Second, threats often create feelings of insecurity about one's control or efficacy. Therefore, an attempt is made to regain mastery over the event and over life in general. It also had the highest positive effect on coping outcome, matching the strength of relaxation training as an intervention procedure. Humor may be a means of restructuring perceptions of stressful events. He considered humor a prime correlate of insight.
People can reformulate ordinary problems and misfortunes through humor.
They gain a new perspective, a novel frame of reference induced by humor. Ellis assumed that irrational, self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, combined with catastrophizing behavior, lead to increased personal distress. To eliminate this distress, Ellis believed that the cognitive system must be restructured with positive, self-supporting, and reasonable patterns of thinking. That the treatment effectively reduced stress and irrational beliefs was demonstrated. Most studies showed substantial improvement after treatment.