Abstract
This study explores the relationship between alcohol dependence and humor styles based on a large data set of 2752 adults. Participants completed a humor styles questionnaire, assessing four dimensions: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Participants also completed a telephone survey assessing their lifetime use and problems with alcohol. The survey classified individuals as meeting or failing to meet the DSM-IV definition of alcohol dependence. Logistic regression analyses in predicting alcohol dependence categorization resulted in a 95.6% correct classification and two significant predictors: being a man and aggressive humor style scores. These results show that those who characteristically engage in an aggressive humor style, are more likely to meet the criteria for alcohol dependence.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Baughman, H. M., Giammarco, E. A., Veselka, L., Schermer, J. A., Martin, N. G., Lynskey, M., & Vernon, P. A. (2012). A behavioral genetic study of humor styles in an Australian sample. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 15(5), 663–667. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2012.23.
Brodzinsky, D. M., & Rubien, J. (1976). Humor production as a function of sex of subject, creativity, and cartoon content. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 44(4), 597–600. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.44.4.597.
Bucholz, K. K., Cadoret, R. J., Cloninger, R. C., Dinwiddie, S. H., Hesselbrock, V., Nurnberger, J. I., Reich, T., Schmidt, I., & Schuckit, M. A. (1994). A new, semi-structured psychiatric interview for use in genetic linkage studies. Journal for the Studies on Alcohol, 55(2), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.1994.55.149.
Eysenck, H. J. (1997). Addiction, personality and motivation. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical & Experimental, 12(Supplement 2), S79–S87. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1077(199706)12:2+<S79::AID-HUP905>3.0.CO;2-T.
Hakulinen, C., Elovainio, M., Batty, G. D., Virtanen, M., Kivimäki, M., & Jokela, M. (2015). Personality and alcohol consumption: Pooled analysis of 72,949 adults from eight cohort studies. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 151, 110–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.03.008.
Heath, A. C., Bucholz, K. K., Madden, P. A., Dinwiddie, S. H., Slutske, W. S., Bierut, L. J., Statham, D. J., Dunne, M. P., Whitfield, J. B., & Martin, N. G. (1997). Genetic and environmental contributions to alcohol dependence risk in a national twin sample: Consistency of findings in women and men. Psychological Medicine, 27(6), 1381–1396.
Kuiper, N. A., & McHale, N. (2009). Humor styles as mediators between self-evaluative standards and psychological well-being. The Journal of Psychology, 143(4), 359–376. https://doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.143.4.359-376.
Lynskey, M., Agrawal, A., Henders, A., Nelson, E., Madden, P., & Martin, N. (2012). An Australian twin study of cannabis and other illicit drug use and misuse, and other psychopathology. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 15(5), 631–641. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2012.41.
Malouff, J. M., Thorsteinsson, E. B., Rooke, S. E., & Schutte, N. S. (2007). Alcohol involvement and the five-factor model of personality: A meta-analysis. Journal of Drug Education, 37(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.2190/DE.37.3.d.
Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Burlington: Elsevier.
Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), 48–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00534-2.
Maurage, P., Grynberg, D., Noël, X., Joassin, F., Philippot, P., Hanak, C., et al. (2011). Dissociation between affective and cognitive empathy in alcoholism: A specific deficit for the emotional dimension. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 35(9), 1662–1668. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01512.x.
Mendiburo-Seguel, A., Páez, D., & Martínez-Sánchez, F. (2015). Humor styles and personality: A meta-analysis of the relation between humor styles and the big five personality traits. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56, 355–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12209.
Mulder, R. T. (2002). Alcoholism and personality. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 36(1), 46–51. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1614.2002.00958.x.
Myers, S. A., Ropog, B. L., & Rodgers, R. P. (1997). Sex differences in humor. Psychological Reports, 81(1), 221–222. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1997.81.1.221.
Rangarajan, S., & Kelly, L. (2006). Family communication patterns, family environment, and the impact of parental alcoholism on offspring self-esteem. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23(4), 655–671. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407506065990.
Ruch, W., & Heintz, S. (2017). Experimentally manipulating items informs on the (limited) construct and criterion validity of the humor styles questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 616. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00616.
Smucker Barnwell, S., Borders, A., & Earleywine, M. (2006). Alcohol-aggression expectancies and dispositional aggression moderate the relationship between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related violence. Aggressive Behavior, 32(6), 517–527. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20152.
Testa, M., Crane, C. A., Quigley, B. M., Levitt, A., & Leonard, K. E. (2014). Effects of administered alcohol on intimate partner interactions in a conflict resolution paradigm. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 75(2), 249–258. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2014.75.249.
Vernon, P. A., Martin, R. A., Schermer, J. A., & Mackie, A. (2008). A behavioral genetic investigation of humor styles and their correlations with the big five personality dimensions. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(5), 1116–1125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.11.003.
Zeigler-Hill, V., McCabe, G. A., & Vrabel, J. K. (2016). The dark side of humor: DSM-5 pathological personality traits and humor styles. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 363–376. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1109.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to N.G. Martin for providing the data and to R.A. Martin, and P.A. Vernon for their assistance in collecting the data. Data collection was supported by grant funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant DA18267 (MTL).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
The study had ethics approval and participants gave informed consent.
Disclosure Statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest in this study.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schermer, J.A., Kfrerer, M.L. & Lynskey, M.T. Alcohol dependence and humor styles. Curr Psychol 42, 16282–16286 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00508-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00508-2