After reading chapter #6 please respond to the following questions:
Of the various aspects of the psychobiology of humor presented in the chapter, which did you find the most interesting? Why? Which did you find least interesting? Why? What are three things you read about in the chapter that you think will be the most useful for you in understanding the psychology of humor? Why?
Which of parts of the psychobiology of humor aspects fit best into the Theory "Z" your group came up with (make sure you say what group it was)? Which fit least and why?
Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.
Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance.
Let me know if you have any questions.
When feel something funny, it is hard our bodies make it hard to hide out emotions. We might uncontrollably smile, snort, flush, close our eyes and tear up, all in laughter. Our bodies are very much connected with Humor. Humor is a produced within the brain; biological processes stimulate our brain and our nervous system. This chapter outlines the research behind these what physical expression of mirth we and other beings have. Furthermore, what parts of the brain are responsible for humor.
Laughter is used to communicate the emotion of mirth. Mirth has both behavioral, laughter and physiological components, there is vocalization of laughter and facial and body reactions but also “changes take place in the brain, automomic nervious system, and endocrine system”. Vocalization of natural laugther is hard to measure. Some research shows the notes and pinch of laughter is pretty constant whereas other researchers find a great vary, particularly among males and females laugh. I think that this second research makes a lot more sense. Our smiles are also associated with mirth. The Duchenne display is what researchers, Frank and Ekman found as the only real display of enjoyment. This smile is activated by certain muscles in the face. Besides the face, our whole bodies experience laughter. We are aroused, our heart rate goes up, we could feel weak in our limbs. This physical reaction to mirth is not limited to human, our primate relative also experience similar physical changes in reaction to mirth . Apes have a play face, with this play face, primates are able to distinguish the difference between serious and playful fighting. Furthermore, there is some evidence of laughter in Apes. Infant chimpanzees laugh when tickled or in a game of pee-a-boo. Lastly the author points out that physical mirth goes beyond apes. Dogs, wolves and bears have playfaces and even rat display a sort of laughter when tickled, and furthermore, go back for more tickling from humans.
What this research hints at is laughter and smiling is not solely a learned behavior, the brain and involuntary systems are at work. Furthermore, some brain injuries cause people to laugh at inappropriate things, or at inappropriate times. The author refers to this as Pathological laughter. The researcher, Duchowny set out three major categories of pathological laughter; excessive laughter, forced laughter, gelastic epilepsy. Excessive laughter is the inability to control laughter and heightened feelings of mirth, it is associated with such disorders as schizophrenia, mania and dementia. Forced laughter is “involuntary outburst of explosive self-sustained laughter” and lastly under gelastic epilepsy, people have fits of laugher during seizures.
Researchers have studied the brain to better understand where laughter is produced, to better understand these disorders. Studies of patients with brain injuries show that there are two of humor pathways in the brain. One is voluntary and unemotional, and other involuntary and emotional. Thus people that has parkinson’s, and how has an problem with their involuntary and emotional tract, cannot laugh and smile as an reaction. However, they can smile when asked.
Lastly, when people with brain injuries try to comprehend humor, researchers have found that patients with right hemisphere damage overall performed significantly worse than the LHD partients in their ability to understand humor. They could not understand incongruity, and how the two different stories came together. However, in the EEG studies researchers found similar leves of activity in both hemispheres of the brain. Further brain studes showed that different brain areas processed different types of jokes.
This chapter organized research and theories about the laughter and it's relationship to humor in general. I found the information on laughter in animals (e.g. other primates and even dogs, bears, and possibly rats!?!), and the discussion on the brain's role in the production of laughter to be the most interesting sections.
Animal studies are important for scientific research because they allow us to have more control of certain variables, test variables that might be considered unethical to test in humans, and are sometimes easier to manipulate and condition than human subjects. The main disadvantage is that the research may not relate to humans. That being said the section on ape laughter and smiling virtually destroys the (terrible) argument by Gruner in an earlier chapter that laughter developed as a way to let off steam after a battle victory.
Instead it seems that laughter and smiling developed in line with Darwin's original theory that laughter is a way to communicate to other members of the group that you are experiencing mirth (and perhaps to create this state in others). Other research discussed in these sections involved the play face that primates use to communicate that one is interested in play-fighting instead of actually challenging someone to a fight.
Regarding the brain discussion I just want to talk about one interesting point. They discussed an experiment in which the area of the brain associated with laughter (left frontal lobe) was stimulated which did in fact cause laughter. When asked what was so funny the person confabulated a response similar to the answers split-brain patients give when they answer questions about their behaviors that their 'brains' don't have access to. This confabulation I think is wildly fascinating and I think may end up telling us a lot about consciousness. The basic research question is, where (or what) is the source of these confabulations? It certainly says a lot about how important it is for our brains to 'make sense' of the world no matter what, even if it tells us nothing about consciousness.
The more technical discussion on the acoustics of laughter, and various specific brain regions associated with different aspects of humor and laughter was a bit dry and hard to read so this interested me the least. The brain imaging information, although important (they found a positive correlation between people's self-report of humor and stimulation of nucleus accumbens, which has been used as a reward in drug and behavior therapy for a long time), was again very technical and hard to get through.
Most of the discussion in this chapter related well to our Equilibrium Theory of humor. The above information that laughter seems to have evolved as a way to signal to others that we are experiencing mirth and are not violent or aggressive has numerous benefits for maintaining a state of equilibrium in the individual and the group. Being able to play fight and practice fighting certainly has survival advantages. I'd rather talk about some of the issues that may put our theory to the test however.
First, they mentioned that laughter doesn't cause autonomic arousal, instead it seems that both are related, but separate outcomes of mirth. In this way mirth is really what is balancing the person, and this is simply expressed by laughter, smiling, or other observable behaviors. Basically, mirth, an emotional state brought about by something other than the persons direct effort (though they may be able to force themselves to experience mirth...?) leads to arousal (presumably bringing balance) and also leading to laughter.
