Gag culture -- Correlation between gag and Gag culture -- Correlation between gag and psychological well-being among university psychological well-being among university

students students in Hong Kongin Hong Kong

Gag culture -- Correlation between gag and Gag culture -- Correlation between gag and psychological well-being among university psychological well-being among university

students students in Hong Kongin Hong Kong

Instructor: Prof. Lisa LowInstructor: Prof. Lisa Low

Group 22Group 22Chau Hoi Tat (PHY/3 06672793) Chau Hoi Tat (PHY/3 06672793) Kwok Tsz Ying (PSY/3 06750413)Kwok Tsz Ying (PSY/3 06750413)So Pui Lam (CSC/3 06725013)So Pui Lam (CSC/3 06725013)Yu Pui Kei (SOC/3 06750253)Yu Pui Kei (SOC/3 06750253)

UCFYP

Outline• Introduction• Methodology• Results• Discussion• Implications• Limitations• Sharing• Q&A

IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

Reasons for studying this phenomena

Gag is…..• Localized concept among teenagers

in Hong Kong• Developing among adults • Popular• Innovating• Interesting

• Humor is a similar but different construct with gag

• Humor is found to be correlated with…1. Coping with stress (Williams, 2001;

Falat, 2000)2. Relationship satisfaction (Zukor, 2005)3. Confronting interactions with friends (Bippus, 2000)

Reasons for studying this phenomena

• As a result,we want to see if gag can also correlate with some positive outcomes

• Such as psychological well-being, coping with stress, as well as interpersonal relationship

Contributions of this study

• Have a preliminary study on the gag culture, and the effects of gag

• See whether gag is positive or negative to our psychological aspects

• Suggest further studies in the similar area

Gag as a reference and investigate its relationship with…

1. Psychological well-being2. Stress3. Interpersonal relationship Among university students in Hong

Kong

Aims

Definition

Gag: Silly & superficial jokes, has the function of amusing & seeking attention from others(Chan et al., 2008)

Seekingattention

Function:amusingothers

Superficialjokes

Silly jokes

Origin:Hong Kong

Gagness

Stress: • Mental or emotional tension• Feelings of anxiety• Symptoms of mental and physical

tension or strain, as depression or hypertension

• Result from a feeling of threatened, pressured

Interpersonal relationship: • We focus on the relationship between

peers• Including both positive & negative

interactions

Psychological well-being: Measured by…• General happiness• Life satisfaction• Self-acceptance• Purpose in life• Autonomy• Mastery

Hypotheses

1. Gag people have better psychological well-being

2. Gag people have less stress3. Gag people have better

interpersonal relationship

MethodologyMethodologyMethodologyMethodology

Online questionnaire

QuestionnaireAge group 18 – 25

Education level University students

Method of distributing questionnaires

1.Sending out the link to schoolmates and friends2.Upload the link to a forum for university students

Location Hong Kong

Target Group Hong Kong university students

Number of participants 332

Method of seeking consent

Interviewee are doing this questionnaire by volunteer and they are informed that they can withdraw anytime

Time period of data collection

28/7 ~ 15/8

Set up of Set up of questionnairequestionnaire

Set up of Set up of questionnairequestionnaire

• Level of gag Gagness scale (Chan et al., 2008)

• Well being index Well-Being Scale (SPWB) (Ryff, 1989) • Level of stress Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)(Cohen et al.,

1983)

• Interpersonal relationship• Demographics

Five parts of questionnaire

Level of gag• Gagness scale (Chan et al., 2008)• 25 questions• 6-point Likert Scale

(1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree)

• The scale is originally in Chinese• Examples (with translation) Q9: I am proud of my gag

Q15: People always said I am a gag person Q17: Telling gag can make me feel satisfaction

Well being index

• Well-Being Scale (SPWB) (Ryff, 1989)• 5 questions• 6-point Likert Scale (1 = Strongly disagree to 6 = Strongly agree)

• The scale is originally in English (then translated into Chinese)

• ExamplesQ2: I have felt calm and relaxedQ3: I have felt active and vigorous Q4: I woke up feeling fresh and rested

Level of stress• Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen et al., 1983)• 10 questions• 5-point Likert Scale (1 = Never to 5 = Always)• The scale is originally in English

(then translated into Cantonese) • Examples

Q1: In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly? Q7:In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your life?

Interpersonal relationship

• Only one subjective question: “To what extent you satisfied with your

interpersonal relationship?”

