Humour styles as a moderator in the stress-health relationship

M.A. (Psychology)Perceived stress and its relationship with health has received a considerable amount of attention within the field of psychology. Stress can be described as any load or demand brought about by the person-environment interaction that has the potential to elicit negative changes within the individual; resulting in either adaptation to the taxing circumstances or manipulation of the event in order to achieve a desired outcome. Health is a highly subjective, dynamic process which includes complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Research has shown that stress has the potential to influence physical health, especially with regard to negative or detrimental health outcomes. Humour is a unique experience which is shaped by particular attitudes and feelings within different situations and it can be manifested both positively and negatively. As a consequence of its multifaceted nature, humour has been implicated in affecting stress and physical health outcomes. Thus, different styles of humour, such as self-enhancing humour, affiliative humour, self-defeating humour and aggressive humour, may also affect the perception of stress and aspects of physical health. Results has supported the relationship between humour, stress and physical health. However, there has been little research that has focused specifically on the moderating effect of the humour styles or sense of humour in the relationship between perceived stress and physical health ..