25th Annual Student Research Conference
Humor Styles, Satisfaction with Life and Effect on Memory Recall
Nicholas A. Hall*, Hannah Rackers, Lauren A. Baker, Myra C. Milam, and Erin F. Smith
Dr. Karen Vittengl, Faculty Mentor
Research conducted by Martin et al (2003) supports the existence of four distinct humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating. Research done by Diener et al (1985) developed a Satisfaction With Life Scale. Adaptive humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) are positively correlated with life satisfaction (Jovanovic 2011). Adaptive humor styles are reflective of our definition of light humor. Maladaptive humor styles (aggressive and self- defeating) however were not correlated with life satisfaction despite their negative correlation with affective well-being (Jovanovic 2011). Negative humor styles are reflective of our definition of dark humor. Dark humor is humor that is morbid, cruel, offensive and/or graphic but is still considered funny. The present study will be used to determine the relationship between the Humor Styles Questionnaire, Satisfaction With Life, the perception of dark and light humor as well as their interactions with memory recall.
Keywords: Dark humor, Psychology, Subjective well-being, Memory
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 800-4
Location: Georgian Room - SUB
Time: 3:30