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Humour processing is complex and may be influenced by an individual's emotional state. This study explores the differences in incongruity‐resolution and nonsense joke humour processing between three groups with different emotional states (positive, neutral and negative). Each group consisted of 32 participants. The positive and negative emotion groups were asked to elicit positive and negative emotions, respectively, through autobiographical recall. In contrast, the neutral emotion group was asked to answer questions unrelated to emotions. Participants were also asked to rate their emotional valence, arousal and conformity with the provided emotion words. Subsequently, they were directed to rate their humour appreciation, humour comprehension and level of surprise at the jokes. The results indicate that these variables interacted with the level of amusement derived from the two humour types. The positive emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as funnier than the negative emotion group, while the negative emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as less amusing than incongruity‐resolution jokes. No significant difference was found between the three emotion groups in terms of humour comprehension and surprise at the jokes. The results deepen the understanding of the correlation between emotional states and processing of different humour types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have different responses to being laughed at, including fear of being laughed at, joy from being laughed at and joy from hearing others laugh. Previous studies have indicated that men have a higher tendency of laughing at others, but there were no gender differences on terms of the other two responses. Socioemotional selectivity theory indicates that individuals pay less attention to negative stimuli as they get older. It is worth investigating whether the gender differences of gelotophobia and gelotophilia occur in certain developmental stages. The present study is a cross‐sectional study, with a sample size of 1247 participants; we collected information regarding laugh‐related traits among participants 11–66 years old, and we particularly focused on the moderation effect of age on gender differences on gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism. The results showed that men had a stronger tendency for laughing at others, but there were no significant gender differences on terms of gelotophobia and gelotophilia; age not only moderated the relationship between gender and gelotophobia but also the relationship between gender and katagelasticism. Male adolescents had higher incidences of gelotophobia and katagelasticism than female adolescents, but this finding was not consistent in the middle adulthood sample. The present study found age to be a moderator between gender and laugh‐related traits, and it indicated the influence of age on the fear of being laughed at during early adolescence, but there was no gender difference with respect to katagelasticism in middle adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fear of being laughed at and family interaction are highly related. Parental over‐control and over‐protection influence children's excessive anxiety over being laughed at. Conversely, parental attachment is an important index of the parent–child relationship and is closely correlated to children's gelotophobia. However, is it the style of parenting or the outcome of parenting (i.e. attachment) that influences a child's gelotophobia? To answer this question, the present study analysed the relationships between gelotophobia, perceived parenting of children and parent–child attachment, as well as the mediating role of attachment between parenting and children's gelotophobia, using a sample of 373 high‐school students. The results show that being highly communicative and close attachment completely weakened the negative correlation between warm, caring parenting and the child's gelotophobia; moreover, being highly communicative and close attachment, together with over‐protective and over‐controlling parenting, influence children's gelotophobia. In sum, this study indicates that parent–child attachment has a direct and indirect influence on perceived parental care and protection and children's fear of being laughed at. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the effect of career adaptability on 598 working parents in Taiwan. The results showed that career adaptability served an important role in moderating and mediating the effects between work–family conflict, work–family strength, and personal growth initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surrounding medium of periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis ( P. gingivalis) increased cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis whereas Actinobaeillus actinomycetemcomitans and Prevotella intermedia had no effects. The purpose of this study is to clarify the role of p38 pathway in P. gingivalis conditioned medium-induced H9c2 myocardial cell hypertrophy and apoptosis. DNA fragmentation, cellular morphology, nuclear condensation, p38 protein products, and mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic related proteins in cultured H9c2 myocardial cell were measured by agarose gel electrophoresis, immunofluorescence, DAPI, and western blotting following P. gingivalis conditioned medium and/or pre-administration of SB203580 (p38 inhibitor). The p38 protein products and associated activities in H9c2 cells were both upregulated by P. gingivalis conditioned medium. P. gingivalis conditioned medium increased cellular sizes, DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation, mitochondrial Bcl2-associated death promoter (Bad), cytosolic cytochrome c (cyt c), and the activated form of caspase-9 proteins in H9c2 cells. The increased cellular sizes, DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation, Bad, cyt c, and caspase-9 activities of H9c2 cells treated with P. gingivalis conditioned medium were all significantly reduced after pre-administration of SB203580. Our findings suggest that the activity of p38 signal pathway may be initiated by P. gingivalis conditioned medium and further activate mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathways leading to cell death in cultured H9c2 myocardial cells. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]