Investigation of the humor styles as moderators relationship between the big five personality and general health

This study examined the humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) as moderator's link to the Big Five personality and general health in the university students. 250 male and female undergraduate students in Imam Khomeini International University, Faculty of Social Sciences, in academic year of 2009-2010, were selected through relative stratified sampling and asked to fill Humor Styles Questionnaire, Big Five Inventory, and General Health Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using partial correlation, multivariate regression, and T-test methods. Results indicated that the humor styles moderated the relationship between the big five personality and general health. Several significant correlations were found between each of the four humor styles with the big five and general health. Differences among affiliative, aggressive, and self-defeating humor styles in male and female students were not observed, but the self-enhancing humor style observed was significantly different between male and female students. The findings indicate that the effective role of humor styles used by moderators link the Big Five personality and general health.