Recieved: 08/08/2024
Accepted: 10/30/2024
Published: 12/02/2024
Keywords: preschool age; primary school age; sense of humor; irony; sense of the comic; diagnostics
p.: 40-57
DOI: 10.11621/npj.2024.0403
Available online: 02.12.2024
Shatskaya, A.N., Oshchepkova, E.S., Veraksa, N.E. , Bayanova, L.F., Kovyazina, M.S. . Development of a Sense of Humor in Preschoolers and Younger Schoolchildren: a Review of Diagnostic Tools. // National Psychological Journal 2024. 4. p.40-57. doi: 10.11621/npj.2024.0403
Copied to Clipboard
CopyBackground. A sense of humor is one of the most productive coping strategies that allow both adults and children to effectively cope with stress, regulate emotions, and establish positive social interactions with others. The study of adaptive capabilities of a developed sense of humor, as well as its relationship with various aspects of mental development is limited due to various methodological limitations of existing methods of diagnosing the sense of humor and related constructs (irony, sarcasm, comedic sense).
Objectives. The purpose of the current paper is to present the results of a review of the main types of diagnostic tools for assessing the development of a sense of humor in preschoolers and younger schoolchildren (4–10 years old) in domestic and foreign studies over the last thirty years.
Materials. A literature search retrieved 966 publications (626 English-language and 340 Russian-language). After applying study selection criteria, 66 publications were included in the final qualitative analysis.
Methods. The diagnostic tools used in the reviewed publications were divided into six types according to the main content of the method used for diagnosing sense of humor. A description of the procedures of the selected types of techniques, as well as the conditions of applicability of each of them is given.
Results. The results of the conducted review allow us to divide the diagnostic toolkit for assessing the sense of humor of preschoolers and younger schoolchildren into techniques for assessing understanding and creation of humour. The most important limitations of each type of method are given, and recommendations for their use are given. The materials of this review may be useful in selecting diagnostic tools in studies of the sense of humour in children aged 4–10, as well as in developing new diagnostic methods, taking into account the limitations of currently available tools.
Conclusions.When planning future studies, it is important to determine whether children’s understanding or production of humour will be assessed in order to select diagnostic instruments, given the complex structure of the children’s humour construct and its age-specific characteristics, as well as the limitations of the methods used.
Aguert, M., Le Vallois, C., Martel, K., Laval, V. (2018). “That’s really clever!” Ironic hyperbole understanding in children. Journal of Child Language, 45(1), 260–272.
Allen, L., Zigler, E. (1986). Psychological adjustment of seriously ill children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 25(5), 708–712.
Angeleri, R., Airenti, G. (2014). The development of joke and irony understanding: a study with 3- to 6-year-old children. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 68(2), 133.
Arslan, D., Sak, U., Atesgoz, N.N. (2021). Are more humorous children more intelligent? A case from Turkish culture. Humor, 34(4), 567–588.
Artemyeva, T.V. (2021). Children’s Humor: the Content of the Construct and the Method of its Assessment. Sovremennoe doshkol’noe obrazovanie = Preschool Education Today, 3(15), 46–59. (In Russ.)
Banasik, N. (2013). Non-literal speech comprehension in preschool children–An example from a study on verbal irony. Psychology of Language and Communication, 17(3), 309–324.
Banasik-Jemielniak, N., Bokus, B. (2019). Children’s comprehension of irony: Studies on Polish-speaking preschoolers. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 48(5), 1217–1240.
Barnett, L.A. (1991). The playful child: Measurement of a disposition to play. Play and Culture, 4(1), 51–74.
Bergen, D. (1989). Characteristics of young children’s expression of humour in home settings as observed by parents. International Journal of Educology, 3(2), 124–135.
Bergen, D. (2009). Gifted children’s humor preferences, sense of humor, and Comprehension of riddles. Humor, 22(4), 419–436.
Bosacki, S.L. (2013). A longitudinal study of children’s theory of mind, self-concept, and perceptions of humor in self and other. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(4), 663–673.
Boyle, G.J., Joss-Reid, J.M. (2004). Relationship of humour to health: A psychometric investigation. British Journal of Health Psychology, 9(1), 51–66.
Bressler, E.R., Balshine, S. (2006). The influence of humor on desirability. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27(1), 29–39.
Burnett, D.L. (2015). Exploring the role of conventionality in children’s interpretation of ironic remarks. Journal of child language, 42(6), 1267–1288.
Cameron, E.L., Kennedy, K.M., Cameron, C.A. (2008). “Let me show you a trick!”: a toddler’s use of humor to explore, interpret, and negotiate her familial environment during a day in the life. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(1), 5–18.
Capelli, C.A., Nakagawa, N., Madden, C.M. (1990). How children understand sarcasm: The role of context and intonation. Child Development, 61(6), 1824–1841.