The information on tickling may or may not go against our theory. Experiments have focused on the Darwin-Hecker hypothesis which states that both humor and tickling create mirth which in turn produces laughter. It has been shown however that tickling, although it produces laughter, produces less enjoyment than humor, and thus the three terms may not have as much of a connection as once thought.
Regarding our theory then, if tickling creates mirth yet it is unpleasant mirth than mirth alone does not always bring balance, but something else must be creating balance, or balance is not reached at all. If tickling does not create mirth but only laughter, than several attitudes and behaviors commonly associated with humor (and mirth) are in fact NOT mirthful (or humorous, or pleasant, or balancing) which casts doubt on the mirthful qualities of other forms of humor that we might assume are 'bringing balance'.
It is still possible that humor creates equilibrium in the individual and group but it may be overly simplistic and missing very important aspects of humor.
Before reading this chapter, I have always asked myself why I was ticklish in certain areas, and not in others. Why is my laugh louder or shriller than others? That is why the tickling section and the acoustics of laughter section appealed to me the most.
Acoustics of laughter can be described as the function of laughter sounds that appear to communicate to other’s one’s joyful and emotional state, which will then induce the same emotional state to the listeners. I haven’t really ever listened to myself laugh, but my boyfriend said something funny to me while I was reading this section, so I listened (even though it may have affected my laughter overall). Therefore, I asked Jordan, my boyfriend, to describe my laugh. He didn’t really know how to describe it, maybe because he is so used to it that when asked about how it sounds, he just couldn’t think of words to explain it.
I think my laugh is loud, but not obnoxious which coincides with Bachorowski studies which claimed that females have a more “songlike”, rather than the gruntlike laughs that males possess. I also found it interesting that after recording laughter, it becomes louder rather than quieter, but overall stays the same. I didn’t expect this, for I think laughter has more bouts than human speech, therefore making it similar to normal speech.
I also enjoyed reading about tickling as a stimulus for laughter. Before reading this chapter, I thought that tickling was a behavior that elicits a particular response, being laughter, and was caused by another person who was just trying to make you laugh. Though it usually elicits a feeling of mirth most of the time, tickling has been known to be aversive. The section that I found to be the least interesting was the neural basis of cognitive processes in humor. I just feel like it has already been touched on, and I already knew that if the brain is injured then the person is going to act differently.
When I was reading the chapter, I came across the word bout, which I didn’t realize was used to describe laughter before reading this chapter. A laughter bout is when an individual uses “ha” syllables which are then referred to as calls. I will also remember the play face used in non-human animals. The play face can be described as when the mouth is opened wide, the corners slightly retracted showing the teeth. Shallow breathing and a relaxed body also accompany a play face. The play face is used while hunting, fighting, mating, and just playing. I will also remember why we are unable to tickle ourselves. The tickling effect is cancelled when self-induced, because we tickle ourselves throughout the day unknowingly and there is lower activity if the cerebellum when we tickle ourselves rather than having other people tickle us.
My Z-Theory is the anti-Freud theory, which uses humor as a defense mechanism and doesn’t use Freud’s views to explain why we evolved. I don’t think that the psychobiology of humor and laughter relate to my Z-theory because it emphasizes more on laughter and the happiness accompanied by tickling, laughter, and the signs of laughter in the face. If the chapter were to explain how our laughter has evolved with an underlying sexuality then it would relate to my Z-theory more.
I found the section of Humor as a Desirable Trait in Friendship and Mate Selection to be the most interesting aspect of the cognitive psychology in this chapter. One reason this topic was my favorite is partly because I can relate to it in terms of humor being a desirable trait. I was interested to read on about the several studies conducted that have found how men and women view a sense of humor in their partner. Throughout the course we have learned that laughter and humor play a major role in socializing and create positive emotions. This holds true the a desiring a sense of humor in a partner. After reading this topic, I have a better understand now why a sense of humor is a desirable trait because it is shared laughter that reinforces mutual feelings of attracting and strengthens a positive attitude.
The least interesting topic from this chapter I thought was the section about social play. There wasn't very much information in this section however, we have discussed social play and humor's relationship several times in previous readings and discussions. Everything I read in this part seemed repetitive.
I'll remember the concept of teasing and humor. I enjoyed reading this part because my friends and I use teasing frequently and I never realized how much it is used in my own sense of humor. I'll remember the different types and purposes of teasing. It'll be interesting to apply what I have now learned regarding teasing to my future experiences and use of teasing.
Another concept I’ll remember from this chapter is Decommitment. People use humor and laughter as a way to cover up or as the text calls it, save face when they experience some sort of failure. Decommitment is used in several situations such as when they have been caught in a lie, being caught in inappropriate behavior, or any past action that has causing embarrassment. This concept allows people to ‘decommit’ oneself from the action that caused their embarrassment. I’ll remember this concept because it was interesting to read how humor is used in effort for people make their actions seem less severe or serious.
The last concept I’ll remember from this chapter is Group Identity and Cohesion. The book says that friendly teasing, nicknames, shared ‘in-jokes’, and slang terms provides members of groups a sense of meaning or ‘group identity.’ I’ll remember this concept because my friends and I often use funny nicknames and ‘inside jokes with each other . Our friendly teasing and joking gives not only strengthens our friendships but gives our group of friends more of an identity and meaning.
This chapter relates to the Swarm groups Z-theory because our theory believed that the social aspect of humor brings people together and allows for interaction and bonding. Within the chapter we read of many different ways humor plays into socializing. The Swarm group believed that within the incongruity theory, there needs to be superiority or an aggressive leader. In this reading we learned how men’s jokes usually are more aggressive than women’s jokes. Also, studies show women don’t enjoy sexual jokes as much as men do mainly because most of the sexual jokes are disparaging of women. Men seem to be more superior than women because of this concept.
