Associations of humor, morale, and unit cohesion on posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Military personnel experience many stressors during deployments that can lead to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, not all military personnel who are exposed to deployment stressors develop PTSD symptoms. Recent research has explored factors that contribute to military personnel resilience, a multifaceted and multidetermined construct, as a means to mitigate and prevent PTSD symptoms. Much of this research has focused on the effects of individual-level factors (e.g., use of coping strategies like humor, the morale of individual unit members), with some research focusing on unit-level factors (e.g., the cohesiveness of a unit). However, there is little research exploring how these factors relate to each other in mitigating or reducing PTSD symptoms. In this study, we examined the association between deployment stressors, perceived unit cohesion, morale, humor, and PTSD symptoms in a sample of 20,901 active-duty military personnel using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that perceived unit cohesion, humor, and morale were positively associated with each other and negatively associated with PTSD symptoms over and above the effect of deployment stressors. These findings highlight the influence of resilience factors on PTSD symptoms beyond their substantial overlap and have implications for future research as well as the potential development of interventions for military personnel.

Percepción del uso del humor por parte de enfermeras y pacientes en los servicios de salud mental / Perception of the use of humour by nurses and patients at Mental Health Units

Objetivo: conocer, en función de la literatura disponible, el significado del sentido del humor entre enfermeras y pacientes en el contexto de servicios de salud mental, así como determinar los factores que facilitan o dificultan el uso del sentido del humor en las unidades de salud mental. Métodos: se llevó a cabo una revisión narrativa en el periodo 2022-2023. Las búsquedas se realizaron en Pubmed, PsycINFO, LILACS y CINAHL, usando los descriptores: “Nurse-patient relations”, “mental health”, “wit and humor as topic”, "psychiatric nursing”. Se incluyeron todo tipo de documentos que abordaran el tema según los objetivos, publicados desde 2012 hasta noviembre de 2022 en inglés, español o portugués. Se añadió un artículo traducido del coreano por su relevancia. Resultados: se incluyeron 10 manuscritos en la revisión. Los hallazgos sugieren que el sentido del humor se percibe como una herramienta esencial para fortalecer la relación entre enfermeras y pacientes en entornos psiquiátricos. No obstante, se destaca la existencia de factores que podrían conducir a un uso inapropiado del humor, llevando a la deshumanización de la atención y la posible ruptura del vínculo terapéutico. Conclusiones: es importante considerar cuidadosamente el empleo del humor en el contexto de la salud mental, para garantizar su efectividad sin comprometer la calidad asistencial. (AU)

Objective: based on the literature available, to understand the meaning of sense of humour between nurses and patients in the setting of Mental Health Units, as well as to determine the factors that facilitate its use, o make it difficult. Methods: a narrative review was conducted during the 2022-2023 period. Searches were conducted in Pubmed, PsycINFO, LILACS and CINAHL, using the descriptors: “Nurse-patient relations”, “mental health”, “wit and humor as topic”, “psychiatric nursing”. All type of documents addressing this matter according to the objectives were included, published from 2012 until November 2022 in English, Spanish or Portuguese. An article translated from Korean was added due to its relevance. Results: ten (10) manuscripts were included in the review. Findings suggested that sense of humour was perceived as an essential tool in order to strengthen the relations between nurses and patients in psychiatric settings. However, it was highlighted that there are factors which could induce an inadequate use of humour, leading to dehumanization in care and a potential breach in the therapeutic link. Conclusions: it is important to carefully consider the use of humour in the mental health setting, in order to guarantee its effectiveness without compromising the quality of care. (AU)

Boosts for walking: how humorous messages increase brisk walking among cognitively fatigued individuals.

