Feger, Roy (2015) Countering Ego-Depletion’s Detrimental Effect on Productivity with Humour. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Australia’s people productivity has continued to decline since the late 1990s. The latest Intergeneration Report shows that the current levels of people productivity are unsustainable in terms of future standards of living. The economic answer to declining people productivity has often included closing entire industries or offshore outsourcing of various services. The lowest cost model of productivity that has influenced most modes of business operation may be missing a deeper issue which exists in the nature of work itself. Self-control is vital to our ability to exert effort in tasks at work, our interaction with colleagues and even our ability to make sound decisions. The problem with selfcontrol is its limitations. Like a resource, its depletable, and the more self-control that is required the less that is available to use. The loss of self-control resources is called egodepletion. Thankfully, there are portable ways to replenish self-control resources quickly and inexpensively. The purpose of this study was to use a new and novel style of humour to replenish self-control resources. After an initial ANOVA, a follow up analysis using a moderated regression revealed that humour does replenish self-control resources but only when participants rate their experience of humour as high. The results show that humour offers a fast and portable way to improve self-control resources when participants choose their own style of humour. The implication for these results suggest that humour is one approach to improving self-control resources required in our working lives. Our ability to recover quickly from depleted self-control is essential to improving our productive capacity as a nation.
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Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Michael Ireland |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Sep 2025 01:38 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2025 01:38 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52313 |
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