The section of chapter 6 that I found to be most interesting was the portion that discussed facial expressions of laughter and smiling. I thought this was most interesting because I had no idea that there was such a smile as the Duchenne display. This smile involves symmetrical synchronous and smooth contraction of the zygomatic major and obicularis oculi. This smile can occur in laughter as well as smiling, but when laughing more muscles are used because typically the mouth is open therefore the jaw is dropped. I found this to be most interesting because I really enjoy people watching and now I can add the element of negative and positive emotions. I can usually tell when a smile or laughter seems forced rather than genuine so this information will help decipher that.
The section of the chapter that I found to be least interesting was the portion on evolutionary theories of humor and laughter. I found this to be the least interesting section because I have always had a hard time being interesting in evolutionary topics. I realize I should be interested in it, but I always feel slightly bored like I’m hearing the same things over and over.
The first thing I will remember that will be helpful in understanding psychology of humor includes tickling as a stimulus for laughter. I am incredibly ticklish and therefore found this section interesting. I have always been curious as to why we can’t tickle ourselves but anyone else can. The text stated that there must be some mechanism where the brain distinguishes between the two sources of stimulation. I also found it interesting that tickling was reported as a form of torture in medieval times.
The second thing I will remember from this chapter is the section on acoustics of laughter. This topic is something I will remember because to me everyone seems to have their own distinctive laugh. Everyone’s had the experience of hearing that one laugh that you can’t believe is a laugh but surely it is! Provine and Yong conducted a study where they approached people in public and asked them to simulate a hearty laughter into their tape recorder. People had a difficult time laughing on command as would I. I feel like I can usually tell a faked, or forced laugh from a true laugh. The experimenters were usually able to get the people to laugh and produce a more genuine laugh that could be analyzed. They found that on average people laugh consisted of four individual notes. Male laughter was found to be in lower tones than females which to me makes sense but is interesting to know research has shown that.
The third thing I will remember from this chapter includes laugher respiration and phonation. The book states that the typical breathing cycle begins with inspiration, inspiration pause, expiration, and expiration pause. When laughter occurs no matter which point in the cycle a person is at, it begins with the initial forced exhalation. This brings the lung volume down to around functional residual capacity. I found this section interesting because I had never thought about the breathing cycle that occurs while laughing.
The part of psychobiology that I felt fits best into the Playdoh z-theory is the section on facial expressions of laughter and smiling. I feel like this fits into our theory because our facial expressions can say a lot and that fits into the social theory of humor. I didn’t feel like there was anything that stood out to me that wouldn’t in some way fit into the z-theory.
Overall, this was probably the worst chapter I have read so far, even worse that the cognitive chapter! I say it is the worst not because the information presented throughout the chapter is boring or uninteresting, but because biology and science in general is definitely not my strong suit. I felt like the material (when I could understand the biology terms) was interesting, but I find retaining this information hard when you don’t fully understand it!
Nonetheless, my favorite part of the chapter was on the pathological aspects of laughter. These three categories (excessive laughter, forced laughter, and gelastic epilepsy) were most interesting to me because I think mental illness is fascinating and these categories incorporated this interest with humor.
I found the section on the acoustics of laughter quite annoying and somewhat pointless. I don’t think knowing about the frequency or duration of the common laugh contributed to my understanding of laughter and humor as a whole in any way, shape, or form!
With that aside, I will remember the three categories of the pathological aspects of laughter. The first aspect, excessive laughter is the “emotional lability, heightened feelings of mirth and euphoria, an inability to inhibit laughter, and a lack of insight into the abnormality of the laughter.” I thought it was really interesting that this aspect is often associated with schizophrenia, mania, and dementia. The first two, schizophrenia and mania make sense, but I have a hard time understanding how dementia and excessive laughter are related (besides the apparent brain connection the book describes). The second aspect of pathological laughter, forced laughter, deals with the “involuntary outbursts and explosive” aspect of laughter. When someone is experiencing forced laughter, it may appear as though they are really experiencing humor but really, they are not. Lastly, during gelastic epilepsy, an epileptic episodes may involve laughter (this seems really strange to me), but these laughter instances are short-lived.
I will also remember that rats experience laughter as well. To me, this is strange, yet very cool. I thought it was also interesting that you can’t hear a rat’s laugh without the help of equipment even though you can hear rats squeak. It is also interesting that rats enjoy “full body” tickles and can discriminate between hands that have previously given them full body tickles and those which have not.
Lastly, I liked the section on tickling as a stimulus of laughter. I particularly like these few sentences:
“The laughter associated with tickling appears to be accompanied by a pleasurable feeling of mirth similar to the emotion accompanying laughter when it is elicited by humor. However, tickling can also be quite aversive, and it was reportedly even used as a form of torture in medieval times. The social context is also important; tickling only produces laughter in a safe and trusting environment” (pg. 174)
I am one of those people who finds tickling very aversive. I am rarely ticklish, but when I am tickled, I HATE it. I feel like I have no control over the situation and basically start to panic and yell for mercy (I’m a wimp). I also agree that the context is important, particularly the person who is tickling you. If you don’t trust the person, are disgusted by the person, etc. it is very understandable why you would not experience the emotions that go along with tickling.
Nothing in this chapter screams to me “that fits in with the PSSC theory!!” However, I can see where the concept of the play face and how laughter is used as a social communication tool fit into our theory. Our theory suggested that in order for humor to exist, there must be some sort of social interaction whether it be real or “pseudo-social.” In this sense, play faces, laughter, and smiling are all a social function and therefore can be tied into our Z Theory.
Overall, I thought the chapter was interesting (with the exception of a few sections), but is not my favorite chapter thus far!
Of the entire chapter the most interesting to me was the pathological laughter. There were three kinds, Excessive laughter, forced laughter and gelastic epilepsy.
Excessive laugher involves heightened feelings of mirth and euphoria, the inability to inhibit laughter, and the inability to recognize the abnormality of their laughter. This is very common in schizophrenics, those suffering from mania and dementia.
Forced laughter involves involuntary outbursts of explosive laughter. But when these individuals do not experience mirth, instead they are embarrassed. They recognize that this behavior is unusual and inappropriate. These people also commonly exhibit excessive crying.