BACKGROUND: A well-studied internal barrier to regular physical activity, and more specifically brisk walking, is cognitive fatigue. However, thus far little research examined how cognitively fatigued individuals can be motivated to exercise, more specifically to engage in brisk walking. This study investigates whether humorous intervention messages might be an effective strategy to motivate cognitively fatigued individuals to brisk walk, and through which underlying processes. METHODS: An online experiment was performed in which variation in cognitive fatigue was induced through mental arithmetic questions. Afterwards, participants (n = 250) recruited through Prolific, randomly received either humorous or non-humorous intervention messages related to brisk walking. Potential mediators of the relations between physical activity, humour and cognitive fatigue were measured, were self-efficacy, self-control, and motivation. RESULTS: First, regression analyses confirmed that cognitive fatigue negatively influences brisk walking intentions and that the perceived humour of the intervention messages moderated this relationship. Second, results showed that self-control and self-efficacy are mediators explaining the relationship between cognitive fatigue and brisk walking intentions. Lastly, this study found that perceived humour of the intervention messages moderated the relationship between cognitive fatigue and self-control, indicating that perceptions of self-control were positively changed after receiving messages that were perceived as humorous compared to messages that were not perceived as humorous, subsequently increasing brisk walking intentions. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to unravel the underlying relationship between humorous intervention messages and brisk walking intentions through positive changes in perceptions of self-control within a cognitively fatigued sample. Results of this study suggest that existing smartphone applications monitoring and promoting brisk walking should integrate tailored message strategies within their cues to brisk walk by implementing humour as a strategy to motivate users when they are cognitively fatigued.

Emotional culture and humor in organizations: A social-functional approach.

Adopting a social-functionalist theoretical lens, this review examines emotional culture and its relation to discrete emotions such as joviality and humor-supportive or "joking" organizational cultures. We propose four primary pathways through which humor influences emotional culture in organizations and social units: (1) creating and defining emotional culture through "bottom-up" affective mechanisms, (2) a "top-down" normative function that promotes or inhibits humor through cultural values, norms, and traditions of organizational life, (3) a maintenance function, whereby humor corrects emotional culture norm violations, and (4) a link to positive work outcomes via a reciprocal feedback loop. We also describe negative consequences of humor for emotional culture, highlight unanswered questions in the literature, and suggest future research opportunities, including a comprehensive new framework.

Humor appreciation can be predicted with machine learning techniques.

Humor research is supposed to predict whether something is funny. According to its theories and observations, amusement should be predictable based on a wide variety of variables. We test the practical value of humor appreciation research in terms of prediction accuracy. We find that machine learning methods (boosted decision trees) can indeed predict humor appreciation with an accuracy close to its theoretical ceiling. However, individual demographic and psychological variables, while replicating previous statistical findings, offer only negligible gains in accuracy. Successful predictions require previous ratings by the same rater, unless highly specific interactions between rater and joke content can be assessed. We discuss implications for humor research, and offer advice for practitioners designing content recommendations engines or entertainment platforms, as well as other research fields aiming to review their practical usefulness.

Humor research in management: Humor as Social Information (HASI).

Humor research is flourishing in Management. Diverse theories have been adopted and diverse factors have been used in research. Nonetheless, these disconnected efforts pose challenges to the development of a coherent body of knowledge on humor in organizational life. I propose the Humor-as-Social-Information (HASI) framework regarding the social effects of humor, and use it to guide my review on recent humor research in Management. Humor evokes affective and inferential processes leading to perceivers' cognitions and behaviors, and these processes are moderated by two sets of factors, including (1) information-processing motivation/ability and (2) humor inappropriateness. The proposed HASI framework highlights how humor exerts social influence within organizations, and paves new avenues for future research that will help further develop "humor science."

"Sorry for laughing, but it's scary": humor and silence in discussions of Colorectal Cancer with Urban American Indians.

BACKGROUND: Given high rates of cancer mortality in Native communities, we examined how urban American Indian and Alaska Native elders talk about colorectal cancer (CRC) and CRC screening. METHODS: We conducted seven focus groups with a total of 46 participants in two urban clinics in the Pacific Northwest to assess participant awareness, perceptions, and concerns about CRC and CRC screening. Using speech codes theory, we identified norms that govern when and how to talk about CRC in this population. RESULTS: Our analyses revealed that male participants often avoided screening because they perceived it as emasculating, whereas women often avoided screening because of embarrassment and past trauma resulting from sexual abuse. Both men and women used humor to mitigate the threatening nature of discussions about CRC and CRC screening. CONCLUSIONS: We offer our analytic results to assist others in developing culturally appropriate interventions to promote CRC screening among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Leader humor across levels.

