A preliminary investigation of sense of humor and purpose in life

It was hypothesized that sense o f humor is related to purpose in life. A convenience sample o f 136 undergraduates completed the Modified Purpose in Life test (Chang & Dodder, 1983-84) and the Multidimensional Sense o f Humor Scale (Thorson & Powell, 1993). The overall correlation between the two scales in this sample was .30 ( p \u3c .001). The sub-scales o f the MSHS that related most robustly to purpose in life were Coping ( r = . 3 1 , p \u3c .001) and Attitude Toward Humor and Humorous People ( r = .45, p \u3c .001)