The Application of Signature Character Strengths and Positive Experiences at Work

We hypothesized that the amount of positive experiences at work (job satisfaction, pleasure, engagement, meaning) is a function of the extent to which the situational circumstances at the workplace allow for the application of an individual's signature character strengths. For the description of the individual a reliable and valid instrument already exists, but not for the environment. Hence, the newly developed Applicability of Character Strengths Rating Scales (ACS-RS) with information on its reliability and validity were also presented. A sample of 1,111 adults filled in the ACS-RS and measures for possession of character strengths and positive experiences at work. The ACS-RS was reliable by means of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. It proved to be valid in several ways being sensitive to: (a) the differences in the applicability of trait-relevant behavior in formal versus informal situations by showing higher applicability of the character strengths in the latter; (b) the differences between traits regarding their applicability across situations; (c) people's disposition to choose situations fitting their dispositions by showing positive relationships between the degree of possession and applicability. Moreover, correlations between applicability of strengths and positive experiences increased with the individual centrality of the strengths. The more signature strengths were applied at the workplace, the higher the positive experiences at work. This study showed that character strengths matter in vocational environments irrespective of their content. Strengths-congruent activities at the workplace are important for positive experiences at work like job satisfaction and experiencing pleasure, engagement, and meaning fostered by one's jo

How virtuous is humor? Evidence from everyday behavior

Historical as well as contemporary writers across many disciplines have referred to humor as a virtue. However, in psychological research it is not clear in which ways humor can serve (as) a virtue, and for which virtues this holds. The current study addresses this issue from the perspective of lay people's everyday lives. The aims of the study are to investigate (1) how often people achieved each of six core virtues identified by Dahlsgaard et al. (Review of General Psychology 9: 203-213, 2005) by means of humor, also in relation to how important the respective virtue was for the participants, (2) to collect reports of situations where participants actually used humor to achieve any of the six virtues, and (3) to study the use of eight comic styles (Schmidt-Hidding, Europäische Schlüsselwörter. Band I: Humor und Witz, Huber, 1963) within the reported situations. Whereas justice and humanity were the virtues considered most important, the virtues most compatible with humor seemed to be humanity and wisdom. However, it was possible to report situations for each of the virtues. More benevolent comic styles were used more frequently to achieve virtue than more malevolent styles. But whenever malevolent styles, like sarcasm or cynicism, were used, this was disproportionally often the case in order to exert justic

The emotions of gelotophobes: Shameful, fearful, and joyless?

The present research examines the hypothesis that the fear of being laughed at is related to three emotions: shame, fear, and (low) joy. In two self-report studies the participants (N = 234, N = 102) filled in the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze, GELOPH〈46〉. Unpublished questionnaire, 1998) for the assessment of the level of gelotophobia and the Anchor Que question form (Ekman, Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life, Owl Books, 2007) measuring five parameters (latency, maximal intensity, duration, expression, and intensity during a typical week) of emotions. Across both studies gelotophobes reported that their maximal experience of shame was of a higher intensity and longer duration, also they reported experiencing shame more frequently during a typical week. Their maximal experience of happiness was less intense, and it took longer for these intense feeling to develop lasting for shorter periods of time. Gelotophobia was also positively related to intensity, duration, and intensity experienced during a typical week of fear. Among individuals with a higher prevalence of shame, compared to happiness, approximately 50% were gelotophobes. Gelotophobia is notably related to the interplay of three emotions fear, shame and the low disposition to happiness. This dynamic is a new, yet equally plausible explanation for the onset of gelotophobi

Book Review of "The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being"

One may believe that reviewing a book on the “happiness industry” for the International Society for Humor Studies shows that humor is starting to embrace its natural bedfellow, positive psychology. However, before we all rush to jump on this new focus of interest, it might be worth considering the critiques offered by the author, William Davies. In his book Davies explores how and why there has been a shift in how we pursue happiness. He argues that happiness has moved away from being a personal goal to one that is used and controlled by a myriad of public entities, exploited by corporations to increase productivity, and even appearing on government agendas. Going beyond his own political and economic expertise, Davies also builds arguments that encompass practices within neuroscience and the science of psycholog

Sensation Seeking, General Aesthetic Preferences, and Humor Appreciation as Predictors of Liking of the Grotesque

