Ingrid Brdar

Breaking ground in cross-cultural research on the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia): A multi-national study involving 73 countries

Abstract The current study examines whether the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) can be assessed reliably and validly by means of a self-report instrument in different countries of the world. All items of the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze, GELOPH〈46〉, University of Düsseldorf, 1998; Ruch and Proyer, Swiss Journal of Psychology 67:19–27, 2008b) were translated to the local language of the collaborator (42 languages in total). In total, 22,610 participants in 93 samples from 73 countries completed the GELOPH. Across all samples the reliability of the 15-item questionnaire was high (mean alpha of .85) and in all samples the scales appeared to be unidimensional. The endorsement rates for the items ranged from 1.31% through 80.00% to a single item. Variations in the mean scores of the items were more strongly related to the culture in a country and not to the language in which the data were collected. This was also supported by a multidimensional scaling analysis with standardized mean scores of the items from the GELOPH〈15〉. This analysis identified two dimensions that further helped explaining the data (i.e., insecure vs. intense avoidant-restrictive and low vs. high suspicious tendencies towards the laughter of others). Furthermore, multiple samples derived from one country tended to be (with a few exceptions) highly similar. The study shows that gelotophobia can be assessed reliably by means of a self-report instrument in cross-cultural research. This study enables further studies of the fear of being laughed at with regard to differences in the prevalence and putative causes of gelotophobia in comparisons to different cultures.

Sources and motives for personal meaning in adulthood

This study examined sources and motives for personal meaning in adulthood using a mixed methods approach. Participants (N = 666) from seven Western countries reported sources of life meaning, and why they were meaningful. They rated their perceived meaningfulness of 10 life domains and completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Family and personal life – indicating personal growth, well-being, harmony and self-actualization – emerged as main sources of meaning. Personal life, referring mainly to self-transcendent values, was the prominent motive underlying sources of meaning. Participants grouped according to age and family role revealed life stage differences in meaningfulness across domains. Hierarchical regressions indicated meaningfulness was not a significant predictor of life satisfaction, confirming that hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions are distinct components of well-being. Findings elucidate the importance of self-generated accounts of meaning as these blend personal, self-transcendent and demographic factors and offer insight not typically provided by standardized surveys.

Goal orientations, coping with school failure and school achievement

The present study examined the relationship between goal orientation, coping with school failure and school achievement. Two questionnaires, Goal Orientation (Niemivirta, 1996a) and The School Failure Coping Scale (Rijavec & Brdar, 1997), were administered to 1057 high school students (aged from 15 to 17 years).The first goal of this study was to explore whether students can be classified in groups according to their goal orientation. The results identified four clusters of students with different achievement profiles: learning oriented, work-avoidance oriented, both performance and learning oriented and both performance and work-avoidance oriented group. Learning oriented group used emotion-focused coping the least frequently while students with combined performance and work avoidanc orientation used this kind of coping the most frequently.The second goal was to test the relationship between goal orientation patterns and the adoption of emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies, and academic achievement. It was hypothesized that goal orientation could predict school achievement directly and indirectly through coping strategies. Coping strategies were considered as mediators between goal orientation and school achievement. Path analysis demonstrated that direct effects of goal orientation on school achievement were not significant. The relationship between goal orientation and school achievement was mediated by coping strategies.RésuméLa présente étude a étudié le rapport entre l’orientation vers un but en confrontation avec l’échec et le succès scolaires. Deux questionnaires: l’Orientation vers un But (Niemivirta, 1996a) et l’Echelle Relative l’Echec Scolaire (Rijavec & Brdar, 1997) ont été remplis par 1057 élèves de l’enseignement secondaire (âgés de 15 à 17 ans).Le premier objectif de cette étude était de constater si les élèves pouvaient être classés par groupes en fonction de l’orientation vers un but. Les résultats ont donné quatre clusters d’élèves avec différents profils d’accomplissement: orientés vers l’aquisition de savoir, orientés vers l’évitement du travail, orientés aussi bien vers l’acquisiton de savoir que les performances et orientés aussi bien vers l’évitement du travail que les performances. Les groupes orientés vers l’acquisiton de savoir ont recouru à la confrontation focalisée sur l’émotion le plus rarement, tandis que les élèves avec la combinaison des performances et de l’évitement du travail ont fait recours à cette sorte de confrontation le plus souvent.Le deuxième objectif était de tester le rapport entre, d’une part, les échantillons et l’adoption de deux types de stratégies de confrontation et, d’autre part, entre ces buts et stratégies et le succès académique. Il avait été supposé que l’orientation vers un but pourrait prévoir le succès scolaire directement ou indirectement au moyen des stratégies de confrontation. Ces stratégies de confrontation ont été considérées comme médiateurs entre l’orientation vers un but et le succès scolaire. Les résultats de l’analyse des pistes causales ont démontré que les effets directs de l’orientation vers un but sur le succès scolaire n’ont pas été significatifs. Les stratégies de confrontation ont médiatisé le rapport entre l’orientation vers un but et le succès scolaire.

