Beermann Ruch
Fakultäten » Philosophische Fakultät » Psychologisches Institut » Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Diagnostik » Prof. Dr. Willibald Ruch » Beermann Ruch
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Humour and virtues | ||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||
| 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. (2011). Can people really "laugh at themselves"--Experimental and correlational evidence. Emotion, 11, 3, 492–501. Beermann, U., & Ruch, W. (2009). How virtuous is humour? What we can learn from current instruments. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 528-539. Müller, L. & Ruch, W. (in press). Humor and strengths of character. Journal of Positive Psychology. Beermann, U., Gander, F., Hiltebrand, D., Wyss, T., and Ruch (2009). Laughing at oneself: Trait or state? In E. Bänninger-Huber & D. Peham (Eds.), Proceedings of the FACS-Workshop 2007. Innsbruck, Austria: Innsbruck University Press, 31-35. |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | humour, sense of humour, virtue, laughing at oneself, FACS. | ||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career), No project-specific funding |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Feb 2005 to Dec 2009 |