Leaders use humor. This humor has real effects and has been a topic of scholarly interest. We review and interpret this literature though the lens of leader hierarchical level (front-line managers versus senior executives), enumerating intriguing research possibilities and practical implications. We know much more about the humor of front-line leaders than executives, and much more about benefits than risks of leader humor. Not only are the risks and benefits likely to be amplified for executives, but they are qualitatively different due to the differential reach of executive leadership. In terms of enacting humor, the more diverse set of observers and stakeholders for executive leaders versus front-line managers creates additional challenges and a narrower window for successful use of humor.

Mechanical Dentistry: George Derby, An Unknown Artist, and Rube Goldberg.

For more than a century, at least, tooth extraction by ingenious mechanical contraptions has piqued the interest and imagination of illustrators, especially cartoonists. George Derby, an unknown British talent, and Ruben Garrett Lucius "Rube" Goldberg all dabbled in oral surgical mechanical humor.

Effectiveness of hospital clowning on pediatric anxiety and pain: Network meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Anxiety and pain during medical procedures may have adverse short and long-term consequences. We summarize the effectiveness of hospital clown interventions, as compared with medication, the presence of a parent, standard care, and other non-pharmacological distraction interventions on anxiety and pain in minors undergoing medical procedures. METHOD: Randomized trials were identified in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and CINAHL, and previous reviews. Screening of titles and abstracts and full-texts, data extraction and risk of bias assessment was done by two independent reviewers. We conducted random-effects network and pairwise meta-analyses based on a frequentist framework. RESULTS: Our analyses with 28 studies showed significantly lower anxiety scores in clowning and other distraction interventions as compared with the presence of parents. No differences were observed between clowning, medication, and other distraction interventions. Clowning interventions were superior to standard care in our main analyses, but non-significant in some of the sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, clowning led to significantly lower pain as compared with presence of parents and standard care. No differences were observed between clowning interventions and the other comparators. For both outcomes, large between study heterogeneity was present but no significant inconsistency between designs. Risk of bias was mainly high and accordingly the certainty of evidence is considered moderate to low. CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant difference between medication, other non-medical distraction interventions and hospital clown interventions. Hospital clowns and other distraction interventions were more effective in reducing anxiety and pain in children undergoing medical procedures than the presence of parents alone. In order to allow for better insights regarding the comparative effectiveness of clowning interventions future trials should include detailed descriptions about the clowning intervention itself and the comparator. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Diseño de un instrumento de medida del humor en profesionales sanitarios / Design of an instrument to measure humor in health professionals

Objetivo: Diseñar un instrumento de medida del humor en los profesionales sanitarios. Método: Estudio descriptivo, observacional y transversal de metodología mixta. Se elaboró el instrumento en varias fases: revisión bibliográfica, generación de los ítems, determinación del formato, evaluación por panel de expertos, estudio piloto, reevaluación por panel de expertos y test-retest. Se analizó la pertinencia, la relevancia y el grado de comprensión de los ítems. Se calculó la validez interobservador con el índice kappa y el coeficiente de correlación intraclase, considerándose los valores ≥ 0,61. Se utilizó la t de Student para muestras relacionadas y el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson. Para todas las pruebas se aceptó un valor de p<0,05. Resultados: La Escala Tridimensional del Humor en Profesionales Sanitarios consta de 50 ítems medidos con una escala Likert de 5 puntos en función del grado de acuerdo. El panel de expertos valoró la escala global con 3,57 (0,79) puntos sobre 5. Se obtuvo una fiabilidad interobservador de 0,69 (p<0,001) en el estudio piloto, un coeficiente de correlación de Pearson de 0,71 (p=0,002) y un coeficiente de correlación intraclase de 0,69 (p=0,001) en el test-retest. No se observaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre las puntuaciones del test-retest. Conclusión: La Escala Tridimensional del Humor en los Profesionales Sanitarios es una herramienta innovadora en la medida del humor en el contexto sanitario, creada específicamente para profesionales sanitarios. Antes de su utilización, es necesario analizar su validez y fiabilidad en futuros estudios.(AU)

