ادغام سلسله مراتبی عوامل ضدموضعی سلامت عمومی در دانشجویان: پنج عامل بزرگ، هوش هیجانی خصلتی و سبک های طنز

Research on the psychological mechanisms underlying the link between personality and health is still premature. This study argues for an integrated multistage approach in which lower-order traits mediate the impact of higher-order traits on health. A total of 1038 university students (738 female and 300 male) completed the Big Five, trait Emotional Intelligence (EI), Humour Styles and General Health questionnaires. Structural equation modelling showed that, as hypothesized, trait EI and three of the humour styles fully mediated the paths from Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to General Health. Moreover, the link between Neuroticism and General Health was partially mediated by trait EI and three of the humour styles. This study provides empirical evidence for an integrated multistage model that shows how multiple traits can be integrated to jointly impact on General Health.

Over the past decades a number of potential mechanisms that might link personality and health have been proposed (Smith, 2006), including mediation models in which the relation between traits and health is mediated by other variables (e.g. health behaviours). However, few studies have empirically tested these mechanisms. Smith (2006) recently noted that research on these mechanisms is largely premature and that only few studies have used formal tests of mediation. Thus, this study sets out to argue for, and initially validate an integrated multistage approach in which lower-order, proximal traits mediate the impact of higher-order, distal traits on health. This approach is based on conceptualizations of multiple levels of influence that describe distal attributes as non-task or non-situation specific and stable over time (Hough & Schneider, 1996). Proximal variables, in contrast, are assumed to have more immediate effects, are more situationally bound and more malleable (Bandura, 1997). The assumption is that combinations of proximal and distal predictor variables are better at predicting an outcome than additive or independent contributions of multiple single predictors (Zaccaro, 2007). The current research aims to test this approach by examining the role of trait Emotional Intelligence (trait EI; Petrides & Furnham, 2003) and humour styles (Martin, Larsen, Puhlik-Doris, Gray, & Weir, 2003) as mediators of the paths between the Big Five (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2005) and General Health (GH, conceptualized in terms of self-perceived mental health and well-being; Goldberg & Williams, 1988). The Big Five personality dimensions (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) were used as higher-level distal variables because they are a widely used taxonomy of personality traits that have been assumed to assess personality at the highest level of description (McCrae & Costa, 1995). The relations between the Big Five and mental health are widely researched (Enns et al., 2001, Goodwin and Friedman, 2006, Jerram and Coleman, 1999 and Kirmayer et al., 1994), and Conscientiousness (as a positive predictor) and Neuroticism (as a negative predictor) show the most consistent and strongest relations to mental health and well-being. The rationale for including trait EI and humour styles as proximal mediator variables is that they are two lower-level dispositional factors that have been shown to be of interest in relation to health. Moreover, whilst previous research has established a robust negative relationship between trait EI and mental health problems (Dawda and Hart, 2000 and Mavroveli et al., 2007), Saklofske, Austin, Galloway, and Davidson (2007) recently noted that there are few studies on the relationship between trait EI and other health-related dispositional measures. Indeed, little is known about the relations between humour and trait EI and more attention should be drawn to this neglected relationship, as both constructs are salient in positive psychology (although maladaptive sides to humour and trait EI have also been acknowledged; Martin et al., 2003 and Sevdalis et al., 2007). Trait EI is conceptualized as a personality trait located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies (Petrides, Furnham, & Mavroveli, 2007). High trait EI individuals exhibit good stress management skills and an ability to appraise, express and manage their emotions (Petrides, 2001). A number of studies have shown that trait EI is a protective factor with respect to mental health and psychological well-being, showing for instance a negative association with depression (Dawda & Hart, 2000) and psychosomatic complaints (Mavroveli et al., 2007). Further, deficits in trait EI have psychopathological implications; for instance low trait EI has been associated with psychopathy (Malterer, Glass, & Newman, 2008), Machiavellianism (Austin, Farrelly, Black, & Moore, 2007), dysfunctional attitudes and almost all personality disorders of ICD-10 and DSM-IV (Petrides et al., 2007). Although there is evidence for a positive relationship between germane forms of humour and health or well-being, findings have often been inconsistent and have accounted for only a small proportion of the variance in health (Martin et al., 2003). Martin et al. (2003) view this inconsistency as a result of researchers using measures that assess humour as a thoroughly positive concept, whilst widely neglecting the less desirable, “dark” sides of humour, such as sarcasm. Thus, in order to widen the predictive scopes of humour measures, Martin et al. (2003) introduced the Humour Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). The HSQ distinguishes between two styles of adaptive humour: affiliative humour (the use of humour to enhance one’s relationship with others) and self-enhancing humour (the use of humour to enhance the self) and two styles of maladaptive humour: aggressive humour (the use of humour to enhance the self at the expense of others) and self-defeating humour (the use of humour to enhance one’s relationship with others at the expense of oneself). Martin et al. (2003) found the positive humour styles to be beneficial to several aspects of psychological health (including anxiety and depression), whereas self-defeating humour was found to be detrimental to psychological health. Evidence for a link between aspects of mental health and aggressive humour was weak. 1.1. Hypotheses H1a: Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness will have a direct positive impact on trait EI, whereas H1b: Neuroticism will have a direct negative impact on trait EI. H2a: Trait EI will negatively and directly impact on maladaptive humour; and H2b: will positively and directly impact on adaptive humour styles. H3a: The adaptive humour styles will have a direct and health-enhancing impact on GH; whereas H3b: self-defeating humour will have a direct and deleterious effect on GH. H4: The relationship between the Big Five and GH will be fully mediated by both, trait EI and humour styles. H5: The relationship between the Big Five and humour styles will be fully mediated by trait EI. H6: The relations between trait EI and GH will be fully mediated by humour.