This study examined the relationship between humor styles and loneliness among a sample of Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese. A total of 159 Hong Kong undergraduates and 178 Hangzhou undergraduates were recruited to complete a survey composed of the Humor Styles Questionnaire and the Emotional and Social Loneliness Scales. Multiple regression analyses showed that self-defeating humor explained significant variance in both social and emotional loneliness for Hong Kong students, but only in social loneliness for Hangzhou students. Hong Kong students scored significantly higher on aggressive humor and self-defeating humor, and scored significantly lower on affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor than did their counterparts in Hangzhou. This could be attributed to the greater influence of Confucianism in Mainland China than in Hong Kong.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BondM. H. (1996) Handbook of Chinese psychology. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
2.
ChenG.MartinR. (2007) A comparison of humor styles, coping humor, and mental health between Chinese and Canadian university students. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 20(3), 215–234.
3.
ChenG.WatkinsD.MartinR. (2013) A sense of humor in China: the role of individualism, collectivism, and facework. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychological Science, 56(1), 57–70.
4.
CheungC. K.YueX. D. (2012) Sojourn students' humor styles as buffers to achieve resilience. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36, 353–364.
5.
FittsS. D.SebbyR. A.ZlokovichM. S. (2009) Humor styles as mediators of the shyness-loneliness relationship. North American Journal of Psychology, 11, 257–272.
6.
HampesW. P. (2005) Correlations between humor styles and loneliness. Psychological Reports, 96, 747–750.
7.
HoD. Y. F. (1995) Selfhood and identity in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism: contrasts with the West. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 25(2), 115–139.
8.
JiangF.YueX. D.LuS. (2011) Different attitudes toward humor between Chinese and American students: evidence from the Implicit Association Test. Psychological Reports, 109, 99–107.
9.
KazarianS.MartinR. (2006) Humor styles, culture-related personality, well-being, and family adjustment among Armenians in Lebanon. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 19(4), 405–423.
10.
KuiperN.OlingerJ. (1998) Humor and mental health. In FriedmanH. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health. Vol. 2. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Pp. 445–457.
11.
KwanV. S. Y.BondM. H.SingelisT. M. (1997) Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(5), 1038–1051.
12.
LaiC. W. L. (2010) A cross-cultural study of humor. Unpublished bachelor's degree dissertation, The City Univer. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
13.
LinY. T. (1974) Introduction to Chinese wit and humor. In KaoG. (Ed.), Chinese wit and humor. New York: Sterling. P. xxvii.
14.
LiuJ. H.LiM. C.YueX. D. (2010) Chinese social identity and inter-group relations: the influence of benevolent authority. In BondM. H. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Chinese psychology. New York: Oxford Univer. Press. Pp. 579–597.
15.
LiuW. Y.YueX. D. (2012) Relationship between humor styles, self-esteem and subjective happiness among Hong Kong undergraduate students. Discovery – SS Student E-journal, 1, 21–41.
16.
MarkusH. R.KitayamaS. (1991) Culture and the self: implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.
17.
MartinR. A. (2007) The psychology of humor: an integrative approach. New York: Elsevier.
18.
MartinR. A.DutrizacG. (2004) Humor styles, social skills and quality of interactions with close others: a prospective daily diary study. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, Dijon, France, June 14–18.
19.
MartinR. A.Puhlik-DorisP.LarsenG.GrayJ.WeirK. (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, 48–75.
20.
ShaverP. R.BrennanK. A. (1991) Measures of depression and loneliness. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
21.
SunT. L. (2008) Themes in Chinese psychology. Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia.
22.
SunY. L.GuoS. P.LeeH. H. (2009) The relationship between humor styles and loneliness among university students. China Journal of Health Psychology, 17, 153–155.
23.
WeissR. S. (1974) The provisions of social relationships. In RubinZ. (Ed.), Doing unto others. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 17–26.
24.
WittenbergM. T. (1986) Emotional and social loneliness: an examination of social skills, attributions, sex role, and object relations perspectives. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer. of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
25.
WongS.BondM. H.MosqueraR. (2008) The influence of cultural value orientations on self-reported emotional expression across cultures. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 39, 224–229.
26.
YueX. D. (2010) Exploration of Chinese humor: historical review, empirical findings, and critical reflections. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 23, 403–420.
27.
YueX. D. (2011) The Chinese ambivalence to humor: views from undergraduates in Hong Kong and China. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 24, 463–480.
28.
YueX. D.HaoX.GoldmanG. L. (2010) Humor styles, dispositional optimism and mental health: a study among 800 undergraduates in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Society, 11, 173–188.