Aim: The objective of this study was to develop an instrument for measuring humor in health professionals. Methods: Observational, transversal and descriptive study of mixed methodology. The instrument was designed in several phases: literature review, item generation, determination of the scale format, review by the expert panel, pilot study, reevaluation by the expert panel, and test-retest. The pertinence, relevance and comprehension of the items were analyzed. Interobserver agreement was calculated with Kappa and the intraclass correlation coefficient considering values ≥ 0.61. Pared sample Student's t test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used. A level of statistical significance was established at P<0,05. Results: The Three-Dimensional Scale of Humor in Health Professionals consists of 50 items measured with a 5-point Likert scale based on the degree of agreement. Experts’ panel evaluated the global scale with 3.57 (0.79) points out of 5. An interobserver reliability of 0.69 (P<0.001) was obtained in the pilot study. A Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.71 (P=0.002) and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.69 (P=0.001) resulted in the test-retest. No statistically significant differences were observed between test-retest scores. Conclusion: The Three-Dimensional Scale of Humor in Health Professionals is an innovative tool for measuring humor in the health context. This scale is created specifically for health professionals. It́s necessary its validation in future studies.(AU)

Humour interventions for patients in palliative care-a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: The effect of humour on end-of-life patients could be beneficial and is worth investigating. However, data on humour interventions for patients in palliative care are scarce. This study evaluated the effects of a humour intervention in a palliative care setting. METHODS: A two-step intervention was developed based on the humour habits programme by McGhee. Patients were assisted to remember funny episodes from their past and recognize humorous aspects of the present and encouraged to produce humour. The intervention and control group completed questionnaires on life satisfaction, cheerfulness, symptom burden, and perceived stress and if possible gave saliva samples to investigate oxytocin levels. The study was a randomized controlled monocentre study on patients treated in a palliative care ward. Participants had to be conscious and alert enough to complete data collection. Overall, 55 patients were included and randomized to the intervention or control group. RESULTS: Parameters in the control group did not change significantly. In the intervention group, seriousness, bad mood, and stress were reduced. Cheerfulness increased significantly after the intervention. However, the methodologically complex intervention setting was too exhausting for the majority of patients. CONCLUSION: Patients who were able to participate benefited from the effects of the intervention on multiple levels. For future research simple interventions, biomarkers for well-being and assessments by staff or proxies are needed to include patients with reduced cognitive and physical performance status at the end of their lives. TRIAL REGISTRATION: DRKS00028978 German Registry of Clinical Studies.

Injecting fun? Humour, conspiracy theory and (anti)vaccination discourse in popular media.

Conspiracy theories have accompanied vaccination since its mass introduction, circulating, among other forms, in humour - such as cartoons, and now, memes. Importantly, humour has targeted both vaccination and anti-vaccination stances. In this study, we discuss the peculiarities of humorous content within the vaccination debate and uncover the most popular thematic categories, forms and logical mechanisms of humour. We show that humorous and serious discussions on vaccination go hand-in-hand, but playfulness and ambiguity of humour complicate public understanding of the vaccination debate. Our analysis shows that vaccination humour often simplifies the complex issue of vaccination and makes it more understandable and more tangible for a broad audience.

Dynamic cognitive processes of humor generation: activation and inhibition of information.

Humor is a lubricant of interpersonal relationships and is regarded as an important quality of individual creativity. Previous studies have mainly focused on passive humor appreciation and comprehension but ignored active humor generation, especially the cognitive process of humor generation. Based on the hypothesis that humor generation is similar to creative cognition, this study used humorous two-part allegorical sayings to explore whether humor generation involves the cognitive processes of the activation and inhibition of information. The experiment manipulated the duration (5/10 s) of the presentation of the first part of humorous two-part allegorical sayings, which are called "yinyu," and the type of subthreshold probe words (humorous probe words/usual probe words). The results showed that the interaction between the duration of the presentation of yinyu and the type of subthreshold probe words was significant; the correct number of humorous probe words reported was significantly lower than that of usual probe words when the yinyu was presented for 5 s, which reflected the widespread activation of information. The correct number of humorous probe words reported was significantly higher than that of usual probe words when the yinyu was presented for 10 s, which suggested the inhibition of non-humorous information. This study revealed the dynamic cognitive processes of humor generation and verified possible cognitive similarities between humor generation and creative cognition.