Gelastic Epilepsy is a condition when someone has seizures that take the form of laughter and are still accompanied by convulsions. While many loose conscience, some are awake and say they still experience mirth while they are seizing
What was not interesting to me was all the talk about the brain. While I learned some new thins I felt like it was a lot or reiteration and not very much information. For a chapter that was kind of long, I had to take a lot of breaks in order to maintain concentration and get something out of the chapter.
Having said that, I think that some of the talk about the brains connections with laughter were interesting and informative, toward the beginning. Like the idea that smiling and laughter involve the brainstem and the cortex. Also, it has been said that laughter is the only domain in which a complex mental stimulus produces a reflexive response such as laughter. Lastly, the adrenaline changes that happen when watching funny movies as opposed to serious ones, and the idea that the sympathetic adrenal medullary system which is the fight-or-flight area of the hypothalamus also are incorporated with laughter.
One of the things I will remember is the section about tickling. I thought it was interesting that a robot had the same effect as a person. I have always wondered why people cannot tickle themselves. This section also said that the differentiation between self and external tickling takes place in the hindbrain. This was interesting that this is such a neural concept
I also thought the experiments done on the acoustics of laughter were interesting. The results of the experiments were varied. One, by Provine and Young did not find a lot of differences between bouts of laughter. However, another experiment done later, found that the different “notes” in a bout of laughter would change within each bout, and were very different from bout to bout.
My theory was the Swam theory, and from this chapter, the laughter and emotion section would fit in best with our group. It said that laughter, once again is a way to express the emotion of mirth to others, and also to induce it on others. This social aspect of laughter was very much emphasized in my theory. What fit least was the part about brain imaging. This did not really have a lot to do with our theory at all.
An aspect that I found interesting was the section on tickling as a stimulus. Laughter associated with tickling appears to be similar to the mirth that is elicited by humor. I found it interesting that in medieval times tickling was used as a form of torture which isn’t surprising because I have been tickled to the point where it was no longer enjoyable. I agree that positive emotion is elicited from tickling when the social context is appropriate. I also think it’s interesting that one study found a positive correlation among the degree of laughter evoked by tickling and laughter evoked by watching a comedy film. Therefore if a person claims that they are not ticklish this may also indicate that they don’t have that great of a sense of humor. Although more recent studies results indicate that tickling and laughter may not be as similar as once thought to be. The area I found especially interesting was the part that addressed why people cannot elicit laughter by tickling themselves but it was found that when people thought they were being tickled by a machine they still laughed. This was interesting to me because I assumed that tickling produced the same emotion of mirth as humor did but this may not be the case. Tickling was found to be more of a reflex-like, non-emotional response.
A section that I found the least interesting was the laughter respiration and phonation. I think I didn’t find this section important because it didn’t seem as important to me and it was difficult to follow. I think that in order for me to understand the different sounds of laughter and lengths is would be easier to hear them and have them explained rather then read about them. I did find it interesting though that the sound of your laughter could be dependent on your current emotional state.
Of the various aspects presented in this chapter I think one thing that will be most useful foe me in understanding the psychology of humor was the section on pathological laughter. There are three major categories of pathological laughter, excessive laughter, forced laughter, and elastic epilepsy. Excessive laughter is found mostly in adults with clinical conditions such as schizophrenia, mania, and dementia. Excessive laughter is characterized by emotional liability, heightened feelings of mirth and euphoria, an inability to inhibit laughter, and a lack of insight into the abnormality of the laughter. In forced laughter conditions individuals laugh involuntary without the feeling mirth. Forced laughter conditions are usually accompanied by disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and also lesions and tumors that may have been caused by strokes or brain injury. While reading about forced laughter I learned that it is possible to laugh to death. In the condition four ire prodromique uncontrolled laughter can occur for up to a half hour or more this indicates a stroke in the brainstem. The gelastic epilepsy is a rare condition where seizures are characterized by bouts of laughter. What is interesting about this is that some patients who stay conscious during the seizures report feeling mirthful while others indicate the laughter as inappropriate or unpleasant. Unlike the other two major disorders this one usually develops in childhood. I found this section to be important to me because I am interested in different clinical psychological disorders. Clinical psychology may be a field that I would like to pursue. Also I think that researchers could learn a lot about humor and laughter by examining disorders such as these.
Another aspect that I think is useful in understanding the psychology of humor is the facial expressions of smiling and laughter. There have been eighteen different types of smiles identified but only one that is associated with genuine enjoyment and amusement. This smile is called the Duchenne display the other smiles are associated with the presence of negative emotions, fake smiles. A real smile, the Duchenne, is characterized by a symmetrical, synchronous and smooth contraction of both the zygomatic major (the muscle in the cheeks that pulls lip corners upward and backward) and the obicularis oculi muscles (the muscle surrounding the eye that causes crows feet) of the face. Other smiles that use other muscles of the face usually indicate the presence of other emotions such as contractions of muscles in the forehead are related to negative emotions. The Duchenne is present in laughter as well but other muscles are also involved such as the ones to open your mouth. I think this aspect of humor is important because it allows people or researchers to determine if someone is genuinely expressing mirth or if other negative emotions are present. It’s important for the future of psychology of humor for researchers to know if participants in research studies are expressing mirth or if they are faking it.
The third aspect that I think is important to better understand the psychology of humor is the different brain regions that are involved in cognitive and emotional components of humor and laughter which include: prefrontal cortex, frontal lobe, supplementary motor area, cingulated cortex, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, thalamus, cerebellum, ventral tegmental area, pons, hypothalamus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and the basal ganglia. There are different brain regions that are responsible or the cognitive process of different types of humor. The frontal lobes are thought to be involved in the integration of cognition and emotion thus helping with humor comprehension and indirect forms of communication such as irony, and sarcasm. The left hemisphere of the brain is important in perceiving incongruity. The emotional response of mirth is believed to take place in the limbic system.