The research is based on a model of humor appreciation that was developed thirty years ago by means of a three-mode factor analysis (Ruch, Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie 2: 253-273, 1981). In this study 110 adults rated 48 jokes on 5 criteria. Based on factor analysis a model of humor appreciation was derived that is composed of a classification of jokes and cartoons and of basic dimensions of responses to humor. Both content and structure contributes to individual differences in humor and two structural dimensions (i. e., incongruity-resolution, nonsense) and one content dimension (sexual humor) need to be distinguished. Jokes and cartoons of the incongruity-resolution humor category are characterized by punch lines in which the surprising incongruity can be resolved. The common element in this type of humor is that the recipient first discovers an incongruity which is then resolvable upon consideration of information available elsewhere in the joke or cartoon. Nonsense humor also has a surprising or incongruous punch line, but the punch line may 1) provide no resolution at all, 2) provide a partial resolution (leaving an essential part of the incongruity unresolved), or 3) actually create new absurdities or incongruities. The responses to humor seem to be two-dimensional, as factors of funniness (representing all positive responses) and aversiveness (representing the negative responses). Thus, maximal appreciation of jokes and cartoons consists of high funniness and low aversiveness; while minimal appreciation occurs, if the joke is not considered funny but is found aversive. However, a joke can also be considered not funny but be far from being aversive; or it can make one laugh although there are certain annoying aspects. Berlyne (Humor and Its Kin, 1972) postulated that collative variables (such as novelty, incongruity, anomaly etc.) contribute to the stimulus potential of a variable, which, in turn, affects the appreciation of the artwork. These thoughts were used as a bridge to explore individual differences in humor appreciation (Ruch, Assessment of Appreciation of Humor: Studies with the 3WD Humor Test, 1992). In short, appreciation of INC-RES is hypothesized to be a manifestation of a broader need of individuals for contact with structured, unambiguous, stable forms of stimulation (i. e., preference for redundancy), whereas appreciation of the nonsense structure in humor reflects a generalized need for uncertain, unpredictable, and ambiguous stimuli (i. e., preference for stimulus uncertainty). Earlier research used Wilson's (A Dynamic Theory of Conservatism, 1973) dynamic theory of conservatism who postulates that this trait reflects a generalized fear of both stimulus and response uncertainty. This should lead more conservative individuals to show greater avoidance and dislike of novel, complex, unfamiliar, incongruous events and to prefer and seek out stimuli which are simpler, more familiar and congruent. This hypothesis was validated for visual art, poetry, and music. Not surprisingly, then, the hypotheses that conservative persons find incongruity-resolution humor more funny and nonsense humor more aversive than liberals could be substantiated. While conservatism does not predict the seeking of stimulus uncertainty, the trait of sensation seeking (Zuckerman, Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking, 1994), and in particular the component of experience seeking (ES), does. ES involves the seeking of stimulation through the mind and the senses, through art, travel, even psychedelic drugs, music, and the wish to live in an unconventional style. There is evidence that ES is closely related to the novelty and complexity dimensions of stimuli. Therefore it was hypothesized and substantiated that ES will be positively related to appreciation of nonsense humor (Ruch, Assessment of Appreciation of Humor: Studies with the 3WD Humor Test, 1992). The present study expands the former by studying the relationship between humor appreciation and appreciation of the grotesque. As an art form the grotesque is described as an arbitrarily distorted, exaggerated representation, which seems ridiculous, absurd or scary. The grotesque seems to involve a structural element (i. e., the exaggerated deviation from the reality) and also content elements, like the fearful or disgusting. It is argued that both do add to the arousal potential of the text and hence will be appreciated by the same people that also like more incongruous (both initial and residual incongruity) forms of humor, more complex (vs. simple) visual art and by the high experience seeker. The Test of Appreciation of the Grotesque (TAG) was constructed on utilizing texts by authors such as Burroughs, Charms, Henscheid, von Kleist, Morgenstern, Rosendorfer, Schneider, and Valentin. Twelve experts were asked to rate the degree of grotesqueness of 81 text excerpts on a scale ranging from >>0 = not at all>6 = very much<<. The inter-rater reliability was high and the total score was used to select six excerpts of low, middle and high level of grotesqueness. The TAG was then given to 110 adults who also rated the 30 jokes and cartoons of the 3WD (Ruch, Assessment of Appreciation of Humor: Studies with the 3WD Humor Test, 1992) for their perceived funniness and aversiveness. Furthermore, they filled in the Sensation Seeking Scale by Zuckerman (Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking, 1994) (measuring level of thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition and boredom susceptibility) and the Barron-Welsh Art scale (BWAS; Barron/Welsh, Journal of Psychology 33: 199-203, 1952), which measures preference of complexity vs. simplicity in visual art. The results confirmed liking and aversiveness of the grotesque were uncorrelated. Furthermore, the main hypothesis was confirmed which stated that a general tendency underlies these domains of aesthetics. Liking of grotesque texts correlated positively with appreciation of nonsense and preference for complexity in visual arts. Incongruity-resolution humor correlated only with liking of low level of grotesqueness. Aversiveness of all humor categories correlated positively with aversiveness of the grotesque, presumably due to the shared tendermindedness and negative affectivity. As expected, experience seeking is the subscale of sensation seeking predicting aesthetic preferences. Two step-wise regression analyses were computed with age, gender, the four sensation seeking subscales, the BWAS complexity and simplicity scales, and the 3WD scores as predictors, and liking and aversiveness of the grotesque as criteria. Funniness of nonsense and Experience Seeking together correlated at .57 with the liking of the grotesque. Finding the grotesque aversive was even better predicted (multiple correlation of .64) by aversiveness of nonsense humor, aversiveness of sexual humor and negatively by ES. It is argued that more studies are needed comparing different domains of aesthetics. The framework of the experimental aesthetics encourages interdisciplinary research, which allows combining well-founded theories and empirical methodology. This is a corrected version of the article. The previous version, if needed, can be found under 'Supplemental Material