Promoção do conforto da criança e do adolescente: O humor enquanto intervenção de enfermagem / Promoting comfort for children and adolescents: Humor as a nursing intervention

As situações de doença e/ou hospitalização de crianças, adolescentes e famílias são consideradas experiências adversas, já que ao vivenciá-las são despoletadas emoções de tonalidade negativa nestes mesmos clientes, associadas principalmente ao ambiente hospitalar desconhecido, aos procedimentos assustadores e potencialmente dolorosos e à separação do seu contexto familiar habitual. Todas estas condicionantes traduzem um estado de conforto comprometido no cliente pediátrico que as experiencia. O presente relatório de estágio tem como foco agregador o humor terapêutico, enquanto intervenção autónoma e independente de enfermagem por pretender responder a um objetivo terapêutico concreto, já que apresenta sustentação teórica e científica válida no campo disciplinar da enfermagem. O humor pode ser considerado uma estratégia de coping útil e eficaz para uma adaptação e gestão emocional da criança, adolescente e família à situação de doença e/ou hospitalização, tendo em vista a promoção do seu conforto. Ao utilizar o humor, os profissionais de enfermagem promovem o brincar, despoletam o riso e o sorriso e dão asas à criatividade e imaginação dos clientes pediátricos num ambiente onde por vezes são descurados. Este percurso formativo objetiva o desenvolvimento e aquisição de competências comuns de Enfermeiro Especialista e de Enfermeiro Especialista em Enfermagem de Saúde Infantil e Pediátrica. Para isso foi adotada uma metodologia de aprendizagem experiencial e de prática reflexiva, baseada em evidência científica. O referencial teórico utilizado para a sustentação da problemática escolhida foi a Teoria de Conforto de Katharine Kolcaba, tendo ainda sido consideradas duas filosofias chave da enfermagem pediátrica: os Cuidados Centrados na Família e os Cuidados não Traumáticos. Das atividades desenvolvidas neste percurso de estágios posso destacar a elaboração do "Kit sem dor Humoroso" com a utilização de materiais lúdicos e humorosos na promoção do conforto da criança em situação de doença e/ou hospitalização, a elaboração de um estudo de caso a uma criança com dor presente e conforto comprometido e a realização de diversas sessões de formação em contexto de trabalho.

The illness situations and/or hospitalization in children, adolescents and families are considered adverse experiences, due to the fact that living them brings up to the surface negative emotions on these clients, mainly associated to the unknown hospital environment, scary and potentially painful procedures, and also due to separation from their regular home environment. All these conditionings lead to a compromise comfort state in the pediatric client who experiences such situations. This intership report focuses on therapeutic humor as an autonomous and independent nursing intervention, as it aims to respond to a concrete therapeutic objective, since it shows valid theorical and scientific support in the disciplinar field of nursing. Humor can be considered a useful and effective coping strategy for the adaptation and emotional management of the child, adolescent and family to the illness situation and/or hospitalization in order to promote their comfort. By using humor, nursing professionals are promoting playing, bringing up the laughter and smiles, and giving room to creativity and imagination amongst the pediatric clients in an environment which these are sometimes neglected This learning path aims the developing and acquisition of common skills of specialist nurse and specialist nurse in pediatrics health. Therefore, a methodology of experimental learning was adopted, as well as a reflected practice, based on scientific evidence. From the review taken, the model chosen to support the underline topic was "The Theory of Comfort" from Katharine Kolkaba. Also considered two main pediatric nursing core beliefs: family-centered care and non traumatic care. From all activities developed on this clinical journey, I would evoke the elaboration of a "Humorous no pain kit", that uses ludic and humorous materials to promote child's comfort in an illness and/or hospitalization situation, a case study of a child with checked pain and compromised comfort, as well as several training education sessions on clinical set.