• 6-point Likert Scale (1 = very dissatisfied to 6 = very satisfied)

Demographics

Including:• Age • Sex • Universities • Faculty • Study year

Data analysis

• Data analysis software: SPSS (ver. 15)

• Statistical Analysis (Correlations between gag and other variables)

ResultsResultsResultsResults

Demographics

Gender

Male

Female

1. Gender

Male: 174

Female: 158

School HKU

CUHK

UST

POLYU

BU

CITYU

LU

SYU

IED

ASSO

2. School

HKU: 33

CUHK: 145

UST: 13

POLYU: 41

BU: 13

CITYU: 40

LU: 10

SYU: 8

IED: 1

ASSO: 28

Faculty

SS

ART

MED

BA

SC

ERG

EDU

LAW

3. Faculty

SS: 69

ART: 47

MED: 12

BA: 77

SC: 55

ERG: 67

EDU: 3

LAW: 2

Study year

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4 or above

Fresh graduate

4. Study year

Year 1: 149

Year 2: 97

Year 3: 48

Year 4 or above: 2

Fresh graduate: 36

Age 18 and below

19

20

21

22

23

24

25 and above

5. Age

18 and below: 29

19: 87

20: 76

21: 80

22: 27

23: 19

24: 6

25 and above: 8

Summary of resultsSummary of resultsSummary of resultsSummary of results

Significant correlations with gag

Construct Significant level

Psychological well-being

.340 (**)

Interpersonal relationship

.241 (**)

Sex -.141 (**)

Faculty -.129 (*)

Study year -.120 (*)

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Not significant correlations with gag

• Perceived stress• Age• School

DiscussionDiscussionDiscussionDiscussion

Psychological well-being

• Positive correlation between gag and psychological well-being

• Possible reasons: 1. Gag is to amusing people and the ‘gagger’ himself

2. Making gags can make people feel positive 3. Gag is always being inspired by the

environment 4. People observe and appreciate the matters in

daily life

As a result, people making gag can improve the general happiness and thus the psychological well-being

Literature support

• Similar findings from study of humor and well-being (Kirsh, 2006)

• Generation and reception of humor can improve one’s psychological well-being

Perceived stress • No significant correlation between gag and

perceived stress• Possible reasons:

1. Gag can be used to improve the general happiness but its effect is only on mental perspective

2. However, the perceived stress is mainly about things happened or things had to do

3. Making gags are not going to improve the situation since the problems are solid and physical

As a result, making gags do not have direct relationship with perceived stress

Literature support

• Small but significant relationship between humor and coping with stress (Williams, 2001)

• Humor correlate with reduced stress while gag does not

• Maybe because humor is produced in a meaningful and conscious way, but gag is simply produced with no meaning and purpose

Interpersonal relationship

• Positive correlation between gag and interpersonal relationship

• Possible reasons:1. Gag can be used to amuse people as well as attract peoples’ attention

2. People making gags can always make lots of friends among group of people

Literature support

• Similar findings from study of humor and interactions with friends (Bippus, 2000)

• It is clear that the main function of gag and humor is to amuse others and improve interpersonal communication

Gender

• Negative correlation between gag and gender (0 = male; 1 = female)

• Possible reason:Male are more likely to make gagsTo seek attention from possible mates?

ImplicationsImplicationsImplicationsImplications

• In order to improve well-being and satisfaction of relationship among students

• “Gag” culture is worth to be promoted• Promote gag among university students

(organize more gag related activities like NA broken gag competition)

• Give one more way to solve psychological problems among university students

• Further investigation on gag can be done

• Targets can be directed to people within other age groups (e.g., adults the effects of 家好月圓 )

LimitationsLimitationsLimitationsLimitations

Online questionnaire • We cannot assure the validity of the

information collect since the questionnaire is conducted online

• We cannot validate the identity of the interviewee

• There may be misunderstandings of the questionnaire since interviewee cannot ask us questions

No interpersonal relationship scale

• There is no official interpersonal scale provided by international research groups

• It is only based on subjective opinion of the interviewee himself

• May not be accurate enough

Bias

• Data is not completely random sampling

• The scale is concerning a period of time before answering the questionnaire, so there may be recall bias.

SharingSharingSharingSharing

• Hard to collect data since the reply rate is very low (before upload the questionnaire on the forum)

• Interesting topic for us because we are all like making gag =)

• Learn how to conduct an sociology related research

• Learn how to cooperate with other group members

• Learn about the knowledge of other subjects

• Learn inter-disciplinary communication

• Familiar with works settings

ReferencesBippus, A. M. (2000). Humor in comforting interactions. Dissertation Abstracts

International, 60, 4247. Cecen, A. R. (2007). Humor styles in predicting loneliness among Turkish university

students. Social Behavior and Personality, 35, 835-844. Chan, W., Chang, H. L., Chu, K. M., Chung, K. L., Ho, Y. Y., Kwok, T. Y. (2008).

Gagness scale.Falat, M. (2000). Creativity as a predictor of “good” coping? Peer Reviewed Journal,

42, 317-324. Townsend, M. A. (1981). Humor and anxiety: Effects on class test performance.

Psychology in the Schools, 18, 228-234. Williams, R. (2001). Use of humor in coping with stress. Dissertation Abstracts

International, 61, 3349. Zukor, T. M. (2005). Predictors of college students’ romantic satisfaction as

understood by the triangular theory of love. Dissertation Abstracts International, 66, 2845.

Thank youThank youThank youThank you

Q & AQ & AQ & AQ & A