Papousek Ilona, Rominger Christian, Weiss Elisabeth M, Perchtold Corinna M, Fink Andreas, Feyaerts Kurt
Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Department of Linguistics, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Curr Psychol. 2023;42(19):16176-16190. doi: 10.1007/s12144-019-00296-9. Epub 2019 May 24.
This interdisciplinary study examined the structure of humor creation in the specific context of efforts to positively reappraise stressful situations for effective coping. In a sample of = 101 participants, a performance test was used to assess the quantity (fluency, number of generated ideas that qualified as humor) and quality (rated funniness) of humor creation in cognitive reappraisal. Linguistic mechanisms were identified and quantified using cognitive-linguistic methods of corpus analysis, and their employment was correlated with humor production performance on the level of the individual. Almost all individuals were able to come up with reappraisal ideas that qualified as humorous. Depressive symptoms, a negative mood state, and high perceptions of threat did not compromise the participants' capability to create humor. Individuals who were more serious-minded as a trait produced ideas that were rated as less funny, but their basic ability to create humor was unaffected. Metonymy (a contiguity-based principle of meaning extension) emerged as by far the most prominent semantic mechanism in the creation of humorous re-interpretations. Furthermore, its use was related to good humor creation performance in terms of quantity and quality, which is in line with its assumed importance in the extension of meaning in general and the creation of humor in particular. Further effective linguistic mechanisms and conceptual phenomena were identified. The empirical data may be valuable for the development of interventions involving the creation of humorous ideas for cognitive reappraisal.
这项跨学科研究考察了在为有效应对而积极重新评估压力情境的特定背景下幽默创作的结构。在一个由101名参与者组成的样本中，使用了一项表现测试来评估认知重新评估中幽默创作的数量（流畅性，即符合幽默标准的产生想法的数量）和质量（评定的有趣程度）。使用语料库分析的认知语言学方法识别并量化语言机制，并将其运用情况与个体层面的幽默创作表现相关联。几乎所有个体都能够想出符合幽默标准的重新评估想法。抑郁症状、消极情绪状态以及对威胁的高度认知并未损害参与者创造幽默的能力。作为一种特质，思维更严肃的个体产生的想法被评定为不太有趣，但他们创造幽默的基本能力并未受到影响。隐喻（一种基于邻接性的意义延伸原则）是迄今为止在幽默重新诠释创作中最为突出的语义机制。此外，其运用在数量和质量方面都与良好的幽默创作表现相关，这与它在一般意义延伸尤其是幽默创作中假定的重要性相符。还识别出了其他有效的语言机制和概念现象。这些实证数据对于开发涉及为认知重新评估创造幽默想法的干预措施可能具有价值。