I think the section that best fit into my “Z” theory (non-Freud) is the whole evolutionary aspect of laughter. It is suggested that the evolutionary benefits of play may have helped in developing various adaptive skills which coincides with our theory that humor has evolved cognitively and socially as a defense mechanism. A larger cerebral cortex allowed people to have an increase in language skills, abstract thinking, which allowed us to “play” with words and ideas. I don’t think that there is a section that doesn’t necessarily fit with our z theory. I don’t remember coming across any Freudian underlying theories.
The thing I found most interesting was that of humor and the brain. For one, if the right hemisphere is damaged due to an injury or stroke then that suggests that the ability to process humor is affected by the damage of the right hemisphere. People with brain injuries often have a hard time understanding the discourse and behavior of others, failing to completely understand the concept of jokes being told by other people, and missing the main point of the story (basically have a hard time piecing the story together). Furthermore, damage to the right hemisphere shows significantly poor selection when choosing the correct joke ending, suggesting that humor comprehension is impacted. For example, when given a narrative in which they had to choose the ending to make the joke, people with right hemisphere damage often selecting a slapstick ending such as someone slipping on a banana peel which had no significance to the story. On the other hand, the damage to the left hemisphere shows that they are still able to pin point the main idea of a story or conversation, draw inferences and combine elements of a story into a coherent whole. Overall, damage to the right hemisphere is important for understanding cognitive processes. They serve as crucial roles that are important such as humor comprehension, including narrative discourse, abstract and nonliteral interpretation, working memory, problem solving and indirect forms of communication such as irony, affective intonation and sarcasm.
What I didn’t find as interesting was the concept of laughter respiration and phonation, not to say I didn’t learn anything about it I did, but this is the concept I chose just to have one. Furthermore, it was interesting to find out that of normal humans breathing cycle consists of inspiration, inspiration pause, expiration, and expiration pause. Who would have thought they would ever catch themselves thinking about how we breathe and excel and so forth. In addition, found it weird that when we laugh our lungs hold a low volume and force out air…is this why sometimes when were laughing so hard we can’t breathe? Moreover, laughter produces heightened breathing amplitude, up to 205 times greater than that which occurs during normal breathing. On the other end of this section I did not understand what the book was talking about when it starts stating stuff about glottis? That confused me, maybe cause I have never heard to the word before and so forth.
The first thing that I found useful and rememberable was that of mirth which captures the emotional nature as well as its association with humor and laughter. I thought this was useful because there can be low and high levels of intensity with mirth. Low levels are expressed by a faint smile, with then turns in to a broader smile and then a chuckle and laughter and the intensity increases. In addition, high levels is expressed by loud guffaws, often accompanied by the redness of the face as was as bodily movements such as, throwing the head back, rocking one’s body and slapping one’s thighs and so forth.
Secondly, I will remember the concept of tickling as a stimulus to laughter. For one, results from a study showed that there is lower activity in the cerebellum when someone tries to tickle themselves which suggest that differentiation may take place in the structure of the hindbrain. Second, laughter is elicited by tickling and is not just purely pleasant and enjoyable as depicted by humor. Lastly, people who are found to be more ticklish display more laughter in response to humor, suggesting there is a close relationship between tickling and humor as elicitors of laughter.
Lastly, but not least I enjoyed reading about acoustics of laughter. I found it interesting that on average, each laugh obtained consists of notes or calls. Each laugh begins with a protracted voiceless aspirant such as, hissing sound not produced by vibration of the vocal cords. This is followed by forced voiced vowel like sound with an average duration of approximately 75 milliseconds. In addition, another voiceless aspirant is followed with an average duration of about 135 milliseconds, which is followed by the next vowled sound (voiced). Overall, each complete” ha” note was approximately 210 milliseconds long, resulting in about five notes emitted per second.
My “Z” theory is “PSSC” which relates somewhat to this chapter in the social and cognitive aspect because laughter is essentially a social behavior. It’s a fixed action pattern that serves an interpersonal communication function. It has a contagious effect, such as the sound of someone laughing elicits feelings of mirth in others, causing them to laugh as well. On the other hand, the cognitive-perceptual component of humor draws on many cortical brain circuits involved in information processing.
The section of this chapter that I found the most interesting was “Tickling as a Stimulus for Laughter.” I thought this section was the most interesting to me because as I was reading, I started to think of real-life examples that I could relate to some of these studies. According to the Darwin-Hecker Hypothesis, both humor and tickling extract the feeling of mirth which causes us to laugh. But I found it interesting that further on in the section, the fact that tickling isn’t always fun for everyone is investigated a bit more. I thought it was funny that tickling was actually used as a form of torture in medieval times! I also found it interesting that in a study by Fridlund and Loftus, they found that people that were very ticklish tend to laugh, giggle, smile at various forms of humor. This immediately made me think of my sister who is ridiculously ticklish, and she laughs more than anyone I know—I thought that was kind of interesting. I also found the study done by Harris and Alvarado interesting. Their results propose that the laughter brought forth from tickling isn’t necessarily enjoyable like the laughter that’s caused by humor. Again, I thought of my sister and also myself and the fact that we both HATE to be tickled, but we both still laugh when we do. So because of my personal experiences, I agree with the fact that the laughter that’s elicited in response to tickling is more of a reflex rather than an emotional response.
I don’t know why, but I’ve always found the parts where we study the different areas of the brain in my psych classes very, very boring. I know it’s a very important part of psychology, but I’ve always had a really hard time trying to be genuinely interested in it. So the section that I found the least interesting in the chapter was “The Neural Basis of Cognitive Processes in Humor.” There were a few parts that I found interesting like the EEG studies that suggest the right and left hemispheres may work together as a team in order for us to understand and comprehend humor, not just the right side.
I think that the Duchenne display is an important aspect of humor. It’s a distinctive facial display that is “reliably associated with genuine enjoyment or amusement” (pg 160). Especially since researchers use it as a sort of measurement to conclude whether or not a smile is real and genuine or whether it is fake.
