THE RELATION OF HUMOR TO DEPRESSION AND PERSONALITY

Background:Depression is a common illness in the world.Humor plays an important role in mental health filed as a coping mechanism. Different personality variables seem to be factors associated with depression. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to study the relationship among different personalities and coping humor which may lead to identified associated depression

Methodology:An online website of the questionnaires was created for data collection using three scales combined: Coping humor scale (CHS), Zung depression scale, Eysencks Personality Inventory (EPI) which was conducted on a convenience sample population of at least 200 college students participants from King Faisal University. After conducting the research, the data was collected, analyzed and processed in tables using the appropriate statistical measurements, in return the results were given and concluded.

Results: We collected data from 502 participants with mean age 23.6 ± 3.5 years old and 74.3 % of participants were females. The mean scores of CHS, depression scales, extraversion/introversion and Neuroticism/emotional stability were 20.27 (out of 28), 44.42 (out of 80), 18.27 (out of 24), and 10.99 (out of 24).There is a significant negative correlation between coping humor scale and depression scale (P=0.00).

Conclusion:There is a significant negative correlation between depression and coping of humor among students in Al Alahsa, Saudi Arabia. Moreover, extraverted participants and emotional stable participants were associated with higher usage of humor to cope and less level of depression.