Article Critique on "Humor Stress and Cognitive Appraisals"

Article Critique 5 pages (1416 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Humor, Stress, Cognitive Appraisals

There have been a number of scientific studies that seem to buttress the argument that "laughter is the best medicine." Humor seems to activate the brain's reward centers, producing a number of neurochemicals that flood the brain. In addition, humor seems to have a relative effect upon cognition, the ability to handle stress, and an individual's sense of self when faced with new or extraordinary stimuli.

Type of Article -- The article under review, Coping Humour, Stress, and Cognitive Appraisals (1993), is an investigative study that describes the relationships between humor and the way the mind cognitively deals with stressful events using humor as a mitigating or coping mechanism.

Major Underlying Theories

Humor contributes to the Mind/Body Balance -- Easies pain and anxiety, reduces stress, allows students to concentrate on curriculum and tasks as opposed to worrying about performance.

Humor maximizes brain power -- Advertising proves that 60 seconds of humor will result in a message that is retained; why not switch the ad message to the academic message.

Humor enhances creativity -- Creativity is the ability of the brain to bring together diverse ideas and generate new ways of looking at old things. The creative process flourishes when individuals are put into the mind set of divergent thinking and allowing humor to diminish anxiety.

Humor facilitates communication -- Tennse situations are alleviated, humor generates trust, humor allows for an approach that says, "I am just like you."

Humor supports the Change Process- While the brain craves order and familiar patterns, there are many times in public school that change occurs. Most of us experience unexpected change, which sometimes handicapps us. Change is good, laughter and tears are closely related; using emotion to help drive change affects numerous regions of the brain at the same time, fostering growth.

Hypothesis -- The authors believe that humor is particularly valuable as a coping mechanism when humans are faced with stressful situations. This hypothesis is based on past literature reviews and the supposition that humor actually evolved within the human species as a way to cope with cognitive and social stressors.

Method -- Research involved 44 female university students who participated in all three phrases of the study. The subjects were all enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a predominantly female college. They were all volunteers, mean age of 19, with a range of 18-30. Each participant filled out three self-report measures:

CHS -- The Coping Humor Scale is a 7 item scale that provides a measure of the degree that individuals maintain a sense of humor in stressful situations -- or how they use humor to cope with stress.

WCS -- The Ways of Coping Scale is a 67 item self-report inventory that focuses on the 8 major domains of coping strategies humans typically use.

PSS -- The Perceived Stress Scale is a 14 item measure that looks at cognitive and emotional aspects in relation to global stress levels -- focusing on the ways the individual's life can be unpredictable, uncontrollable and overwhelming.

The participants were all tested during three time periods: 1) one week prior to the course midterm; 2) immediately post-exam; and 3) one week later. By the final assessment, individuals had received their exam score.

Findings -- Previous studies have shown strong correlation between humor and stress; witness the dark humor of those in highly stressful careers (pathology, law enforcement, morticians, etc.). However, of particular relevance in this research is the actual proven relationship between cognitive function and coping mechanisms with humor. Individuals with a higher sense of humor have a stronger sense of self, they are able to perform better on tests, they are able to discriminate cognitively to a greater degree and their recovery and ability to perform in stressful situations is far greater than those with lower thresholds. These same individuals make initial cognitive appraisals about potential stressors in a more positive manner -- one that allows for solutions rather than impotence.

Validity -- Prior to the exam, scores on the CHS were not significantly correlated with the individual's expected marks or other judgments. Regression analysis indicated that the higher the individual's humor threshold, the less stress they felt about their performance on exams. Once the performance was known… READ MORE

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