The Role of Stand-Up Comedy Watching in Coping with Onternal Conflict over a Socially Relevant Topic: A Phenomenological Interpretative Study

The objective of this study is to analyse the experience of engaging with stand-up comedy on a topic causing internal conflict and to determine the psychological function of this experience in coping with internal conflict. The general hypothesis of the study is that there is a significant role of stand-up comedy viewing in coping with internal conflict. The study succeeded in establishing and describing the role of stand-up comedy viewing in coping with internal conflict. By analysing the qualitative data from the study, the characteristics and differences in the experience of watching stand-up on topics of internal conflict were identified across respondents and the results were described within a psychological paradigm. The study found parallels with existing theories on the coping functions of humour, as well as ideas about the concept of internal conflict and experience. The assumptions in the theoretical part were reflected in the empirical part. In the future, the results of the current study, taking into account its limitations in the sample, the number of expert evaluations and terminological tools, can be further elaborated using the grounded theory method.