Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

9-17-1976

Abstract

A model was proposed, based essentially on the statements of Berlyne, to explain part of the relationship between trait anxiety and cartoon humor appreciation. The basic points of the model were that humor is caused by the arousal of anxiety by a humor stimulus which is then followed by a decrease in anxiety arousal. The more anxious a person is the greater his need for anxiety reduction through humor. The greater the need for anxiety reduction, the greater the appreciation of anxiety arousing cartoons. If hostile and sexual content cartoons are the most arousing, they would then be the most highly appreciated by highly anxious people. High incongruity cartoons were assumed to be more anxiety provoking than low incongruity cartoons. However, the factor of incongruity was predicted to be a less potent factor than the variable of content. The model also hypothesized that a person's coping style, his general tendency to approach or avoid threatening stimuli, would interact with anxiety in determining humor preference. Hence, to the extent that a person tended to repress as a general coping mechanism, he should not appreciate humor that elicits anxiety. To test this hypothesis 100 subjects, male and female undergraduates at the University of New Mexico were administered the Rorschach Inkblot Test (to determine anxiety level according to the Elizur Scoring System) and the Repressor-Sensitizor Scale (to determine coping style). They then rated for humor 60 cartoons which had been previously rated by other subjects for hostile and sexual content and incongruity. The specific predictions of the model were that: (a) anxiety score would correlate positively with hostile and sexual humor appreciation; (b) Repressor-Sensitizor score would correlate positively with hostile and sexual humor appreciation score; (c) high incongruity cartoons would be rated as more humorous than low incongruity cartoons by high anxious subjects when the cartoon content was neither hostile nor sexual. The results of the experiment confirmed the prediction of a positive correlation between anxiety and hostile humor appreciation (p. < .01). The anxiety and sexual humor appreciation scores were found to be statistically unrelated in this study. Repressor-Sensitizor scores did not correlate significantly with any other variables. There was statistical support for the hypothesis that incongruity is a less influential variable than cartoon content. However, the interaction of content and anxiety level was not in the direction predicted by the model. The discrepancies between the predictions of the model and the outcome of the experiment were discussed in terms of weaknesses in the model and problems with some of the measures. It was proposed that other measures of coping style be employed in later investigations. It was also suggested that operational definitions of incongruity vary so greatly in the literature that it is difficult to draw any conclusions from the experiments investigating the incongruity-humor relationship. It was concluded that trait anxiety and hostile humor appreciation are positively related at least to a small but statistically significant degree. The model proposed in this study received some indirect support from these findings.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Samuel Roll

Second Committee Member

Sidney Rosenblum

Third Committee Member

Thomas Patrick Friden

Fourth Committee Member

Britton Kenneth Ruebush

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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