Entre a Dor e a Alegria: Repercussões Subjetivas no Ser Palhaço(a) / Between Pain and Happiness: Subjective Repercussions in the Being Clown / Entre el Dolor y la Alegría: Repercusiones Subjetivas de Ser Payaso(a)

Investigou-se como a dor e a alegria podem influenciar a construção do ser palhaço(a) com o objetivo de compreender melhor a construção da sua subjetividade. Foram realizadas entrevistas com dez palhaços(as). Utilizou-se como método a análise de conteúdo e o software NVivo® para sistematizar as informações presentes nos discursos dos(as) participantes em doze categorias, agrupadas em dois eixos temáticos e analisadas a partir de sua pertinência na construção do entendimento de ser palhaço(a). Os resultados indicaram que a dor diante de perdas afetivas no processo de ser palhaço(a) passa pela transformação do trágico à comicidade, não para minimizá-la, mas para lidar com a finitude humana por meio da ética, poética e estética de afirmação da vida. A transgressão da palhaçaria permite superar dificuldades e transformá-las criativamente em riso. Conclui-se que o ser palhaço(a) torna-se a vitrine das condições humanas apresentadas por meio do cômico, do trágico, do ridículo, do perder, do político, do rústico e do ser-no-mundo.

It was investigated how pain and joy can influence the construction of being a clown in order to better understand the construction of their subjectivity. Interviews were conducted with ten clowns. Content analysis and the NVivo® software were used as a method to systematize the information present in the participants' speeches into twelve categories, grouped into two thematic axes and analyzed based on its pertinence in the construction of the understanding of being a clown. The results indicated that the pain in the face of affective losses in the process of being a clown goes through the transformation from the tragic to the comic, not to minimize it, but to deal with human finitude through ethics, poetics and life-affirming aesthetics. The transgression of clowning allows you to overcome difficulties and creatively transform them into laughter. It is concluded that being a clown becomes the showcase of human conditions presented through the comic, the tragic, the ridiculous, the losing, the political, the rustic and the being-in-the-world.

Se investigó cómo el dolor y la alegría pueden influir en la construcción del payaso, con el objetivo de comprender mejor la construcción de su subjetividad. Se realizaron entrevistas con diez payasos. El análisis de contenido y el software NVivo® se utilizaron como método para sistematizar la información presente en los discursos de los participantes, en doce categorías, agrupadas en dos ejes temáticos, y analizadas desde la pertinencia en la construcción de la comprensión del payaso. Los resultados indicaron que el dolor ante pérdidas afectivas en el proceso de ser payaso sufre una transformación de lo trágico a lo cómico, no para minimizar el dolor, sino para lidiar con la finitud humana a través de la ética, la poética y la estética afirmadora de la vida. La transgresión del clown te permite superar las dificultades y transformarlas creativamente en risa. Se concluye que ser payaso se convierte en el escaparate de las condiciones humanas que se presentan a través de lo cómico, lo trágico, lo ridículo, lo perdedor, lo político, lo rústico y el ser-en-el-mundo.

The resolution stage, not the incongruity detection stage, is related to the subjective feeling of humor: An ERP study using Japanese nazokake puns.

This study examined the relationship between two cognitive stages of humor processing (i.e., detecting incongruity and resolving it) and the subjective feeling of humor, using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Unlike traditional English jokes, Japanese nazokake puns have a structure in which the detection of incongruity and the resolution of it are separated, which enabled this study to observe the ERPs for these two stages independently. In addition, to investigate how the cognitive stages work when people subjectively find a pun funny, the ERPs elicited by funny and unfunny puns, categorized according to participants' subjective ratings, were compared. This subjective feeling has not received enough attention in previous literature. The results showed that N400 and P600 responses occurred during the incongruity detection stage and the resolution stage, respectively. Furthermore, funny puns enlarged the P600 amplitude compared to unfunny ones, but the N400 amplitude did not significantly differ between the funniness categories. These findings indicate that the resolution stage of humor processing is related to the subjective feeling of humor, rather than the incongruity detection stage.