Stress and Humor
Bill Conrad
9-29-89
Social Psychology
The life of a college student is quite stressful; with the pressure of exams, independence and simply growing up. I go through many of these feelings in my day to day life which often cause unrest. My typical day includes a series of positive feelings and negative situations which are not easy to deal with at one time on a daily basis. They compound to cause a symptom known as stress which is quite detrimental.
Since I was a child I often liked to make people laugh, maybe it was a way to get attention or maybe it simply was fun to do. For what ever reason this rather 'tweaked' sense of humor has stuck with me for all these years. It is a tool that I use in many aspects of my life in general. If I could make it funny, it was easier for others to deal with and I felt like I was in control of the situation at hand. I also use humor as a defence mechanism which is used to protect me from the unknown. Freud regarded humor as "the highest of [the] defense processes."(1)
One of the more positive affects of humor is its negating affect on stress. In general, if humans laugh more, they have less stress. I probably would not be alive if I was not able to take some of the things I have had to deal with in the past with a humorous angle to it. A friend of mine is not able to take matters so lightly, he is not able to laugh about things even those that should be funny. It is unfortunate because he borders on being a genius of the people I know he is the most intelligent. But he is going to blow up because he is unable to loosen up. This stems from his inability to express himself to others then an occasional fact. I am unable to help him because I cannot help those who will not try. And I have no concept of how to help him other then to try to support him wherever I can.
Stress is a by-product of some of the more primitive aspects of early man. When the existence of the human race simply was composed of the challenged to survive. We had a few things to our advantage that some of the other species of that time did not have. We had an adaptable body, strength and (the most important of all) intelligence. One of the integrated parts of intelligence was the so-called "fight or flight" reaction which pumps adrenaline into the blood and gives us the ability to fight or run. Today we no longer have caveman strength and do not have to fight or run away from all our problems. This creates an excessive amount of adrenaline which accumulates in day to day life. In the typical setting, we have not outlet for the high levels adrenaline, so we deal with it directly. Science has deemed the condition as stress. Some of the symptoms are the heart racing and the brain over thinking situations.
In my life stress is an every day factor; I often "stress" over things which are beyond my power to control or things which have little to do with me. At a party (potty to the Easterners reading this) I was completely stiff, it did not dawn on me until afterwards that I was supposed to have fun. I4o not really know why I stress so much, I suppose because my mother "stresses" over everything and I use her as an example. Another thing which causes me great stress is exams, they never really were a good indication of what my potential was. a good example was the SAT which I got a low score because the only thing I did do during the exam was stress. The testing service indicated that if you took the test again that you would not improve but the second time I did not stress at all and I got a 250 point improvement. In the past I placed studying as a last priority because of the stress associated with completing it. Now I have began to start studying much before hand, it had also increased my scores.
This is my first experience dealing with the stress associated with college. While I am not suffering from being homesick, I am for the first time on my own. I have to make decisions that really mean something. And for the first time I really have responsibility for myself, in the past somebody was always watching over me. At another party I got drunk for the first time this year, it was not really a rebellion but more like I have to do this once and I did not have much homework that weekend. But despite this I am at the apartment alone tonight not at the TKE party. It is not that I would not like to be at it, but I feel this is more important. It is a decision which I made about my life and what is important to me. While it might not seem to be a stressful situation, but I really would rather be somewhere else. I also have to deal with the social structure of this school and those around me. And the emotional bonds between my parents are changing and new ones are arising. All of this is happening right now, and the worst of all is that I can not do anything to slow it down.
They say that comedians are some of the most depressed people in our society. Depression is said to be linked to stress, while this paper is not on depression. But my life has many depressions and exhilarations this is because I have no constants to depend on. I am not sure why, it is probably because I do not have anybody to really trust or talk to. I also believe that the depression stems from an excuse which is that I have better things to do then get depressed, but depression is easier, so I get depressed. Lately I have been feeling less and less depressed, it might be because I am slowly getting over the loss of my girlfriend and making new friends. I seem to link depression to stress by the feeling of helplessness which often accompanies depression. It also causes problems in dealing with anything emotional and it looks bad.
I have listed some of the sources of the stress in my life, but I have not gone into what I do about them. I do not exercise as much as I would like to, and I do not have anybody close to me that I can really talk about it without sounding like a complainer. One of the ways I have deal with stress is through the use of humor. I enjoy watching TV shows like "Saturday Night Live", "Night Court" or M*A*S*H and the many comedy specials on A&E. I also like to make jokes (that are at least be somewhat funny). Last year at New Voices 7 I was persuaded to try out for a part in a play. I did, but instead of the standard monolog or reading, I did a comedy routine. It was not great but everyone liked it; and the most important part was that I liked it. I had a lead roll in the play. Those around me have said that I often make stupid jokes/ comments. I do not mind, I know that everything cannot be funny, but it is worth a try. Which is almost a philosophy of mine, that is to make everything as funny as possible. (Situation permitting)
Analytically, humor has many redeeming values one of them is relieving some aspects of stress. Humor seams to act as a moderator for stress, it allows us to cope with the affects of stress. Humor accomplishes this by setting up a strategy to deal with stress. According to Freud humor is like a money it can be spent to negate the affects of a situation.(2) Humor can also help us to get through situations by defending us against the unknown. It accomplishes this by negating the affect's of pressure and causing us to concentrate on the real issues at hand.(3) Humor can also act as a tension breaker to get us into a group or conversation. The most fundamental use of humor is communication, it can convey messages in ways that no other means can. Which is accomplished by placing the context of the subject in a universal frame of reference. And the biggest advantage of humor is everyone's ability to relate to it.
