Moving Forward in Fostering Humour: Towards Training Lighter Forms of Humour in Multicultural Contexts

The following theoretical position paper has the aim to outline two important future directions of humour intervention research. Firstly, existing humour trainings have not differentiated explicitly between different uses of humour or humour that may be virtuous or not. Within the realm of Positive Psychology, all virtuous forms of humour need to be identified and interventions developed that aim at fostering these benevolent/lighter forms. Secondly, most humour trainings have been adapted and conducted in one cultural context. Future trainings should consider cross-cultural perspectives to allow for comparative research and practice. Thus, the current paper first gives an overview on the extant literature on the distinction between lighter and darker forms of humour, as well as showing how humour can serve the virtues proposed by Peterson and Seligman (2004). Then, we elaborate on the findings on humour and well-being, as well as findings on existing humour interventions. The second section starts with open questions and hypotheses on how a new generation of trainings targeting lighter forms of humour could look like. Then, we discuss (potential) cultural differences in humour and how this may affect the design of interventions. When aiming for cross-cultural adaptations of the same humour program, several challenges have to be overcome, such as the term “humour” not having the same meaning in every culture, and cultural rules on what can be laughed at

The Effectiveness of Resiliency based on Islamic Spirituality Training on Mental Health and Spiritual Resiliency among Mothers of Slow Pace (Mentally Retarded) Children

Background & aim: Birth and presence of slow pace children in each family can be considered as challenging and adverse event that probably leads to stress and frustration and mental health related complications. According to several studies that show positive and significant relationship between resiliency and values and religious beliefs and their impact on mental health,the present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of resiliency skills training based on Islamic spirituality in promoting mental health and spiritual resilience among mothers of Slow Pace children. Methods: The present study used a semi-experimental design with pre test-post test which was conducted among mothers of Slow Pace Children in Dehdasht, Iran, and the countryside using random sampling, in which 30 of these mothers were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups, participated in this study. Twelve sessions of resiliency training based on Islamic spirituality were held for experimental group of 15 people.The tools used in this study included a mental health questionnaire-28 (Ghq) and resiliency based on Islamic spirituality researcher made scale that were completed by individuals in pre and post tests. Finally, collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: Analysis of data using multivariate analysis of covariance showed that utilization of Intervention program among mothers of Slow Pace children in experimental group was significantly (P>0/05) effective on mental health and components of resiliency based on Islamic spirituality. In other words, spiritual resiliency skills training was led to improve depressive symptoms, social functioning and components of spiritual resiliency such as patience, contentment, Submission and thanksgiving. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated that through changes in attitude of Slow Pace children's mothers, resiliency skills training based on Islamic spirituality can improve mental health and components of resilience-based on Islamic spirituality and helps them keep their mental health despite the exposure to chronic stress and tension