Humor Styles and Self-Discrepancy: The Relation between Humor Styles and Self-discrepancy among Emerging Adults in India

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between humor styles and self-discrepancy among emerging adults in India. Humor styles and self-discrepancy were measured in a sample of 200 individuals residing in Bengaluru and Chennai (aged 18 - 25, M=22.28), using the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin et al., 2003) and the Self Concept Questionnaire- Conventional Constructs (Watson, 2004). The data was analyzed with SPSS, using Chi-square test for association, Spearman's rank-order correlation and Mann-whitney U test. Findings revealed that there was a significant association between the humor style most used/ humor style least used and the magnitude of self-discrepancy respectively (χ2 = 12.55, p = 0.5; χ2 = 15.80, p = 0.1). However, there was no statistically significant relationship between any of the humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, self-defeating) and self-discrepancy (rs = -0.01, p = 0.84; rs = -0.07, p = 0.30; rs = -0.13, p = 0.06; rs = -0.00, p = 0.92). Furthermore, it was found that emerging adults in India use more adaptive humor than non-adaptive humor, and that males scored significantly higher than females in aggressive and self-defeating humor styles (U = 2732, p = 0.00; U = 3599, p = 0.010). Results also showed that people rated themselves significantly higher on positive traits than on neutral and negative traits (U = 24.50, p = 0.00). More studies may aspire to investigate concepts such as humor and self-concept in relation to Indian culture in order to promote psychological well-being and human understanding.