Ego States and Preference for Humor

This study investigated the extent to which college students' preference for humor could be predicted by ego states derived from Transactional Analysis. Scores on The Adjective Check List determined the ego states of Nurturant Parent, Critical Parent, Adult, Free Child, and Adapted Child. Preferences for nonsense, ethnic, and sexual humor were measured by scores on the Antioch Sense of Humor Inventory. A step-wise multiple regression, used to test the predictive power of the ego states, indicated that the Critical Parent ego state had a strong negative evaluation of nonsense humor, while the Free Child and Adapted Child were the strongest predictors of negative evaluation of ethnic humor. Categories of Critical Parent and Adapted Child provided the strongest prediction of positive preference for sexual humor.