What constitutes a fulfilled life? A mixed methods study on lay perspectives across the lifespan

Recently, we initiated a new research line on fulfillment in life by developing a conceptual framework and a self-report measure. To enhance conceptual clarity and complement theoretical considerations and empirical findings, we investigated lay conceptions of a fulfilled life in German-speaking participants at different life stages. First, we selected a qualitative approach using an open-ended question asking participants to describe a fulfilled life. Second, for a more comprehensive understanding, quantitative data were collected about the relevance of sources in providing fulfillment and ratings on a fulfilling life in the present and a fulfilled life in retrospect. Qualitative content analysis was used to assess the responses to the open-ended question. One-fifth of the data was double coded, and intercoder reliability was high (Kappa = 0.89). Responses comprised a variety of descriptions, and we grouped them into seven themes, three of which overlapped with the prior conceptualization, namely the core elements of (a) general description, (b) cognitive appraisals, and (c) affective appraisals. Cognitive evaluations related to intrapersonal aspects, particularly having lived life fully, attained personally significant goals, and developed oneself, as well as interpersonal, generative aspects, such as having made a contribution and been able to leave something of value. These categories are mostly in line with what the Fulfilled Life Scale (FLS) measures. Further themes referred to correlates—including (d) sources—and antecedents, including (e) resources, (f) personal characteristics, and (g) quality of life, all considered worthy to be the subject of empirical investigation but which were not included in the conceptual model. Qualitative and quantitative results suggest that individuals derive fulfillment from different sources. Fulfillment from a profession and having a life task was strongly associated with longer-term fulfillment. Only a few age and sex differences were found. The overarching framework developed from the qualitative results can stimulate further investigation. Our findings underscore that a fulfilled life as a distinct construct should be measured directly rather than via a proxy. Insights into the constituents, sources, and antecedents of a fulfilled life can inform practice to promote a life well lived

Humor appreciation and sensation seeking: Invariance of findings across culture and assessment instrument?

It was hypothesized that sensation seeking (SS) is able to predict both the structure and content of jokes and cartoons. Five hypotheses were derived and tested in two samples from Spain and Germany comprising a total of 434 participants. The basic pattern of correlations was replicated for the two samples, and for the different measures of humor appreciation (3-WD, EAHU) and sensation seeking (AISS, SSS). Experience Seeking and Novelty were predictive of low appreciation of incongruity-resolution humor and high appreciation of nonsense humor. Disinhibition and Intensity were positively correlated with funniness of sexual, black, man-disparagement and woman-disparagement humor, and negatively with their aversiveness. When the structure variance from the content categories was removed, the correlations between appreciation of humor contents and sensation seeking increased. This confirmed that structure and content have to be separated both theoretically and empirically in studies of appreciation of content categorie