ABSTRACT

The social interactions that occur between a player and a coach may be particularly critical. This chapter reviews how the use of humour in coaching may be able to strengthen relationships, improve instruction and enhance coping strategies for athletes and coaches alike. Martin created a classification of four distinct styles of humour, and found that these styles were related to different mental health outcomes. Self-defeating humour was negatively related to measures of psychological well-being, self-esteem, intimacy and social support satisfaction, and positively related to measures of depression, state/trait anxiety, hostility, aggression and psychiatric symptoms. The adaptive styles of humour, that are self-enhancing and affiliative, were found to be positively related to measures of psychological well-being, optimism, intimacy and self-esteem, and negatively related to measures of depression and state/trait anxiety. Aggressive humour was only positively related to aggression and hostility, and thus may only be tangentially connected to mental health outcomes.