THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE ATTITUDES OF PROFESSIONAL REGISTERED NURSES TOWARD HUMOR (PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION, SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 185
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument capable of measuring the attitudes of professional registered nurses toward humor in the professional work setting. The theoretical framework was based on Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of attitude development and measurement. A semantic differential approach was used to develop the twenty bipolar adjective pairs that formed the instrument.

A descriptive design was used and 204 randomly selected professional registered nurses participated in the study. A pilot study was done, with 51 professional registered nurses participating, to establish reliability and validity on the instrument in two settings.

The sample consisted of predominately white, female, staff nurses who were in their mid-thirties. All subjects had a minimum of a BSN and seven percent had a master's degree. Fifty percent worked in a clinical specialty area.

The attitude of professional registered nurses in Texas toward humor was positive in both settings. There were significant differences between the personal life setting and the professional work setting, with the subjects being more positive in attitude in the personal life setting.

The instrument, Sumners' Attitude Toward Humor Semantic Differential, demonstrated a reliability coefficient of .85 in the professional work setting and .78 in the personal life setting. Three factors, evaluation, potency, and activity, were isolated using factor analysis which provided construct validity for the instrument.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-09, Section: B, page: 3709.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1986.

School code: 0227.