The Effect of Humour in Minimizing Stress among Engineering Students

Abstract

The world’s economic development has demanded a university to produce more skilful and competitive students. Therefore, the university has played a significant role in designing the best curriculum which is in line with the market need. Fulfilling those demands and needs, students must meet all the requirements stipulated by the curriculum but somehow, some of the students are experiencing stress due to their inability to meet the university's curriculum requirements. Although the students are under pressure they are still able to control it by using humour. Based on a study conducted on 200 university students, the results showed that the level of stress among students was a moderate level with symptoms such as dry mouth and hands shaking. In addition, the findings indicated that academic factor has a strong influence on students’ stress rather than financial and family factors. However, the results also indicated that students are able to control their stress levels based on their own attitude of humour namely; the affiliative humour and the self-enhancing humour.