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EFFECTS OF SELF-MONITORING, NEED FOR SOCIAL APPROVAL, AND SEX ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CONSTRUCTIVE HUMOR
Abstract
Paul E. McGhee stated that females smile and laugh more than males because they have a stronger need for social approval. Males were suggested to play the complementary role of initiating verbal humor because of their lower need for approval. The impression management literature has demonstrated that the social behavior of high self-monitors is more oriented toward impressing others than is the behavior of low self-monitors. High self-monitors have been portrayed as presenting themselves in accordance with external social rules while low self-monitors have been portrayed as responding more in accordance with other internal psychological factors. Forty-six female and 46 male undergraduates discussed their appearance in potentially embarrassing situations while audio-visual recordings were made of their responses by an opposite-sex researcher. The experiment was described as an investigation concerning awareness of private habits and personal appearance. A 2 (sex) x 2 (self-monitoring) x 2 (need for social approval) MANOVA design with 10 to 12 subjects per cell was used to analyze the smiles, laughter, and verbal humor which the subjects emitted in response to the interview questions. There was significant multivariate support for McGhee's assertions regarding sex differences in smiling, laughing, and joking. But sex differences in the need for approval were not significant. There also was no significant support for the multivariate hypothesis that high self-monitors smile, laugh, and joke more than low self-monitors. There was consistent directional support for the hypothesis that the humorous behavior of high self-monitors is influenced by sex and the humorous behavior of low self-monitors is influenced by the need for approval. However, the effects did not achieve significance for all interview questions. The relationship found between self-monitoring and sex was attributed to the more general sex effect. Alternative explanations for sex differences in the spontaneous emission of smiles, laughter, and jokes were among the topics discussed.
Subject Area
Social psychology
Recommended Citation
DAVIS, EDWARD MCWALLY, "EFFECTS OF SELF-MONITORING, NEED FOR SOCIAL APPROVAL, AND SEX ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CONSTRUCTIVE HUMOR" (1983). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8404811.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8404811