Humour Styles as Predictors of Occupational Stress among School Teachers

Abstract

The present research attempts to investigate how different humor styles operate with respect to occupational stress among the teachers in the eastern part of India. Humor has been said to combat stress. The central purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various styles of humor: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating-on teachers’ occupational stress. In addition, the research will test gender differences in humor and examination on this relationship to stress. A hypothesis was formulated that affiliative humor would help teachers with occupational stress. A sample of 198 government and private school teachers in urban and rural locations in Eastern India aged 25-55 years was withdrawn. Stratified random sampling was used to give differential representation. Measurement tools used in the research were the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) (Thorson & Powell, 1993) and the Occupational Stress Index (OSI) (Srivastava & Singh, 1984). The findings may help to formulate stress management techniques for teachers, thereby enhancing well-being and job satisfaction.