Carson, D.K., Skarpness, L.R., Schultz, N.W., McGhee, P.E. (1986). Temperament and communicative competence as predictors of young children’s humor. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 32(4), 415–426.
Cekaite, A., Andrén, M. (2019). Children’s laughter and emotion sharing with peers and adults in preschool. Frontiers in Psychology, (10), 852.
Chang, H.J., Wang, C.Y., Chen, H.C., Chang, K.E. (2014). The analysis of elementary and high school students’ natural and humorous responses patterns in coping with embarrassing situations. Humor, 27(2), 325–347.
Chesnokova, O., Svetova, G. (2016). Understanding of irony by children of senior preschool and primary school age. In: Education and training of young children. Annual international scientific and practical conference (May 12–14, 2016). (pp. 95–98). Moscow: Mosaic-Synthesis. (In Russ.)
Chik, M.P., Leung, C.S., Molloy, G.N. (2005). Development of a Measure of Humour Appreciation. Australian Journal of Educational Developmental Psychology, 5, 26–31.
Christensen, A.P., Silvia, P.J., Nusbaum, E.C., Beaty, R.E. (2018). Clever people: Intelligence and humor production ability. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(2), 136.
Clark, H.H., Gerrig, R.J. (1984). On the pretense theory of irony. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(1), 121–126.
Creusere, M.A. (2000). A developmental test of theoretical perspectives on the understanding of verbal irony: Children’s recognition of allusion and pragmatic insincerity. Metaphor and Symbol, 15(1-2), 29–45.
Dews, S., Winner, E. (1997). Attributing meaning to deliberately false utterances: The case of irony. Advances in Psychology, (122), 377–414.
Dews, S., Kaplan, J., Winner, E. (1995). Why not say it directly? The social functions of irony. Discourse processes, 19(3), 347–367.
Dews, S., Winner, E., Kaplan, J., Rosenblatt, E., Hunt, M., Lim, K., Smarsh, B. (1996). Children’s understanding of the meaning and functions of verbal irony. Child development, 67(6), 3071–3085.
Dombrovskaya, I.S. (2010). Theoretical and methodological study of psychological phenomenology of humor. Theoretical and Experimental Psychology, 3(4), 315943. (In Russ.)
Dowling, J.S. (2014). School-age children talking about humor: Data from focus groups. Humor, 27(1), 121–139.
Dowling, J.S., Fain, J.A. (1999). A multidimensional sense of humor scale for school-aged children: Issues of reliability and validity. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 14(1), 38–43.
Downs, S.H., Black, N. (1998). The feasibility of creating a checklist for the assessment of the methodological quality both of randomised and non-randomised studies of health care interventions. Journal of epidemiology community health, 52(6), 377–384.
Faraponova, E.S., Kvasova, V.V. (2021). Features of the Manifestation of a sense of humor in children of senior preschool age. Nauchnyj redactor = Scientific editor, 117. (In Russ.)
Feingold, A., Mazzella, R. (1993). Preliminary validation of a multidimensional model of wittiness. Journal of Personality, 61(3), 439–456.
Filippova, E., Astington, J.W. (2008). Further development in social reasoning revealed in discourse irony understanding. Child development, 79(1), 126–138.
Fox, C.L., Dean, S., Lyford, K. (2013). Development of a humor styles questionnaire for children. Humor, 26(2), 295–319.
Ger, E., Daum, M.M., Manfredi, M. (2024). Children’s recognition of slapstick humor is linked to their Theory of Mind. Frontiers in Cognition, (3), 1369638.
Glenwright, M.H., Pexman, P.M. (2007). Children’s perceptions of the social functions of verbal irony. Raymond W. Jr. Gibbs and Herbert L. Colston, editors, Irony in Language and Thought: A Cognitive Science Reader, 447–464.
Greengross, G., Miller, G. (2011). Humor ability reveals intelligence, predicts mating success, and is higher in males. Intelligence, 39(4), 188–192.
Halfpenny, C.C., James, L.A. (2020). Humor styles and empathy in junior-school children. Europe’s journal of psychology, 16(1), 148–166.
Hancock, J.T., Dunham, P.J., Purdy, K. (2000). Children’s comprehension of critical and complimentary forms of verbal irony. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1(2), 227–248.
Happé, F.G. (1993). Communicative competence and theory of mind in autism: A test of relevance theory. Cognition, 48(2), 101–119.
Hayashi, H., Ban, Y. (2021). Children’s understanding of unintended irony and unsuccessful irony. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18(2), 230–256.
Hoicka, E., Akhtar, N. (2012). Early humour production. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 586–603.
Hoicka, E., Gattis, M. (2008). Do the wrong thing: How toddlers tell a joke from a mistake. Cognitive Development, 23(1), 180–190.