I thought it was very interesting that even though laughter and mirth is generally thought to be, for the most part, nonthreatening, some investigations show that “mirth is associated with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system…associated with the fight-or-flight response” (pg 162). It’s actually kind of ironic in a sense because they’re kind of two conflicting ideas in my mind--since the fight-or-flight response is usually activated in a more threatening situation.
I also thought that pathological laughter was an important aspect of this chapter. I never thought of laughter to be something that could be associated with illness. Excessive laughter usually occurs in disorders like schizophrenia, mania, and dementia and it “involves emotional lability, heightened feelings of mirth and euphoria, an inability to inhibit laughter, and alack of insight into the abnormality of the laughter” (pg 169). Forced laughter is “involuntary outbursts of explosive, self-sustained laughter” (pg 170). These patients don’t usually experience mirth or any positive emotion with the laughter. Laughter can last up to a half hour, and in some cases, patients have sadly laughed themselves to death. The last is gelastic epilepsy which involves seizures that involve laughter.
My Z-theory group is the Equilibrium Theory. I think that the best aspect of this chapter that fits into our theory is the Evolutionary Theory of Humor and Laughter. The suggestion that humor can be used as an aid for the development of adaptive skills fits well, especially the example the text uses that humor can help us learn important social skills which is important to keep an even social balance that our theory is based around.
I would have to say that the Neural Basis of Cognitive Process in Humor probably fit least into our Z-theory mostly because the section didn’t have a lot of social aspects to it, and our theory pretty much focuses on some sort of social balance. But like the author said, with brain-imaging studies, it’s hard to do any sorts of test in a social setting because of the machines they have to use in order to get pictures and images of the brain—they’re not portable. So they have to stick with pictures and comics and jokes for the most part.
The section that I enjoyed the most was the section that discussed tickling as a stimulus for laughter. I’m ticklish absolutely hate being tickled. I think it is one of the worst forms of torture (personally) and I honestly would rather have something be moderately painful than go through a couple seconds of tickling. I have tried extremely hard to not laugh or smile while being tickled, but it’s I’m fairly positive it’s impossible. This being said, I thought it was funny how in medieval times, tickling was actually used as a form of torture. I really feel bad for those people. Also, I’ve always wondered why it’s impossible to tickle ourselves, but the book explains that when another person is doing the tickling, the cerebellum shows more activity than when the tickling is self-inflicted. The brain somehow distinguishes between the two (another person and the self) so when a person tickles themselves, it doesn’t work. This is important because otherwise people would constantly be tickling themselves. I do not agree with the Darwin-Hecker Hypothesis, which basically states that since humor and tickling both elicit laughter, that both produce a feeling of mirth in the individual. One study done by Christine Harris and Nancy Alvarado had participants watch a comedy or be tickled and some had a hand in cold water, causing pain. Those in the tickling condition were more likely to have non-Duchenne smiles, as well as facial expressions communicating distress. The people in the tickling condition also later reported both positive and negative experiences in the tickling condition, whereas the people in the comedy condition had only positive feelings. This shows that there is not necessarily a cause and effect between tickling and mirth, although tickling usually elicits laughter, and indicator of mirth.
I wasn’t really interested in the section that discussed the acoustics of laughter. I felt like the main message of the section was lost behind all the numbers they used and I couldn’t really follow it. Basically, what I got from this section is that laughs that are most common are the “ha-ha” laughs as opposed to “ho-ho” or “he-he”. We also have a more positive response to natural sounding laughter. This clip kind of gives an example of both. Phoebe and Joey’s laughter at the beginning is unnatural and sounds weird. Then at the end, Joey’s laugh is more of a “ho-ho” and this also sounds unnatural and weird. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmQtxCBmn9E
I will remember the description of the Duchenne smile. I think that it’s very beneficial for researchers to specify exactly what they’re looking for when trying to study humor or laughter. By using what is known as the Duchenne display, a facial expression that is reliably associated with genuine mirth, they are able to really look at mirth, and not using all types of smiles, which could be faked by a person, because of embarrassment, or because of anxiety. The Duchenne display includes a smile and also “crow’s feet” at the corners of the individual’s eyes which are caused by the obicularis oculi, which is involuntary, signaling genuine enjoyment.
I also will remember the findings of laughter in animals. We have talked about the play face in primates prior to this, but I thought it was very interesting that other animals also had a play face, like dogs, but this makes sense because when two dogs are playing together it is easy to tell if they are trying to hurt each other or if they are just playing. I thought it was particularly interesting how there has been evidence that rats laugh, and that they have a positive regard of tickling and are more likely to approach a hand that had just tickled them as opposed to one that had just petted them .
The section on Pathological Laughter also was interesting to read. I was not aware of the different categories of this type of laughter and thought that these might cause serious problems. For example with gelastic epilepsy, where seizures take place in the forms of laughter, people might not be aware that someone was having a seizure because laughter is usually a sign that something is right, not that something is wrong. I also thought it was really sad how people have literally laughed themselves to death before in the case of forced laughter, where people experience involuntary laughter which is also accompanied by irregular physiological responses, such as heart rate. The third type of pathological laughter, excessive laughter, which usually is associated with other disorders like dementia or schizophrenia, and consists of an individual being unable to control their laughter and don’t really know why this is abnormal.
I think that the Acoustics of Laughter section dealt the best with my group’s theory, but also the worst (if that makes sense). My group’s Z-theory was the Equilibrium theory, which is basically about people use humor as a way to create a balance within their group, and also to create a balance for themselves as sort of a defense mechanism. This section mentions that people laugh because they want to communicate their own mirth and try to make the others in the group also feel this way, which is a big part of our theory. Then, however, the section talks about specifics of how laughter sounds, which I don’t really think is necessary for laughter to induce mirth in others.
Of the various psychobiological ideas presented in this chapter, I found the MesoLymbic Reward System to be the most intruiging.
I feel like the Mesolymbic Reward System could be a big key as to what drives us in life, our pleasure principle, right now we're sitting and reading 45 page chapters only for the promise of a reward later. (an A, a beer after class, or some video games maybe) The Mesolymbic RS is responsible for all of those pleasure feelings we get from said activities.
