Abstracts of 2001 Award Winners' Papers:

The Use of Humor by Occupational Therapists to Promote Adaptation in their Adult Clients with Physical Disabilities

Marti Southam, Ph.D., OTR
Saybrook Graduate School

This study explored humor use by occupational therapists (OTs) with their adult clients with physical disabilities. A cross-sectional survey of 1,000 randomly selected occupational therapists nationwide was used; 283 surveys qualified for the study. The majority of respondents had positive attitudes towards humor in four areas: relationships, coping, promoting physical health, and treatment compliance. While the majority of therapists used humor in the first two areas, less than half used humor in the last two. Humor attitudes and humor behaviors in each area were moderately, positively correlated. Spontaneous humor use was preferred, but over half also used planned humor. Years of OT experience were not predictive of humor attitudes and use. A combination of creativity and knowledge of therapeutic humor was the best predictor of humor use. These findings support the inclusion of therapeutic humor in occupational therapy education to promote relationships and health benefits for clients.