This quantitative study examines the correlations between humor, loneliness, gender and aging by presenting the results from a sample of eighty-three older Romanian adults, aged sixty and above. The first section of the paper is a comprehensive review of the social-psychological literature on aging, gender and humor. The second section assesses the findings generated from a study that uses the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (Thorson & Powell, 1993) and the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults – short version, (diTomaso, Brannen & Best, 2004). Building on Robert Weiss’s (1973) reflections on the differences between feelings of loneliness because of social isolation or emotional isolation, the research findings nuance –and in some cases challenge several assumptions on gender, age, and emotional and social loneliness. The findings also point to the correlation between feelings of social loneliness and the use of humor in interpersonal communications. The data collected suggests that while Romanian men may value the use of humor more than women when self-reporting, that older Romanian women tend to use humor in interpersonal situations and that there is a significant correlation between the use of this type of humor and a reduced sense of social loneliness.

中文翻译：

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幽默，孤独与人际交往：罗马尼亚老年人的定量研究

这项定量研究通过介绍来自八十三岁，六十岁及以上的罗马尼亚成年人的样本结果，检验了幽默感，孤独感，性别与衰老之间的相关性。本文的第一部分是对衰老，性别和幽默的社会心理学文献的全面回顾。第二部分评估了一项使用多维幽默感量表（Thorson和Powell，1993）以及成人的社交和情感孤独感量表的研究得出的结论-短版（diTomaso，Brannen＆Best，2004）。在罗伯特·韦斯（Robert Weiss，1973）的思考基础上，对由于社会孤立或情感孤立而导致的孤独感之间的差异进行了研究，研究发现存在细微差别，并在某些情况下挑战了关于性别，年龄以及情感和社交孤独的若干假设。研究结果还指出，社交孤独感与人际沟通中幽默的使用之间存在相关性。收集的数据表明，尽管罗马尼亚男性在自我报告时可能比女性更重视幽默的使用，但罗马尼亚年龄较大的女性倾向于在人际交往中使用幽默，并且使用这种幽默与社交之间存在显着相关性。减少了社会孤独感。