Looking on the Bright Side: Managing Anger with Humour

Recently, there has been a growing interest in humour as an individual difference variable in the field of personality research. One study developed the Humour Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), which focuses on the way in which individuals use humour in their social relationships and when responding to potentially stressful events. A study by Torres-Marín, Navarro-Carrillo, and Carretero-Dios (2018) used a Spanish version of the HSQ to explore the potential relationship between humour styles and anger-related measures (e.g., trait-anger, anger expression, and anger control). For example, given that self-enhancing humour (i.e., maintaining a humorous outlook during adverse situations) is considered a personal coping mechanism, it is expected that this type of humour is associated with a higher control of anger (Torres-Marín et al., 2018).

Their research revealed that self-enhancing did indeed correlate with higher external and internal control of anger and lower trait-anger. This data is consistent with the idea that self-enhancing humour is an effective strategy for regulating emotions and coping with stressful events. On the other hand, aggressive humour (i.e., the hostile expression of humour for the purpose of ridiculing others) correlated with higher internal expression of anger, whereas self-defeating humour correlated with a higher internal expression of anger. It is likely that people who tend to express anger use these maladaptive humour styles as a way of manifesting this predisposition in a more socially acceptable form (Torres-Marín et al., 2018).

This suggests that humour could be a relevant variable for predicting (or accounting for) the way in which individuals manage anger in their everyday lives. Although more empirical studies are needed to clarify the role of humour on well-being, these results provide further evidence for the therapeutic potential of humour for psychological interventions.

---

Source:

• Torres-Marín, J., Navarro-Carrillo, G., & Carretero-Dios, H. (2018). Is the use of humour associated with anger management? The assessment of individual differences in humour styles in Spain. Personality and Individual Differences, 120, 193-201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.08.040