Humor is often used in the medical field and other fields to negate the problems associated with a high stress environment. It can help a person deal with an operation in a hospital by watching "Candid Camera". The reasoning is that humor can help us deal with the environment of a hospital and the often painful experience of such an ordeal. In one case a patent was exposed to 10 minutes of concentrated humor and wan then able to sleep through the night without the use of pain killers. (4) Aids patents are presently seen as a hopeless case (until a cure is found). All Aids patents are aware that they will die of Aids and makes it had to continue with life. Other then cheering them up and giving them their will to survive, not much can be done. One doctors use of humor has helped many of his patents to live longer and more fulfilling lives even though they have Aids. He has even written a book about 'Humor and Aids' The book concentrates on the reduction of stress in patients and includes a universal hospital joke catalog. His approach is that if you can laugh about it, you can cure it.(5)
Often therapists use humor to help their patents to deal with the trauma of an event they went through. (6) This allows them to deal with something face to face with out the patent really knowing that they are dealing with it. Social workers have a tough time when they work with the pain which is often in a typical social work case. Humor would be the last thing that would seem appropriate in such an instance. However, in an article by Max Siporin a definite use of the application ofhumor has been used to transform pain into constructive growth for both clients and the social worker. (7) This helps both the social worker and the patent to deal with the problems at hand.
One of the arguments against Humor as a stress reducer is the report by Roma Safranek and Thomas Schill which suggested that humor does not have a direct relationship with stress. Rather it indicated that in some ways humor can cause distress.(8) Their report seamed not to be in the same reference as what I am studying. They concentrated on the affects of humor and how laughter made the subjects feel. I was limiting my study to actually being funny and occasionally doing things which were funny. I did not imply that I sat down all day and read funny cartoons (which their study was based upon). I think it could cause apprehension to a subject to be evaluated about the affects on reading something funny in an analytical way. I also felt their report (which has hindered the subject of stress and humor) had little to do with people being funny. It is a different subject when people are reacting to something funny and actually being funny.
The libraries around the immediate area are somewhat limited in the amount of information on the subject I am studying directly. My mother in San Diego offered to send me any information that she could obtain. The information she got was good information pertaining to the subject which my research paper centers around. The problem is that all the articles are from magazines. It is hard to use these articles because they are only the authors opinion, and not based on study. However some of the articles did have some scientific merit. One such article is about a series of interviews of comic performers. It centered around their personal lives and how depressing and stressful they were. The point was made quite clearly that the material they use is from their own life. When you think about the material that they present, it is quite pathetic but they make it funny. They describe it as being the only way to compensate for what they are feeling inside. That brief moment of laughter they get brings them enough happiness to off balance the feelings they have surmounted that day.(9) While these people are somewhat extreme as far as being an example of my topic, it is still relevant.
One of the more recent opportunities which companies have taped is the use of humor in the workplace to improve productivity. Humor in the workplace seams to improve decision making, negotiation, and concentration. The most important aspect of humor is its affect on creativity. Humor seams to stimulate creativity and the creative process. All of this was in a report by David Abramis who designed an experiment where the subjects were subjected to humor in the workplace in different ways. His results showed that a definite correlation existed between a funny workplace and a productive workplace.(10) Which would probably also hold true in the classroom and other such environments.
Since this is a report about the affects of humor, I suppose is should have a humorous ending. But I have stressed so much over this report I cannot think of anything funny. Humor has a definite affect on our lives and the stress our lives generate. For some it is a salvation which keeps our mind alive. Humor is also a tool which makes our life more interesting and easier. Stress on the other hand makes our life much more difficult to deal with. I deal with a part of the stress created by laughing about everything. While humor is not a solution for all of us, it works for me and I enjoy it!!
Foot Notes
(1) Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressful events and psychological Distress: a prospective analysis" Rod Martin
(2) ibid
(3) ibid
(4) ibid
(5) "Comic relief" Iven Jones
(6) "Have you heard the one about social work humor?" Max Siporin
(7) ibid
(8) "Coping with stress: Does humor help" Roma Safanek,
(9) "What's the sense of humor?" Science Digest,
(10) "Laughing at matters-at work" American health
Bibliography
Psychological reports, Aug 1982, page 222
"Laughing away stress" from THE JOY OF STRESS by Pamela Petter published by William marrow and Company cop 1984 Good housekeeping, Jan 1984
"Comic Relief" Positive living, Mar 1988, P 38
"Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods" , Journal of Personality and Psychology, vol 45, 1983, p 1313 to 1323
" Journal of personality and Social Psychology" Sona Blissett, vol 54 1988, p 520 to 525
"Have you heard the one about social work humor?" Max Siporin, Social casework: The journal of social casework, 1984, p 459 to 461
"Does the sense of Humor moderate the impact of life stress on psychological and physical well-being?" Albert Porterfield, Journal of research and personality, 1987, P 307-317
"Humor preference and coping with stress" Leandre Maillet, Psychological reports, Vol 55, 1984, P 309 to 310
"Humor as an antidote" New choices, June 1989
"What's the sense of humor?" Science Digest, Feb 1984
"Laughing at matters-at work" American health, Sep 1984
"Comic relief" Iven Jones, American health, Jan 1986
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