25 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2024
    1. A good, adaptive or healthy coping mechanism is one where the coping behaviour leads to the problem being resolved, or at least dealt with, in way that reduces stress and reduces harm. A bad, maladaptive, unhealthy or destructive coping mechanism is one where the behaviour does not resolve the problem in the long-term and may actually increase the harm. Unhealthy coping strategies may feel like they are having the desired effect in the short term.
    2. A coping mechanism, coping behaviour or coping strategy, is behaviour that someone engages in to try and insulate or protect themselves from psychological damage resulting from a problem in life.

      i like this definition a lot

    1. In this sense, humor would help maintain a good emotional state while avoiding solving the problem at hand; and this strategy has been proposed to be particularly effective with low controllable or uncontrollable stressors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic scenario [18].

      humor as a coping mechanism on uncontrollable situations would be hedonistic disengagement because we have no control over the situation nor can we anticipate what's gonna happen next

    2. In a recent review article, Stanisławski proposed the construct of hedonistic disengagement, defined as “a combination of problem avoidance and positive emotional coping. Hedonic disengagement involves the avoidance of information on the problem and a strong tendency to maintain momentary well-being”

      hedonistic disengagement - avoidance and composure?

    3. Approach coping includes strategies such as active coping, positive reframing, and planning, while avoidance coping includes denial, behavioral disengagement, and distraction. While humor has been reported in association with all these strategies [11,12,13,14], it is largely considered an independent coping strategy, which does not cluster with the avoidance and approach coping styles [15].

      humor is an independent coping strategy

    4. Humor is generally considered an adaptive coping strategy [2], that is, a strategy that has been proven to be effective in reducing perceived stress in the presence of stressful events. Humor is also effective in increasing psychological well-being and reducing psychological symptoms.
    5. Humor can be defined as a hedonistic escapism strategy that would work better in the presence of unpredictable or uncontrollable stressors, such as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related confinement measures.

      interesting. would humor then work on situations that are predictable or congruous?

    1. "Developmentally, laughter is one of the first social vocalizations (after crying) emitted by human infants (McGhee, 1979)."

      pg.2

    2. "Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." - Elwin B. White (A Subtreasury of American Humor)

      pg.2

    3. "Infants begin to laugh in response to the actions of other people in about 4 months of age, and cases of gelastic (i.e., laughter-producing) epilepsy in newborns indicate that the brain mechanisms for laughter are already present at birth (Sher & Brown, 1976)."

      laughter is essentially a response

      pg.2

    4. "Humor is a broad, multifaceted term that represents anything that people say or do that others perceive as funny and tends to make them laugh, as well as the mental processes that go into both creating and perceiving such an amusing stimulus, and also the emotional response of mirth involved in the enjoyment of it."

      pg.2

    5. "It is important to recognize that humor is fundamentally a social phenomenon; other people provide the context in which we experience humor...humor occurs in nearly every type of interpersonal relationship. We laugh and joke much more frequently when we are with other people than when we are by ourselves (R. A. Martin & Kuiper, 1999); Provine & Fischer, 1989). People do occassionally laugh when they are alone, such as while watching a comedy show on televion, reading a humorous book, or remembering a funny personal experience. However, these instances of laughter are still "social" in that they involve the imagined or implied presence of other people (Allport, 1954). One is still responding to people as characters in the television program or the book, or reliving in memory an event that involved other people. Humor essentially is a way for people to interact in a playful manner."

      pg.2

    6. "humor is play...Therefore, no definition of humor, no theory of wit, no explanation of comic laughter, will ever stand up, which is not based upon the distinction between playful and serious." (p.15; Max Eastman (1936).

      pg.3

    7. "humor involves an idea, image, text or event that is in some sense incongruous, odd, unusual, unexpected, surprising, or out-of-the-ordinary. In addition, the humor stimulus must be accompanied by cues that signal us to appraise the stimulus in a playful, nonserious, nonliteral frame of mind in which people temporarily abandon rules of logic and expectations of common sense and congruity (e.g. Apter, 1982, Berlyne, 1972; Cohen, 1999; Cundall, 2007; McGhee, 192; Morreall, 1987; Mulkay, 1988).

      pg.4

    8. "...the ability to enjoy humor and express it through laughter seems to be an essential part of human experience."

    1. Many of the coping mechanisms prove useful in certain situations. Some studies suggest that a problem-focused approach can be the most beneficial

      problem-focused approach is the most beneficial coping mechanism

    2. Coping is generally categorized into four major categories which are[1]: Problem-focused, which addresses the problem causing the distress: Examples of this style include active coping, planning, restraint coping, and suppression of competing activities.Emotion-focused, which aims to reduce the negative emotions associated with the problem: Examples of this style include positive reframing, acceptance, turning to religion, and humor.Meaning-focused, in which an individual uses cognitive strategies to derive and manage the meaning of the situationSocial coping (support-seeking) in which an individual reduces stress by seeking emotional or instrumental support from their community.

      interesting

      people with humor as coping mechanism seem to by emotion focused

    3. Maladaptive coping refers to coping mechanisms that are associated with poor mental health outcomes and higher levels of psychopathology symptoms. These include disengagement, avoidance, and emotional suppression.
    4. Generally, coping is divided into reactive coping (a reaction following the stressor) and proactive coping (aiming to neutralize future stressors). Proactive individuals excel in stable environments because they are more routinized, rigid, and are less reactive to stressors, while reactive individuals perform better in a more variable environment.

      reactive coping - focused on the reaction of a specific stressor; better in variable environment proactive coping - focused on neutralizing future stressors; less reactive to stressors

      do people with humor as coping mechanism reactive or proactive?

    5. When individuals are subjected to a stressor, the varying ways of dealing with it are termed 'coping styles,' which are a set of relatively stable traits that determine the individual's behavior in response to stress. These are consistent over time and across situations.

      our coping styles are consistent from a set of consistent or stable traits

    6. Coping is defined as the thoughts and behaviors mobilized to manage internal and external stressful situations.[1] It is a term used distinctively for conscious and voluntary mobilization of acts, different from 'defense mechanisms' that are subconscious or unconscious adaptive responses, both of which aim to reduce or tolerate stress.[2]

      coping - conscious and voluntary defense - subconscious or unconscious adaptive

  2. May 2021
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  5. Sep 2020