There are many different parts to the Mesolymbic Reward System. (MRS) These structures lie within the brain, many within the subcortical region, they are; the Anterior Thalamus, Hypothalamus - which controls things like body temperature and hunger, the Amygdala - which is responsible, in large, for emotions, and the Nucleus Accumbens which can be groupe with the Straitum. All of these strucutres function to make up the MRS, as a whole, the MRS serves as a major dopamine transmitter. I found the Mobbs (et. all 2003) study to be quite interesting. When the 42 funny cartoons were mixed in with the non-humurous cartoons the evidence was clear, the MRS system was highly active, especially on the left hempisphere of the cerebral cortex.
There is a segway here however, as we see in the 'Humor and Brain Injury' portioin of the chapter, people who have suffered from strokes and the occuring right hemispherical damage it causes, often fail to understand the behaviors and jokes of others. This points out that even though Mobbs (and the EEG studeies showing cooperation between the two hemispheres) study of the left hempishpere cortical region showed prominent results, the brain uses several systems inside itself to construct and understand the complicated emotion of mirth and humor. However, this experiment loans itself in support to the MRS's function. The MRS communicates the pleasurable, rewarding feeling we get when we do something we enjoy.
I think the theory presented by Weisfield loans itself to our z-theory (sans-frued) pretty well. Weisfield looks at humor through a Darwinian approach, he posits that play is used as an adaptive behavioral mechanism. Through this, we can practice competitive/non-competitive skills in a safe environment that is nonthreteaning. We get to joke around with one another to build our social skills, that is why we've kept the humor emotion, and it is now deeply embedded within the anatomy of our brains. Along with play, Wiesfield, theorizes that we can use our linguistic skills such as teasing and joking to probe social areas and figure out our status among the group. Weisfield also contests that we can release aggression and even sexual aggression through teasing a joking. In this aspect, he is very on board with Frued, which would go against our theory. However, I would be willing to concede to this point because it is a really good, logical idea. Overall, Weisfield's theory lends itself in many ways to our z-theory.
I enjoyed this chapter because I really enjoy making the connection between the biological realm and how it can affect a plethora of different psychological aspects. Even things like tickling, which we don't give the slightest thought to on a day to day basis, can be explained from a biopsycholigical point of view. The psychological aspects of mirth and humor, coupled with the cognitive/behavioral awareness of somebody we're close to, opens up a system such as the Mesolymbic Reward System and creates a positive dopaminergic reaction in the brain which helps us elicit a positive cognition that creates mirth which is express through the emotion of humor and laughter. I just had kind of a keyboard catharsis there, but to me, it sums up what I've read in this chapter.
The section of this chapter (Psychbio-6) that I found most interesting was the Acoustics of Laughter, specifically the study that analyzes the acoustical properties of 51 laughter attempts produced by male and female college students and staff. The interesting part for me was how the psychologists, Provine and Yong (1991), obtained the recordings of laughter and how this suggests that it is very difficult to laugh on command and truly experience a sense of mirth without the bout occurring naturally and spontaneously. Provine and Yong gathered the recordings of laughter by approaching people in public places with a tape recorder and asked them to “stimulate hearty laughter”. The majority of people asked found it very difficult to laugh on command, and their first attempts were typically forced and non-natural. This is due to the individual not actually experiencing the emotion of mirth that laughter normally expresses. The experiment also mentions that the funniness of the experiment itself, along with the researchers unserious and joking attitude caused the subjects to begin feeling amused and they soon followed with bouts of laughter that were spontaneous and genuine signs of experiencing mirth. The natural and spontaneous bouts of laughter were what were analyzed. This suggests that attempting to heartily laugh and feel mirth cannot be forced, but only created through not focusing on laughing but embracing the humor naturally to actually feel mirth. Something that possibly relates to this is how good actors/actresses go about conveying such great representations of genuine laughter, and seemingly a sense of mirth, when performing a scene in a movie that asks for such attitudes/behaviors.
The section that I found least interesting was Laughter Respiration and Phonation due its biological nature; in that some of the section’s information specifically explains the biological inner-workings of laughter. This is incredibly informative and interesting from a biopsychology perspective, but I am not sure how this could assist someone in better understanding the ‘big picture’ reasons and possible theories to why one individual finds one style of humor funny while others may not. Technically that is beside the point; this specific section clearly states that it is explaining the biological process involved when we produce the distinctive sounds of laughter. For example, the normal human breathing cycle consists of inspiration, inspiration pause, expiration, and expiration pause. Regardless of where an individual may be in this sequence, laughter commonly originates with an initial forced exhalation, which brings the lung volume down to where it is after normal expiration. As many others, I have been to points of genuine laughing and mirth so great that it leaves my lungs incapable of any breathing until recovery (I wonder if anyone has gone to point of such exhaustion of laughter that it caused a medical problem?).
Something that I found significant to understanding the psychology of humor is found in the section on Facial Expressions of Laughter and Smiling. The section mentions that several researchers (Ekman & colleagues) have identified 18 different types of smiles, but have found only one that is reliably associated with genuine enjoyment or amusement (mirth). The researchers named this smile the ‘Duchenne display’, which is a smile that expresses genuine mirth. The Duchenne display (smile) consists of symmetrical, synchronous, and smooth contractions of the cheeks, lips, and eye areas, such as the “crow’s feet” at the outside of the eyes due to the contraction of the obicularis oculi (eyes) muscles. An interesting bit was that contractions of the muscles in the forehead during smiling tend to be associated with negative emotions. I think identifying specific smile types, especially the Duchenne display, and what true feelings they convey is quite important to understanding the psychology of humor and gives a great basis for a representation of a true expression of mirth.
