Die verband tussen kognitiewe buigsaamheid en humorsin by adolessente

English: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a relationship exists between cognitive flexibility and a sense of humour. By means of a literature study it was shown that a theoretical link does, indeed, exist between the abovementioned two constructs. Predictive variables such as sex and cultural group were discussed in terms of the extent to which they influence a sense of humour and cognitive flexibility. The research population consists of 392 adolescents, 205 African language speakers, and 187 Afrikaans speakers. Thorson and Powell's (1993a) Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale (MSHS), was used to measure humour, while cognitive flexibility was measured using the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CBS) of Martin and Rubin (1995). The results found that Afrikaans speaking adolescents demonstrating high levels of cognitive flexibility also present with high levels of humour. Conversely, African language speaking adolescents with high levels of cognitive flexibility demonstrated a low level of humour. These differences can be explained as follows. The validity of the questionnaires for African language speakers can be questioned, seeing as these leamers responded in a second language. The nature of certain questions was relatively abstract, and furthermore bound to a future perspective, that may be difficult to align within a collectivistic culture. The CBS questionnaire is standardised for Western cultures and this may have influenced the results. Assuming that the results are reliable, a possible explanation may be found in the properties distinguishing individualistic and collectivistic cultures. If social cognitive flexibility in an Africa culture displays a low value dimension in terms of thought pattems, and enjoys low priority in terms of social systems, then this phenomena can be partly understood on this basis.