The measurement of adaptive behavior in mentally retarded individuals is an important aspect of sound evaluation and planning for intervention. The proposed research builds on knowledge about the importance of adaptive behavior for the retarded and about the extent to which humor responsiveness may reflect differing levels of adaptation in special populations. The overall objective of the proposed series of studies is to investigate the development of humor responses in retarded children and youth as a measure of adaptive behavior. This overall objective is divided into four specific aims.
The first aim i s to evaluate the effects of two cartoon characteristics on humor response patterns in institutionalized and noninstitutionalized retarded children. To this end, mildly and moderately retarded children at two mental age levels and mental and chronological age matched nonretarded children, will be administered cartoons that vary in difficulty and in theme.
The second aim i s to examine the degree to which the difficulty of preferred cartoons or level of effectance motivation varies among retarded children and between retarded and nonretarded children. The interaction of cartoon appreciation and cartoon difficulty as a measure of effectance motivation will be validated against other measures of effectance motivation.
The third aim i s to assess the robustness of humor responsiveness as a trait and the extent to which it is distinct from two other personality measures that influence cognitive and affective determinants of humor - self image and level of effectance motivation. Convergent and discriminant validities of the three traits (effectance, humor, self image) assessed by two methods will be evaluated.
The final aim i s to examine the relationships among outerdirectedness, retardation and influence of environmental cues on humor responses. Manipulation of cues in the humor setting will be achieved by constructing two separate settings for administering cartoons, a lively circus setting and a sober academic setting. Analysis of variance and multiple regression analyses will be used to examine the influence of subject, setting and cartoon characteristics on patterns of humor responses. Results will advance our understanding of how patterns of humor responsiveness can be used to evaluate cognitive, affective and social adaptive behaviors in a non-threatening and unobtrusive manner among retarded children and youth.
