The Relationship Between Empathy and Humor Styles and Secondary Traumatic Stress in the Public Mental Health Workplace
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between both empathy type and humor type to secondary traumatic stress in individuals who work in a public mental healthcare setting.Empathy type was divided into four subcategories: Perspective Taking, Fantasy-type, Empathic Concern, and Personal Distress.Similarly, humor type was divided into four subcategories: Affiliative, Self-Enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-Defeating.Clinical and non-clinical staff at the Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Services department of Santa Barbara County, California participated in an online survey.The survey consisted of a sociodemographic questionnaire, as well as questionnaires related to humor, empathy, and secondary traumatic stress.Non-clinical staff was more likely to endorse STS and to report significantly higher scores Personal Distress Empathy scale, in comparison to clinical staff.Further, a significant relationship was found in both clinical and non-clinical workers to Perspective Taking and Fantasy-type Empathy.Finally, both clinical and non-clinical staff who endorsed significantly higher STS were also more likely endorse higher scores on Self-Defeating and Self-Enhancing Humor scales.Results showed that non-clinicians were more likely to report psychological distress than their clinical counterparts.Further, humor related to oneself was likely to be indicative of STS, as were the cognitive empathy types.
Author: Michelle Greenspoon Barrett
Institution: Antioch University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2525756774