Completed Research Project

Title / Titel
PDF
Humour and virtues
Original title / Originaltitel
Humor und Tugenden
Summary / Zusammenfassung
During history, humour has been appraised very differently. For example, while humour has been seen as neutral or as vicious (for example in the 16th century in Christianity), sense of humour even was regarded a virtue in the 18th century (see Schmidt-Hidding, 1963). Psychological research treated the sense of humour conceptually as a temperamental trait, as ability, or mental attitude. Yet until now, the measurement of humour as a virtue has not been realized. This dissertation project approaches the sense of humour as a virtue in three major paths. (a) Using existing questionnaires for the measurement of humour, aspects of the sense of humour that are seen as more vicious, neutral or more virtuous are identified. Among the latter, experts identify the nature of the virtue (i.e., by assigning them to one or more of the six universal virtues identified by Dahlsgaard, Peterson, & Seligman, 2005; i.e., courage, justice, humanity, temperance, transcendence, and wisdom). (b) “Laughing at oneself” (as a core component of the sense of humour) which implies the virtuous aspect of modesty, is addressed in different methodological approaches including behavior observation (Using the Facial Action Coding System, FACS, Ekman, Friesen, & Hager, 2002). And (c), the actual use of humour to realize virtues in everyday life is examined. Individuals report actual situations in which they or their interaction partners accomplished a certain virtue by using humour. On basis of this pool of situations an instrument measuring humour as a mean of realizing the six cardinal virtues is created and validated. The instrument will assess the sense of humour as a virtue in conceptually varying approaches, i.e., as temperamental trait, as humour appreciation, and as ability.
Publications / Publikationen
Beermann, U., & Ruch, W. (2009). How virtuous is humour? Evidence from everyday behavior. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 395-417.
Beermann, U, & Ruch, W. (2010). Can people ever laugh at themselves? Experimental and correlational evidence. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Ruch, W. (2004). Humor (playfulness). In C. Peterson and M. E. P. Seligman (Eds.), Character strenghts and virtues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 583-598.
Ruch, W. (2008). The psychology of humor. In V. Raskin (Ed.), A primer of humor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 17-100.
Keywords / Suchbegriffe
humour, sense of humour, virtue, laughing at oneself, FACS.
Project Leadership and Contacts /
Projektleitung und Kontakte
Mag. Ursula Beermann (Project Leader)u.beermann@psychologie.uzh.ch
Prof. Dr. Willibald Ruch (Project Leader)w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch
Funding Source(s) /
Unterstützt durch
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career), No project-specific funding
 
Duration of Project / Projektdauer
Feb 2005 to Dec 2009

© Universität Zürich, 13. Februar 2010, Impressum