N = 103), overall perceiver impressions were collected and compared with targets' self‐view, desired impression and meta‐perception. In addition, independent groups of thin‐slice perceivers based their personality impressions solely on one of four kinds of information within the OSN profiles (profile picture, interests field, group list and notice board), and more than 300 OSN cues (e.g. attractive person and number of friends) were coded. Results showed evidence of accuracy, impression management and meta‐accuracy, but their extent was moderated by the trait (e.g. Big Five and self‐esteem), the kind of information and the interplay of trait and information. Findings could be explained by cue expression and cue utilization processes (lens model analyses). Future prospects for studying personality impressions in online and offline environments are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.     

Interpersonal communication and personality: Self and other perspectives

This study was designed to examine the links between the personality of group members and their styles of communication in task groups meeting over a three-month period. Comprehensive measures of personality and of communication styles were taken from the perspectives both of the actor (the self) at the beginning of the group's life and his or her fellow group members (the others) at the end of the group's life. Even after extensive group interaction, these two sets of ratings converged only when observable characteristics were being measured (e.g., extraversion in personality or precision in communication). Self-rated personality across eight dimensions predicted two of the three self-rated dimensions of communication style (Verbal Engagement and Attentiveness to the Other) at only moderate levels; the actor's personality rated on the same eight dimensions by others predicted the actor's communication style as rated by these same others on all three dimensions (Verbal Engagement, Attentiveness to the Other, and Feelings versus Silence), and at much stronger levels than did self-ratings of personality. Both personality and communication styles as rated by others were able to predict the key social outcomes of the actor's likability and task contribution, whereas self-ratings were not. Ratings derived from the self and those derived from others about the self thus appear to develop from different sources of information and relate to different outcomes. The links between personality and communication style are largely confined to the perspective (self versus other) from which they were measured.     

Neediness and connectedness and the five‐factor model of personality

This study examined maladaptive and relatively more adaptive forms of dependency, as measured by the neediness and connectedness factors of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976 ), within a comprehensive scheme of personality provided by the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R; Costa & McCrae, 1992 ). University students (n = 475) completed the DEQ, NEO‐PI‐R, and a measure of depressive symptoms. Results indicated that neediness reflected anxiety, self‐consciousness, vulnerability, unassertiveness, and inactivity, whereas connectedness reflected anxiety, warmth, agreeableness, and valuing of relationships. Neediness demonstrated stronger relations than connectedness with depressive symptoms. These results support the validity of DEQ neediness and connectedness as measures of maladaptive and relatively more adaptive forms of dependency. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social exclusion mediates the relationship between psychopathy and aggressive humor style in noninstitutionalized young adults

Previous research indicates a positive relationship between psychopathy and various negative humor styles. The purpose of the present study was to investigate social exclusion as a possible mediator of the association between psychopathy and negative humor styles in noninstitutionalized young adults. One hundred and thirty-nine university students participated by responding to questionnaires that assess psychopathy, the experience of exclusion from friends, and four humor styles (self-enhancing, affiliative, aggressive, and self-defeating). There was a significant positive association between psychopathy, social exclusion, and aggressive styles of humor, and a negative association between psychopathy and affiliative styles of humor. Moreover, the results of a mediation analysis indicated that the association between psychopathy and aggressive humor style is completely explained by the experience of social exclusion. These results suggest that high psychopathic participants who are socially excluded use an aggressive humor style more often than low psychopathic individuals. The present study provides further insights into the role played by social environmental factors in the links between psychopathy and associated interpersonal characteristics.