Weighting Assessment of the Effect of Chinese State-Changing Words on Emotions.

Past studies of sentiment analysis have mainly applied algorithms based on vocabulary categories and emotional characteristics to detect the emotionality of text. However, the collocation of state-changing words and emotional vocabulary affects emotions. For example, adverbs of degree strengthen emotions, and negative adverbs reverse emotions. This study investigated the weighted effect of state-changing words on emotion. The research material comprised 73 state-changing words that were collocated with four emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. A total of 84 participants participated in the vocabulary assessment. The results revealed that state-changing words could be classified into four types: intensifying, weakening, neutralizing, and reversing. In a comparison of the weighting factors among emotions, the weighting effect of the same state-changing word in the positive emotion category was particularly evident. The results could serve as a reference for follow-up studies on detecting emotions in text.

Humor Styles and Marital Satisfaction: Cluster Analysis of the Relationship.

Humor use in communication is considered an important factor that affects relationship satisfaction according to past studies. However, there is insufficient evidence on how humor influences marital satisfaction at the couple level. This study aimed to classify couples into clusters with different humor types based on their humor styles and to investigate whether the humor styles of husbands and wives influence marital satisfaction. In total, 170 couples completed a humor style and marital satisfaction inventory by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with grouping the data of their humor styles and using cluster analysis to determine whether there were differences in marital satisfaction among couples with different humor types. The results revealed five humor types for the couples: "positive humor couples," "aggressive husband and self-defeating wife," "humor denier husband and general humor wife," "general humor husband and humor denier wife" and "humor denier couples." The ANCOVA results indicate that the highest marital satisfaction occurs among couples with positive humor and the lowest is among couples with denier humor. This study illustrates the humor types that likely occur among couples and concludes that marital satisfaction is high when both partners use positive humor and low when neither partner uses humor.

Extraversion Is a Mediator of Gelotophobia: A Study of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Big Five.

Previous research has shown that individuals with autism are frequently mocked in their childhood and are consequently more anxious about being ridiculed. Research has also shown that autistic individuals have a higher level of gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) compared to typically developed individuals. However, recent studies have also found that gelotophobia is strongly related to personality, which suggests that personality is a factor that helps to create a higher level of gelotophobia in autistic individuals. To investigate whether this is the case, we recruited 279 Taiwanese high school students, 123 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 156 typically developed students as a control group. Self-reporting questionnaires were used to gather data on the Big Five personality traits and on the gelotophobia-related traits of gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism. The results were analyzed and the two groups were compared for differences in gelotophobia and personality. The ASD group was found to have a higher level of gelotophobia than the typically developed group, but lower levels of gelotophilia and katagelasticism. Additionally, the ASD group was found to have lower levels of extraversion and agreeableness than the typically developed group, but no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of conscientiousness, openness, and emotional stability. We then investigated the possible correlations between gelotophobia-related traits and the Big Five, and consequently the mediation effect of the Big Five on gelotophobia. The results show, firstly, that extraversion rather than ASD is a direct factor in gelotophobia. Secondly, the level of gelotophilia was partly influenced by autism but also to a certain extent by the level of extraversion. Lastly, the results indicate that autism and the level of agreeableness are in conflict when predicting the level of katagelasticism.