PERCEPTION OF HUMOROUS CONTENT UNDER NORMAL AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of perception of humorous content by individuals who belong to the group of conventional norm and by people with mental disorders. The survey involved 358 respondents with psyhcopathologies and 52 healthy respondents and was based on Humorous Statements Assessment Inventory. The perception of humour by the group of individuals who represent different nosological forms differs inside the group in comparison with the group of individuals of conventional norm. Since the specificity of perception of humorous content by people in conventional norms and people with various mental disorders is different, the use of humor has a pcychodiagonostical orientation in detecting of certain mental pathologies. For instance, the participants with paranoid schizophrenia and dysthymia show an exact tendency to underestimating the humour of phrases. The comments of the phrases by the respondents with dysthymia show the reduction of motives and desires, lack of energy aspects of psyche to adequate respond to humour. The patients with cyclotemia show a tendency to overestimate the humour of the proposed content. The patients with mental retardation of light degree show a tendency to underestimating some humorous phrases and overestimating others. Precisely this tendency is manifested by individuals with mental retardation of moderate degree and reflects, above all, the lack of understanding of humorous content. Groups of people with neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders and Asperger syndrome do not show significant differences in the assessment of humorous content as compared to the participants of the group of conventional norm