When the Job is a Calling: The Role of Applying One’s Signature Strengths at Work

Familial aggregation and the effect of parenting styles on three dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at were tested. Nearly 100 families (parents, their adult children, and their siblings) completed subjective questionnaires to assess the presence of gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others). A positive relationship between fear of being laughed at in children and their parents was found. Results for gelotophilia were similar but numerically lower; if split by gender of the adult child, correlations to the mother’s gelotophilia exceeded those of the father. Katagelasticism arose independently from the scores in the parents but was robustly related to greater katagelasticism in the children’s siblings. Gelotophobes remembered punishment (especially from the mother), lower warmth and higher control from their parents (this was also found in the parents’ recollections of their parenting style). The incidence of gelotophilia was unrelated to specific parenting styles, and katagelasticism exhibited only weak relations with punishment. The study suggests a specific pattern in the relation of the three dispositions within families and argues for a strong impact of parenting styles on gelotophobia but less so for gelotophilia and katagelasticism. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.702784 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-63535 Accepted Version Originally published at: Harzer, Claudia; Ruch, Willibald (2012). When the job is a calling: the role of applying one’s signature strengths at work. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(5):362-371. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.702784 This manuscript was published as: Harzer, C., & Ruch, W. (2012). When the job is a calling: The role of applying one’s signature strengths at work. Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 362371. doi:10.1080/17439760.2012.702784 Running Head: WHEN THE JOB IS A CALLING 1 When the Job is a Calling: The Role of Applying One’s Signature Strengths at Work Claudia Harzer and Willibald Ruch Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Claudia Harzer, Section on Personality and Assessment, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14/ Box 7, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland, E-mail: [email protected], telephone: 0041 44 635 75 26, fax: 0041 44 635 75 29 Willibald Ruch, Section on Personality and Assessment, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14/ Box 7, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland, E-mail: [email protected], telephone: 0041 44 635 75 20, fax: 0041 44 635 75 29 * Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Running Head: WHEN THE JOB IS A CALLING 2 When the Job is a Calling: The Role of Applying One’s Signature Strengths at Work The present study investigates the role of applying the individual signature strengths at work for positive experiences at work (i.e., job satisfaction, pleasure, engagement, meaning) and calling. A sample of 111 employees from various occupations completed measures on character strengths, positive experiences at work, and calling. Co-workers (N = 111) rated the applicability of character strengths at work. Correlations between applicability of character strengths and positive experiences at work decreased with intra-individual centrality of strengths (ranked strengths from the highest to the lowest). Level of positive experiences and calling were higher when four to seven signature strengths were applied at work compared to less than four. Positive experiences partially mediated the effect of the number of applied signature strengths on calling. Implications for further research and practice will be discussed.