o Does humor impact relationship satisfaction? o Four different styles of humor (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003)  Humor which enhances/protects the self Self-enhancing: tolerant, accepting; humorous perspective in the face of stress Aggressive: ridicule, sarcasm; humor without regard for impact on others  Humor which enhances relationships with others Affiliative: jokes, spontaneous humor; occasional putting down of oneself (while maintaining acceptance) Self-defeating: excessively self- disparaging; allowing oneself to be the target of ridicule to gain approval o Self-enhancing and affiliative humor will result in greater relationship satisfaction o Aggressive and self-defeating humor will result in lower satisfaction o Humor style assessed through 32-item questionnaire adapted from Martin et al. (2003) Participants asked to rate their partner’s sense of humor as opposed to their own o Relationship satisfaction measured using 7-item questionnaire from Hendrick and Hendrick (1997) o Asked not to consult partners while taking surveys Example Items – Humor Styles o Self-enhancing “If my partner is feeling depressed, he/she can usually cheer himself/herself up with humor” o Affiliative “My partner enjoys making people laugh” o Aggressive “If someone makes a mistake, my partner will often tease them about it” o Self-defeating “My partner lets people laugh at him/her or make fun at his/her expense more than he/she should” Example Items – Satisfaction o “How well does your partner meet your needs?” o “To what extent has your relationship met your original expectations?” Love to Laugh, Laugh to Love: Humor Styles and Relationship Satisfaction Gabe Persons, Jake Gorman, & John Buri, Faculty Advisor Dept of Psychology, University of St. Thomas o Scores were obtained for humor (8 items corresponded to each) o A bivariate correlation was used to compare satisfaction scores with the 4 humor scores o 70 participants – 18 years of age or older 21 males; 49 females o Recruited online through University of St. Thomas Sona Systems and Facebook o Positive correlation between self- enhancing humor and satisfaction when responses were pooled Females approached significance o Males who reported having partner with aggressive humor showed higher self-reports of relationship satisfaction Female results inverse of this Neither were significant o Future research would benefit from comparing self-ratings of humor to those ratings made by partner o Individuals more satisfied with relationships tend to report higher positive humor use and lower negative humor use (Butzer & Kuiper, 2008) o Perception of a partner’s humor style predicts relationship satisfaction (Cann, Zapata, & Davis, 2011) Positive forms of humor predict higher levels of relationship satisfaction Background Present Study Participants Methods Results Aggressive Humor Self-Defeating Humor Satisfaction (all) r = p =.318 r =.116 p =.340 Satisfaction (males) r =.080 p =.729 r =.251 p =.273 Satisfaction (females) r = p =.088 r =.054 p =.710 Self-Enhancing Humor Affiliative Humor Satisfaction (all) r =.269 p =.024 r =.187 p =.122 Satisfaction (males) r =.224 p =.287 r =.233 p =.310 Satisfaction (females) r =.256 p =.076 r =.160 p =.271 Discussion References Butzer, B., & Kuiper, N. A. (2008). Humor use in romantic relationships: The effects of relationship satisfaction and pleasant versus conflict situations. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 142(3), Cann, A., Zapata, C. L., & Davis, H. B. (2011). Humor style and relationship satisfaction in dating couples: Perceived versus self-reported humor styles as predictors of satisfaction. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 24(1), Hendrick, S. S., & Hendrick, C. (1997). Love and satisfaction. In Satisfaction in close relationships. (pp ) New York, NY, US: Guilford Press. Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), Hypotheses