Nicholas A. Kuiper’s research while affiliated with Western University and other places

Since the start of the 21st century, the investigation of various psychological aspects of humor and laughter has become an increasingly prominent topic of research. This growth can be attributed, in no small part, to the pioneering and creative work on humor and laughter conducted by Professor Rod Martin. Dr. Martin’s research interests in humor and laughter began in the early 1980s and continued throughout his 32 year long career as a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Western Ontario. During this time, Dr. Martin published numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and books on psychological aspects of humor and laughter. Professor Martin has just retired in July 2016, and in the present interview he recounts a number of research highlights of his illustrious career. Dr. Martin’s earliest influential work, conducted while he was still in graduate school, stemmed from an individual difference perspective that focused on the beneficial effects of sense of humor on psychological well-being. This research focus remained evident in many of Professor Martin’s subsequent investigations, but became increasingly refined as he developed several measures of different components of sense of humor, including both adaptive and maladaptive humor styles. In this interview, Dr. Martin describes the conceptualization, development and use of the Humor Styles Questionnaire, along with suggestions for future research and development. In doing so, he also discusses the three main components of humor (i.e., cognitive, emotional and interpersonal), as well as the distinctions and similarities between humor and laughter. Further highlights of this interview include Professor Martin’s comments on such diverse issues as the genetic versus environmental loadings for sense of humor, the multifaceted nature of the construct of humor, and the possible limitations of teaching individuals to use humor in a beneficial manner to cope with stress and enhance their social and interpersonal relationships.

Welcome to this special issue of Europe’s Journal of Psychology (EJOP), which honors the many psychological research contributions on humor and laughter made by Professor Rod Martin. After completing his graduate training at the University of Waterloo in 1984, Dr. Martin became a faculty member in the clinical psychology program at the University of Western Ontario. Professor Martin then remained at Western for many years, conducting research on humor and laughter, until his very recent retirement in the summer of 2016.

This study explored how humor may be involved in the identity and intimacy stages of Erikson’s psychosocial model and also bear on psychological well-being. Participants completed measures of identity and intimacy development, several humor styles, and psychological well-being. Findings revealed that greater identity development was associated with more self-enhancing and affiliative humor use and less self-defeating humor use. Greater intimacy, in turn, was associated with higher affiliative humor and lower self-defeating humor use. Additional findings indicated that the prediction of psychological well-being was significantly enhanced when identity, intimacy, and humor styles were all taken into account. These findings were then considered in terms of specifying the underlying processes that may account for the observed links between identity, intimacy, humor styles, and well-being.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of humor style and motor skills in vulnerability to bullying. 729 adults responded to the Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ) and items retrospectively addressing their motor skills and bullying experiences during childhood. Consistent with recent research, poorer motor skills were associated with a greater extent of having been bullied. An association between stronger motor skills and affiliative humor was found, lending support to a shared biological basis theory underlying social and motor competency processes. Most importantly, being bullied was associated with higher self-defeating humor and lower affiliative humor. This supports earlier theoretical work by Klein and Kuiper (2006) and highlights the role that humor styles play in social interactions that can promote positive peer acceptance and wellbeing.

Past research suggests that sense of humor may play a role in anxiety. The present study builds upon this work by exploring how individual differences in various humor styles, such as affiliative, self-enhancing, and self-defeating humor, may fit within a contemporary research model of anxiety. In this model, intolerance of uncertainty is a fundamental personality characteristic that heightens excessive worry, thus increasing anxiety. We further propose that greater intolerance of uncertainty may also suppress the use of adaptive humor (affiliate and self-enhancing), and foster the increased use of maladaptive self-defeating humor. Initial correlational analyses provide empirical support for these proposals. In addition, we found that excessive worry and affiliative humor both served as significant mediators. In particular, heightened intolerance of uncertainty lead to both excessive worry and a reduction in affiliative humor use, which, in turn, increased anxiety. We also explored potential humor mediating effects for each of the individual worry content domains in this model. These analyses confirmed the importance of affiliative humor as a mediator for worry pertaining to a wide range of content domains (e.g., relationships, lack of confidence, the future and work). These findings were then discussed in terms of a combined model that considers how humor styles may impact the social sharing of positive and negative emotions.

In this interview, Dr. Arnie Cann discusses his research and views on the ubiquitous role of humor in psychological health and well-being. The interview begins with Professor Cann recounting how he originally became interested in studying humor. He then reflects on the main findings associated with the wide variety of humor-related studies he has conducted over the years. In doing so, Dr. Cann provides suggestions and ideas for further research investigating the role of humor in health and well-being. Specific topic areas discussed include the use of humor in the workplace and other social domains, personality approaches to humor, humor and interpersonal processes, humor and psychopathology, and humor’s role in dealing with stress and well-being. One of the prominent themes in this interview is the clear recognition of sense of humor as a multi-dimensional construct that includes various components that may either be beneficial or detrimental to well-being. A further important theme is the major distinction between humor as an inherent personality construct versus humor that results from exposure to stimuli (e.g., a comedy film). Comments are also provided by Dr. Cann on how the positive affect stemming from humor may be of particular benefit to the individual. Also discussed is the recent move to more fully integrate contemporary humor research with positive psychology approaches. The interview concludes with Dr. Cann providing several recommendations regarding future theorizing and research on the role of humor in psychological well-being.