Coping with school failure: Development of the school failure coping scale

The present study describes the development of a self-report measure of coping with school failure for children and adolescents. A list of 56 items had been collected in the sample of 142 subjects aged from 9 to 18 years. The items were administered to 500 elementary and high school students. Factor analysis of the data produced seven coping strategies: Anger, Accepting Responsibility, Comfort and Forgetting, Seeking Social Support, Parents, Inadequate Reactions, and Disengagement. Internal consistencies were in the .59 to .76 range.Significant age effects were found for Accepting Responsibility, Comfort and Forgetting, and Parents, indicating that elementary school children, compared to high school students, accept greater responsibility, try harder to forget and take comfort, and seek help more from their parents. Significant gender effects were found for Accepting Responsibility, Seeking Social Support, and Inadequate Reactions, indicating that girls accept greater responsibility, more often use social support, and have fewer inadequate reactions than boys.Overall pattern of results also suggests that high achievers use more positive coping strategies (mainly accepting responsibility) and less negative strategies (anger, inadequate reactions and disengagement) than low or average achievers.RésuméL’étude décrit la construction d’un questionnaire permettant d’évaluer le mode de rapport d’enfants et d’adolescents à l’échec scolaire. 56 items ont été retenus à partir d’un échatillon de 142 sujets de 9 à 18 ans. Les items ont ensuite été administré à 500 élèves d’école élémentaire et et de lycée. L’analyse factorielle des donnés a permis de dégager sept stratégies d’affrontement: révolte, acceptation de la responsabilité, consolation et oubli, recherche de soutien social, parents, réactions inadéquates et désengagement. Les consistances internes varient de .59 à 76. On observe des effets significatifs de l’âge pour «acceptation de la responsabilité», «consolation et oubli» et «parents». Ces effets montrent que, comparés aux élèves de lycées, les enfants d’école élémentaire s’attribuent une plus grande responsabilité, essaient davantage d’oublier et de se consoler et recherchent plus d’aide de leurs parents. On observe aussi des effets significatifs du sexe des élèves pour l’acceptation de responsabilité, la recherche de soutien social et ont moins de réactions inadéquates que les garçons. L’ensemble des résultats suggère également que les élèves réussissant bien utilisent plus de stratégies positives d’affrontement (principalement acceptation de la responsabilité) et moins de stratégies négatives (révolte, réactions inadéquates et désengagement) que les élèves moyens ou faibles

Coping with school failure and self-regulated learning

The aim of the study was to explore whether students can be classified in groups according to their coping strategies in dealing with school failure and to assess relationships between coping strategies and various components of self regulated learning.The sample consisted of 470 high school students (15 to 18 years old). The students responded to two self-report questionnaires: The School Failure Coping Scale and The Components of Self-Regulated Learning.A K-Means cluster analysis was used to classify students on the basis of their coping strategies. The first cluster included students high on problem-oriented and low on emotion-oriented strategies. The second contained students high on emotion-focused and low on problem-focused coping strategies. The third group included students with high scores on all strategies, and the fourth those with low scores on all strategies.Results showed that these classified groups differed across all components of self-regulated learning and school achievement. It was concluded that pattern approach to coping with school failure could be useful in future research and that study of coping strategies should include the meaning students attach to their success and failure in school, as well as their level of aspiration.RésuméLe but de cette étude était, d’une part, de vérifier si les élèves peuvent être classés dans des groupes d’après leurs stratégies de faire face au stress dû à l’échec scolaire et, d’autre part, de définir les relations entre les stratégies de faire face et les différentes composantes de l’apprentissage auto-régulé.L’échantillon était constitué de 470 élèves du secondaire (âgés de 15 à 18 ans). Les élèves devaient répondre à deux questionnaires: L’échelle de faire face à l’échec scolaire et Les composantes de l’apprentissage auto-régulé.Une analyse cluster a été utilisée en vue de classer les élèves dans des groupes d’après leurs stratégies de faire face.Les résultats ont montré que, d’après toutes les composantes de l’apprentissage auto-régulé et de même que d’après les succès scolaires, les quatres groupes d’élèves se distinguent de façon très sensible. Il a été conclu, d’une part, que l’approche qui comprend ce type de regroupement d’élèves selon leurs stratégies de faire face peut être utile à de futures études et, d’autre part, que l’importance que les élèves accordent au succès voire à l’échec scolaire de même que le niveau d’aspiration de ces derniers devraient être inclus dans les études des stratégies de faire face.

