Recently I read about how personality influences sense of humor which predicts depression... I am interesting in reading more on this topic. Article suggestions would be great! Opinions even better! Thank you in advance.
Very interesting question Olivia, and one I had never thought about before. One thing I have noted in my long career is that types of humor are quite different in different areas of the US and also in different areas of nursing. I also note that more sarcastic and intellectual humor is more notable in certain professionals; notably in ED physicians, psychiatrists, psych nurses and social workers, ED nurses, police officers = also particularly east coast and some large cities. I find it very stress-reducing and I miss it very much since moving to the west coast. I have a tendency to still use it often, but at time receive strange responses ( quiet stares or direct responses that it was found to not be funny) by some. And, I connect quickly to those who also use that type of humor. There have been books written by several psychiatrists describing the useful effectiveness of humor in dealing with the incredible stress of working in some areas of medicine, especially with the chronically ill, children who are very ill or have extremely dysfunctional family situations (as often seen in psych nursing).
I have never seen articles examining personality styles involved but I surely do see the correlation. I am very interested in following your research because I believe that I could never have survived a 40 year career in psych without the use of humor that others, at times, thought was "on the edge". GBH
There is definitely a strong relationship between different types of human humor and psychological coping. What I found interesting is that a top publication on Jewish humor and jokes, did not contain a single joke from Israel. Humor has a lot do with distancing your-self psychologically from a specific situation; you are in it, but try to see it from the outside. This distancing attitude definitely helps you to not be an emotional victim of certain circumstances. The feeling of depression, of not being eventually able to getting through a given situation, will surely be stronger, if you have no sense or tradition of humor and jokes. I would even say: good humor and a good joke can save lives; it is like medicine, but depends on the right dose. (ps. the PDF/scientific text is from RG).
I personally became convinced that the more a person has a sense of humor, the smarter and more protected from any depressions. I am convinced that acute humor can come up with only by an intelligent person, but not stupid. For example, in Russia in the 60s there was a televisional program "The Club of Merry and the Resourceful." In these programs there was a lot of humor. Then these programs were closed and they were gone for a long time. Now these programs are shown again, but there is no any humor in realy. These programs turned into a show business and lost interest, because all the jokes are pre-arranged. A real humor is a sudden humorous response to an unexpected question that is not known in advance. The capital of humor in the Soviet Union was the city of Odessa. Most professional humorists were from Odessa and they were all Jews. For example, the well-known humorist from Odessa Mikhail Zhvanetsky is widely known. There was also a day in the year April 1 as "Day of laughter and humor." On this day everyone joked at each other. When in Russia in the 90s there was a very hard life, there were a lot of humorists. They had been lifting the mood of people and many of them were saved from depressions. Now there are almost no humorists in Russia: many have left for other countries (Izrael, USA. Germany), most have already died.
I would recommend you to check Dr. Sibe Doosje's works. He is my supervisor for my Master's Thesis. He worked on humor styles and has a humor lab. His work would be helpful for you.
Yes. A person can have a sense of humor, a sense of irony, a sense of paradox, a sense of parody, etc. Certain personality types like satire, paradox, sarcasm, language play, etc. These senses correlate with each other, but not at all perfectly. The more of these "senses" a person has, the less depressed they are apt to be. People with schizophrenia, or paranoia lack most or all of these senses because they must engage with life rather than transending from it. Check out this PowerPoint about "Humor and Psychology."
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