A’funny observation at the right time it can do a lot. Benevolent humor helps medical assistants (MAs) cope positively with their stressful working day, according to a new study published in BMC Primary Care by Martin Luther Halle-Wittenberg University (MLU) and the Federal Institute for Education and professional training (BIBB).
The benefits of humor
Researchers interviewed more than 600 MAs to find out how they experience their work and what style of humor they use in their daily work lives. They found that if respondents preferred light, well-intentioned humor, were more satisfied with their jobs and received more positive feedback, black humor, like sarcasm, was more likely to have drawbacks.
MAs work primarily in primary healthcare, particularly in doctor’s offices. In Germany, working as an MA requires three years of professional training. The daily work routine of MAs can be very demanding. They are responsible for administrative work and, for example, taking blood samples and applying wound dressings.
“Physician assistants are in close contact with patients for much of the day. They have a lot of responsibilities and experience a lot of stress,” says Julia Raecke from BIBB, who is doing her doctorate at MLU.
It has long been known that a humorous attitude can help healthcare workers cope with stress. “However, little is known about the consequences of different styles of humor. We decided to investigate these, as it should make a big difference, whether MAs use puns or sarcasm when dealing with patients. Talking to potentially ill people requires a lot of empathy and verbal dexterity,” explains Professor René Proyer, psychologist at MLU.
The two researchers conducted an online survey of over 600 MAs. The goal was to better understand the relationship between job satisfaction and different styles of humor. In addition to the type of humorous attitude they prefer, respondents also provided information about their well-being at work and how competent they feel at work.
If respondents preferred a positive and benevolent humorous attitude, they were also generally more satisfied with their jobs. But that’s not all: “CEOs with a preference for light humor reported receiving more positive feedback and were more likely to feel they were making a difference at work,” says Raecke.
Surprisingly, supposedly negative or dark humor did not score worse across the board. “Although satire and irony are considered black humor, we found no negative correlation with respondents’ well-being,” adds Raecke.
On the contrary, cynicism and especially sarcasm had negative effects. However, this does not mean that sarcasm should be condemned completely. “A brief sarcastic remark between colleagues could help vent frustration,” says Proyer.
According to researchers, humorous attitude is one of several factors that influence well-being at work. “Knowing the effects of humor and different styles can help make conversations with patients more enjoyable. That said, waiting rooms shouldn’t become cabarets. It’s more about using humor in a conscious and appropriate way,” concludes Proyer.
THE results of the study they could help develop new training programs. Raecke, for example, is studying whether the social and emotional skills of CEOs can be improved with the help of online training.
Link found between humor and body image
Women who use positive humor to describe themselves have higher levels of “body appreciation” than those who use self-deprecating humor, according to new research from the University of Surrey.
The researchers also found that, in addition to having a negative view of their bodies, those who used self-destructive humor were also more likely to have poor eating habits.
Dr Fabio Fasoli, lecturer in social psychology at the University of Surrey, said: “Having a negative body image can affect all areas of a person’s life and lead to depression and social anxiety. Often people don’t talk openly about how they view their bodies, but the way a person talks about themselves through humor can provide valuable insights into those feelings.”
In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Surrey explored the relationship between different humor styles, body perception and eating behaviors in women. The results of this study can be used by clinical psychologists and eating disorder therapists to better understand their patients and promote the use of positive humor to improve their body image.
The researchers interviewed 216 people, analyzing their humor style and perception of their body. The Surrey team found that women who used self-destructive humor, aggressively humiliating themselves, were more likely to be highly critical of their bodies and to possess a strong desire to be thinner.
Those who used such humor were also found to be emotional eaters, often making them feel worse about their bodies and putting them at risk of obesity and resulting diseases.
Furthermore, it was identified that those who used self-enhancing humor, making themselves the target of humor in a good-natured way, reported greater body appreciation and were associated with body kindness. Those who used this type of humor were less likely to be emotional eaters than their peers.
The Surrey team found that women who used both forms of humor reported positive body image and had better eating habits than those who primarily engaged in self-destructive humor.
Jane Ogden, professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey, said: “People using themselves as the butt of jokes is often a technique to gain approval from others, but it can also mean something more worrying is happening in that person’s life.” . This type of humor can indicate that a person is struggling with their body image and self-esteem, which can have a lasting effect on their life.”
Enhancing foreign language learning with humor
Humor has an important role to play when it comes to engaging students in a classroom environment. By facilitating student laughter with appropriate jokes, quips, and visual humor, a teacher can make the learning experience immensely rewarding for their students.
Studies have shown that humor improves the classroom experience by dispersing tension and can also serve as a mnemonic tool to help students prepare for tests.
It is true that there has been some doubt about the appropriateness of using it in foreign language (FL) classrooms, due to concerns that students might fail to appreciate a joke without the necessary cultural context or linguistic competence.
Given its universal nature, it is suggested that it should be employed as a potential strategy also in FL classrooms, taking into account students’ linguistic abilities. But is it possible that all humorous strategies are equally effective? And do students’ attitudes toward it generally influence how they perceive certain varieties of it?
To find the answer to these and other concerns, a pair of researchers, Prof. Peter Neff of Doshisha University, Japan, and Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele of Birkbeck, University of London, UK, performed a study that sought to answer the following questions: Do FL students have any preferences for certain humor strategies?
How their attitudes toward humor in the classroom are influenced by their proficiency in FL, enjoyment of FL, frequency of humor use, and perceived role of humor in language learning. The results of their study were published online June 15, 2022, in the journal Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching.
In this study, researchers interviewed a total of 243 FL students in 24 different counties. Just over half of the participants were learning English as their first language, while the remainder were learning other languages.
The researchers used a five-component survey as the primary assessment tool. These five components covered demographics and background information, components for measuring FL enjoyment (FLE), attitudes toward humor in the classroom, and responses to eight different humor strategies.
The survey, completed by all 243 participants, revealed that students most preferred spontaneous verbal humor along with cartoons and memes, while visual humor, such as making humorous faces and using props, were the least humorous strategies. favorite. Prof. Neff explains:
“What this suggests is that students like their humor to be spontaneous and appreciate verbal humor more than any humor that uses elements of artifice, which can be perceived as childish.” Furthermore, role-playing as a form of humor ranks among the most and least popular strategies.
The strongest predictor of preference among the eight humor strategies was general attitude toward using humor in language learning. “Students who valued humor in their language lessons clearly accepted the idea that language learning should not be a dry, humorless endeavor.
Rather, it should be a process characterized by play, laughter, challenge and experimentation in which teachers joke when things go wrong rather than admonish using demotivating comments,” the authors say. The second strongest predictor of preference for cartoons, puns, role-playing games, and spontaneous commenting strategies was FLE.
These insights reveal something interesting: students don’t want their teachers to become the center of attention by using humor. Rather, humor should function only as a social lubricant that helps facilitate the achievement of educational and social goals.
Laughter, if used conscientiously, can not only lighten the atmosphere of the classroom but also facilitate learning itself.
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