An ethnographic study into the social meaning and function of humour in physiotherapy practice.

This study sought to explore the social meaning and function of humour in the practice activities of a group of therapists within an on-going interactive process on a rehabilitation programme. An ethnographic study using a social constructionist framework was undertaken in an NHS hospital. All observations were followed up in a process of validation with the therapists in which taken-for -granted assumptions by both therapist and researcher were challenged. A systematic recognised qualitative analyis was carried out. Humour was found to create the team leader's managment style and to build cohesion within the team of therapists. It was also used to combat possible fragmentation due to an individual member's stress . The team chose hostile humour to reduce feelings of powerlessness and to express their negative emotions but their patients chose friendly humour to gain control of an unequal situation. The humour used by this team of therapists actively constructed activities in order to accentuate their differences from others. In tandem with this sense of separateness their humour resulted in a strong element of creating a collective solidarity. from these two pervasive strands themes of inclusion and exclusion were identified which both required and enabled each other.