James, L., Fox, C. (2016). The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children. Humor, 29(4), 555–582.
Keenan, T.R., Quigley, K. (1999). Do young children use echoic information in their comprehension of sarcastic speech? A test of echoic mention theory. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17(1), 83–96.
Köder, F., Falkum, I.L. (2021). Irony and perspective-taking in children: The roles of norm violations and tone of voice. Frontiers in Psychology, (12), 624604.
Kotova, A.A. (2013). Sense of humor in children of primary school age. In: Youth and Science. IX All-Russian scientific and technical. conf. students, postgraduates and young scientists with international participation. Krasnoyarsk: Siberian Federal University. (In Russ.)
Kozbelt, A., Nishioka, K. (2010). Humor comprehension, humor production, and insight: An exploratory study. Humor, 23(3), 375–401.
Kruger, G. (2016). Executive Functions and Humor Styles: A Canonical Correlation Analysis. 24th Biennial Meeting of The International Society For The Study of Behavioural Development. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.33847.16806 Laval, V., Bert-Erboul, A. (2005). French-speaking children’s understanding of sarcasm: the role of intonation and context. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48(3), 610–20.
Lavrinec, I.A. (2016). Laughter culture of society and development of children’s humor. Simvol nauki = Symbol of Science, (3–2), 97–99. (In Russ.)
Loizou, E. (2005). Infant humor: The theory of the absurd and the empowerment theory. International Journal of Early Years Education, 13(1), 43–53.
Loizou, E., Kyriakou, M. (2016). Young children’s appreciation and production of verbal and visual humor. Humor, 29(1), 99–124.
Martin, R.A. (2004). Sense of humor and physical health: Theoretical issues, recent findings, and future directions. Humor, 17(1-2), 1–19.
Martin, R.A., Lefcourt, H.M. (1983). Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods. Journal of personality and social psychology, 45(6), 1313–1324.
Martin, R.A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of research in personality, 37(1), 48–75.
McGhee, P.E. (1983). Humor Development: Toward a Life Span Approach. In: P.E. McGhee, J.H. Goldstein, (eds). Handbook of Humor Research. (pp. 109–134). New York: Springer Publ.
Neely, M.N., Walter, E., Black, J.M., Reiss, A.L. (2012). Neural correlates of humor detection and appreciation in children. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(5), 1784–1790.
Nunberg, G. (2001). The Way We Talk Now: Commentaries on Language and Culture from NPR’s “Fresh Air”. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publ.
Nusbaum, E.C., Silvia, P.J., Beaty, R.E. (2017). Ha ha? Assessing individual differences in humor production ability. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(2), 231–241
Oshchepkova, E.S., Bukhalenkova, D.A., Yakupova, V.A. (2020). Development of coherent oral speech in senior preschool age. Sovremennoe doshkol’noe obrazovanie = Preschool Education Today, 3(14), 32–39. (In Russ.)
Paine, A.L., Hashmi, S., Howe, N., Johnson, N., Scott, M., Hay, D.F. (2022). “A pirate goes nee-nor-nee-nor!” humor with siblings in middle childhood: A window to social understanding? Developmental Psychology, 58(10), 1986–1998.
Paine, A.L., Howe, N., Gilmore, V., Karajian, G., DeHart, G. (2021). “Goosebump man. That’s funny!”: Humor with siblings and friends from early to middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, (77), 101321.
Paine, A.L., Karajian, G., Hashmi, S., Persram, R.J., Howe, N. (2021). “Where’s your bum brain?” Humor, social understanding, and sibling relationship quality in early childhood. Social Development, 30(2), 592–611.
Pervichko, E.I. (2015). Emotion regulation strategies: procedure modeling of J. Gross and cultural activity approach. Part 2. Cultural activity approach to the issue of identifying strategies and mechanisms. National Psychological Journal, 1(17), 39–51. (In Russ.)
Pexman, P.M., Glenwright, M. (2007). How do typically developing children grasp the meaning of verbal irony? Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20(2), 178–196.
Pexman, P.M., Zdrazilova, L., McConnachie, D., Deater-Deckard, K., Petrill, S.A. (2009). “That was smooth, Mom”: Children’s production of verbal and gestural irony. Metaphor and Symbol, 24(4), 237–248.
Popova, O.M. (2006). Features of the sense of comedy in preschoolers and the system of its formation in order to optimize emotional and moral development. Diss. Cand. Sci. (Psychol.). Nizhnii Novgorod. (In Russ.)
Purser, H.R., Van Herwegen, J., Thomas, M.S. (2020). The development of children’s comprehension and appreciation of riddles. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, (189), 104709.
