The influence of humor styles in coping strategies in Entre Ríos

Abstract

Over the last years there has been a growing interest in the study of the resources that people use from face to a problem. The interest in the study of the characteristics related to the humor has gone in increase, especially for the influence of the development of a new concept in psychology that derives in the call positive psychology (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Zinder and McCullog 2000, in Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, Weir, 2003) which is centered in adaptive strengths such as optimism, faith, courage, as well as humor (Martin 2003, quoted in Martin et al., 2003). Sense of humor has been considered as an unidimensional construct (Omar, 1995) and the consequencies has been some errors in the assesment, as a result of a problem of validity. The present study seeks to introduce certain aspects that have not been considered in the past, so much the potential beneficial effects, as the deleterious forms of the sense of humor as for the psychological well-being. Four dimensions of the sense of humor were assesed (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, Weir, 2003, version Lillo, 2006) relating to the uses or functions in everyday life and the ways of people cope (Fridenberg and Lewis, 1991, version Richaud de Minzi. 2003). They were also significant relationships among styles of humor and ways of coping that could explain the importance of the construct sense of humor, as an important resource to be used. Although it is necessary to highlight that it is not sought to embrace all the components of the sense of humor, but rather it is focused in the interpersonal functions and intrapsíquicas that adolescents use in daily life. These functions are considered most relevant to the well-being. Measuring these aspects of the humor, it is expected that they can explain a greater proportion of the variance as for the ways of people cope.