Humour Styles, Self-esteem, and Subjective Happiness among Young Adults

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19703998

Triparna Choudhury (Department of Psychology, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru, Karnataka)

Psychological well-being among young adults has gained increasing attention within the framework of positive psychology. The present study examined the relationships among humour styles, self-esteem, and subjective happiness, and explored gender differences in humour styles. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from a sample of 76 young adults (38 males & 38 females) aged 18-25 years. Participants completed the Humour Styles Questionnaire (Martin et al., 2003), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). The results indicated significant positive relationships between adaptive humour styles and self-esteem, with self-enhancing humour (r = .396, p < .01) and affiliative humour (r = .285, p < .05) showing positive associations. Adaptive humour styles were also positively related to subjective happiness, with significant correlations observed for self-enhancing humour (r = .352, p < .01) and affiliative humour (r = .372, p < .01). A strong positive relationship was found between self-esteem and subjective happiness (r = .586, p < .01). Gender differences were significant for aggressive humour (t = 2.253, p < .05) and self-defeating humour (t = 2.951, p < .05), while no significant gender differences were found for adaptive humour styles. The findings highlight the importance of adaptive humour and positive self-evaluation as key psychological resources contributing to subjective happiness among young adults.