Rebok, G., Riley, A., Forrest, C., Starfield, B., Green, B., Robertson, J., Tambor, E. (2001). Elementary school-aged children’s reports of their health: a cognitive interviewing study. Quality of Life Research, (10), 59–70.
Recchia, H.E., Howe, N., Ross, H.S., Alexander, S. (2010). Children’s understanding and production of verbal irony in family conversations. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(2), 255–274.
Reddy, V. (2008). How infants know minds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Rokotyanskaya, L.O. (2018). The main stages of developing children’s sense of humor. Politekhnicheskij molodezhnyj zhurnal = Polytechnic Youth Journal, 5(22), 3–3. (In Russ.)
Romanova, A.L. (2014). Age Specifics of Perceptions of Funny and Scary Things in Animated Films. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psihologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 10(4), 7–56. (In Russ.)
Rothermich, K., Caivano, O., Knoll, L.J., Talwar, V. (2020). Do they really mean it? Children’s inference of speaker intentions and the role of age and gender. Language and Speech, 63(4), 689–712.
Ruch, W. (1996). Measurement approaches to the sense of humor: Introduction and overview. Humor, 9(3-4), 239–250.
Seligman, M.E.P. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (Eds.) (2000). Happiness, excellence, and optimal human functioning (Special issue). American Psychologist, (55), 5–183.
Semrud-Clikeman, M., Glass, K. (2010). The relation of humor and child development: Social, adaptive, and emotional aspects. Journal of child neurology, 25(10), 1248–1260.
Shcherbakova, O.V., Osorina, M.V. (2009). Humorous component as a factor which increases the complexity of intellectual tasks (on the material of WAIS and WISC-III). Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Seriya 12. Psihologiya. Sociologiya. Pedagogika = Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Series 12 psychology. Sociology. Education, 1(1), 108–115. (In Russ.)
Stanley, J.T., Lohani, M., Isaacowitz, D.M. (2014). Age-related differences in judgments of inappropriate behavior are related to humor style preferences. Psychology and aging, 29(3), 528–541.
Stuber, M., Hilber, S.D., Mintzer, L.L., Castaneda, M., Glover, D., Zeltzer, L. (2009). Laughter, humor and pain perception in children: A pilot study. Evidence‐Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 6(2), 271–276.
Sullivan, K., Winner, E., Hopfield, N. (1995). How children tell a lie from a joke: The role of second‐order mental state attributions. British journal of developmental psychology, 13(2), 191–204.
Thorson, J.A., Powell, F.C. (1993). Development and validation of a multidimensional sense of humor scale. Journal of clinical psychology, 49(1), 13–23.
Veraksa, N.E., Bayanova,ю L.F., Аrtemyeva, T.V. (2023). Psychology of Laughter in a Structural-Dialectical Approach. Kul’turnoistoricheskaya psihologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 19(3), 93—101. (In Russ.)
Vrticka, P., Black, J. M., Neely, M., Shelly, E.W., Reiss, A.L. (2013). Humor processing in children: Influence of temperament, age and IQ. Neuropsychologia, 51(13), 2799–2811.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1996). History of the development of higher mental functions. Psihologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological Science and Education, 1(2), 5–8. (In Russ.)
Vygotsky, L.S. (1983). Collected works: in 6 vol. Vol. 3. Problems of mental development. Moscow: Pedagogika Publ. (In Russ.)
Wilson, D., Sperber, D. (1992). On verbal irony. Lingua, 87(1), 53–76.
Winner, E., Leekam, S. (1991). Distinguishing irony from deception: Understanding the speaker’s second‐order intention. British journal of developmental psychology, 9(2), 257–270.
Yıldırım, O.G., Karaca, N., Şenol, F.B. (2024). Examining the Relationship between Humor Styles and Self-Perceptions in Turkish Children: A Validation of the HSQ-Y. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 16(3), 311–324.
Yılmaz, B., Erden, F.T. (2022). Exploring humour within the early childhood period from children’s and teachers’ perspectives. Journal of Childhood, Education and Society, 3(2), 151–167.
Zajączkowska, M., Abbot-Smith, K. (2020). “Sure I’ll help—I’ve just been sitting around doing nothing at school all day”: Cognitive flexibility and child irony interpretation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, (199), 104942.
Zakharova, T. (2017). Psychological features of perception and understanding of the sense of humor by children of primary school age. Gercenovskie chteniya. Nachal’noe obrazovanie = Herzen Readings. Primary education, 8(1), 51–56. (In Russ.)
Shatskaya, A.N., Oshchepkova, E.S., Veraksa, N.E. , Bayanova, L.F., Kovyazina, M.S. . Development of a Sense of Humor in Preschoolers and Younger Schoolchildren: a Review of Diagnostic Tools. // National Psychological Journal 2024. 4. p.40-57. doi: 10.11621/npj.2024.0403
Copied to Clipboard
Copy