Examination the relationship between humour types, coping with humour and post traumatic growth

Humour is a multidimensional communication tool with psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects that individuals use to express themselves. Humour, which gives societies a space to criticise the dominant power, also has a facilitating effect on individuals' personal difficulties. The concept of coping through humour points to the use of humour as a coping strategy against stressful experiences. However, it is difficult to talk about a single humour and there are different forms depending on the way individuals use it. In this study, the relationship between coping through humour and humour styles and the concept of posttraumatic growth, which defines the positive changes that can be seen in individuals after traumatic experiences, was examined. Humour Styles Scale, Coping Through Humour Scale, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and sociodemographic information form were used in the study. A total of 585 people between the ages of 18-25, 187 of whom were male and 398 of whom were female, participated in the study. As a result of the analyses, coping through humour was found to be associated with posttraumatic growth. As the use of self-enhancing humour style increased, changes in self-perception, philosophy of life and relationships with others increased. As the score of self-destructive humour increases, the score of change in philosophy of life decreases. No differentiation was found between coping through humour and humour styles according to gender and socioeconomic level variables. Coping through humour was found to be higher in numerical department students than in verbal department students. Participatory humour scores of verbal students were higher than equally-weighted students; self-destructive humour scores of numerical department students were higher than equally-weighted and verbal department students. Keywords: Coping Through Humour, Humour Styles, Posttraumatic Growth