Religion, Spirituality, and Well-Being Across Nations: The Eudaemonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation

The aim of this chapter was to explore perceived happiness and meaningfulness experienced by 666 adults in the spirituality/religiousness life domain across seven Western countries. Participants concurrently evaluated spirituality and religiosity with regard to their perceived levels of happiness and meaningfulness. Results showed significant cross-country differences in happiness and meaningfulness ratings in the spiritual/religious domain. Findings indicated that religion is perceived to be strongly associated with spirituality but spirituality need not be associated with religion. We also identified groups of individuals with similar profiles of spiritual/religious happiness and meaningfulness and compared the overall levels well-being of these groups across countries. Individuals high in spiritual meaning and happiness were more satisfied with their lives and reported higher general meaning and happiness ratings than participants in the other three clusters. As expected, participants reporting low happiness and meaningfulness in the spiritual/religious domain had the lowest level of meaning. In most countries, high spiritual/religious happiness ratings (in the absence of high meaning ratings) were associated with higher satisfaction with life and general happiness, than were high spiritual/religious meaningfulness ratings (in the absence of high happiness ratings). Conversely, high levels of spiritual/religious meaning overall contributed to well-being in terms of meaningfulness in general. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between hedonic and eudaemonic components of well-being and more specifically between happiness and meaningfulness.

Character Strengths and Well-Being : Are there Gender Differences?

This study investigated possible gender differences in the relationship between character strengths and life satisfaction. Two questionnaires were administered to 818 students (488 females and 330 males), Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) (Peterson & Seligman, Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification, 2004) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, Journal of Personality Assessment 49 (1):71–75, 1985). Zest, hope, and gratitude had the strongest link to life satisfaction. Women and men differed significantly in ten character strengths, but they did not differ in their life satisfaction. Five highest-weighted strengths for women were integrity, kindness, love, gratitude, and fairness, while men weighed highest the strengths of integrity, hope, humor, gratitude, and curiosity. Significant predictors of life satisfaction are also different. For women, life satisfaction was predicted by zest, gratitude, hope, appreciation of beauty, and love, whereas men’s life satisfaction was predicted by creativity, perspective, fairness, and humor. These findings seem to be partly congruent with gender stereotypes. Life satisfaction entails living in accordance with the strengths especially valued in the culture.

FACTOR-ANALYTIC STUDY OF SENSE OF HUMOR IN CROATIA AND THE USA '

A total of 401 Croatian university students completed a translation of the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale. Scores were compared with those of a sample similar in age and sex composition from Omaha, Nebraska (N = 242). The American respondents scored significantly higher on the element of self-described humor creativity. Factor analyses of intercorrelations from the two samples indicated differences in constructions of sense of humor.

Psychometric Comparisons of Benevolent and Corrective Humor across 22 Countries: The Virtue Gap in Humor Goes International

Recently, two forms of virtue-related humor, benevolent and corrective, have been introduced. Benevolent humor treats human weaknesses and wrongdoings benevolently, while corrective humor aims at correcting and bettering them. Twelve marker items for benevolent and corrective humor (the BenCor) were developed, and it was demonstrated that they fill the gap between humor as temperament and virtue. The present study investigates responses to the BenCor from 25 samples in 22 countries (overall N = 7,226). The psychometric properties of the BenCor were found to be sufficient in most of the samples, including internal consistency, unidimensionality, and factorial validity. Importantly, benevolent and corrective humor were clearly established as two positively related, yet distinct dimensions of virtue-related humor. Metric measurement invariance was supported across the 25 samples, and scalar invariance was supported across six age groups (from 18 to 50+ years) and across gender. Comparisons of samples within and between four countries (Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK) showed that the item profiles were more similar within than between countries, though some evidence for regional differences was also found. This study thus supported, for the first time, the suitability of the 12 marker items of benevolent and corrective humor in different countries, enabling a cumulative cross-cultural research and eventually applications of humor aiming at the good.