Another piece of information that could further my understanding of humor, specifically the psychobiological part, is the section that delves into studies done on joke comprehension and appreciation through EEG and EMG recordings. In short, the results showed that all the jokes, regardless of whether or not smiling or laughter occurred, produced an increase in positive polarization of brain waves with peak amplitude about 300 milliseconds (P300) following the presentation of the punch line. Previous research has shown that P300 brain waves are indicative of cognitive activity of categorization; perhaps activating a schema/s for a joke.
One more bit of information that will assist in my understanding of the psychology of humor is regarding the evolutionary theories of humor and laughter. The section explains that previous evidence of humor, mirth, and laughter are likely a product of natural selection. Humor and laughter are universal in the human species, and laughter as an expression of mirth emerges early in life, such as babies laughing at social stimuli by four months of age. Play is also very closely related to humor in that they both have possible evolutionary benefits and can result in adaptive skills, such as competitive and noncompetitive social skills, social bonding, or cooperation. All these skills have some type of purpose in being successful in developing relationships and just basic social survival. This connects well with our Z-theory, due its focus on traits like humor having a purpose in cognitive and social evolution as human beings.
My Z-theory group is the Evolutionary theory (Anti-Freud). This chapter fits excellently into our theory, specifically the evolutionary aspect of laughter that is mentioned in the chapter. The text suggests that the evolutionary benefits of play may have assisted in developing various adaptive skills which relates to our theory that humor has evolved cognitively and socially as a defense mechanism (purposeful). Human beings as a species have developed a larger cerebral cortex than others, which has allowed humans to have an increase in language skills and abstract thinking. These increased mental capabilities have allowed us to “play” with words and ideas, and also creating a purpose for humor.
Evolutionary Theories of Humor and Laughter was the most interesting section to me. I found this subject most interesting because although we have questioned why we laugh, we have not looked at it as something we have evolved to have. I think it’s interesting to look at laughter and humor as a means of survival. In the study using rats, the rats that had play experience were more valued as social partners and more confident in social situations as compared to the rats that were play deprived. These things are related to survival. I also found the topic of mate selection in this section very interesting. The text says that “humor is a signal of good genes and therefore is an important factor in desirability of a mate. I’m not typically a big believer in evolutionary theories in general but they are still very interesting.
I didn’t really like The Nature of Laughter section. I just felt like a lot of this information is common knowledge because we all have been in numerous situations involving laughter. By this point in life, we already are able to recognize real laughter and fake laughter. I did find one part of this section interesting which was the explanation of the Ducheme display.
I will definitely remember the Ducheme display from this chapter. I have never thought of wrinkling around the outside of the eyes as a sign of genuine mirth. This would be very helpful in research setting for observing mirth, humor, and laughter. I think this will be useful in describing how research could be done.
Another thing I found important in this chapter is the section about brain damage and humor. This was interesting to me because my brother has brain damage from a bike accident and his overall personality has been different ever since, including his sense of humor. It seems that people with brain damage to the right hemisphere have a harder time understanding jokes and creating socially appropriate humor. They can understand incongruities but have a hard time making sense using incongruities. This is important when studying humor because it ties to the topic of the brain so I also think it will be helpful to remember that section of the chapter.
The topic of tickling will also stay with me. I think I will remember this section more just because I was getting really tired reading so I started to read out-loud and my mom reacted to some of the information. For example, we both laughed after I read the second sentence: “Why is it impossible to tickle oneself?” I think the incongruity made us laugh because the sentence is worded in a serious way but the topic is silly to think about. I think this topic is important because the text said tickling and laughing do not have to go hand-in-hand. The example of tickling being used for torture was given. The text said that more research is needed in this area of laughter and mirth in relation to tickling.
I think Laughter and the Brain fit into our theory (PSSC) well. In the test, I basically narrowed the theory into two different parts: social and cognitive. The brain functions in accord with laughing would fit into the cognitive category. Not only does this section talk about the brain processes that occur along with laughter and smiling but towards the end it mentions appropriateness in certain social situations and how that can affect laughter.
While reading the psycho biology of humor and laughter chapter, I found the section on pathological laughter to be the most interesting. As stated in the textbook, the study of psychological laughter is one way that neuroscientists have been able to make inferences about the brain sites that may be involved in the process of laughter. I found this to be interesting because by studying how brain disorders are able to affect one’s laughter, neuroscientists are able to better understand the parts of the brain that are involved in different types of laughter. For example, the book discusses the researcher Duchowny, who in 1983 cataloged three different types of laughter: excessive laughter, forced laughter, and gelastic epilepsy. Excessive laughter causes a person to laugh uncontrollably at any time without being able to realize that sometimes there are situations were laughing is not socially acceptable. What was found is that disorders resulting in excessive laughter, for example schizophrenia, affect the parts of the brain involved in emotional regulation and production that may be located within the limbic system and frontal lobe. When a person experiences forced laughter, the individual suffers from loud and uncontrollable outbursts of laughter. However, unlike excessive laughter, an individual suffering from forced laughter is not experiencing the joyful effects from the laughing and is instead usually embarrassed by his or her explosive outburst. Usually people with this disorder experience an outburst of either laughing or crying and it is sometimes hard to tell which one is occurring. What this finding shows is that there is a close link in the brain between laughing and crying. This shows that there may also be a link between positive emotions associated with laughing and the stressful and negative emotions associated with crying. This is an interesting finding because it explains how laughing might be a result of overstress and is not just a way for eliciting positive emotions. The last category associated with pathological laughter is gelastic epilepsy. This is a rare disorder where seizures take the form of bouts of excessive laughter. Interestingly, it was found that gelastic epilepsy usually begins in one’s childhood and symptoms have even been found in infants. This finding suggests that the ability to laugh is fully developed at birth. Similarly, as stated in the book, gelastic epilepsy is associated with hypothalamic hamartomas, which is usually a result of nonmalignant abnormal tissue growth in the hypothalamus. This suggests that the hypothalamus is likely to have in important role in the processing and ability to laugh. All three of these brain abnormality disorders that are associated with laughter have resulted in impressive and remarkable findings that may lead to more extensive research in the study of the psychology of humor from a more biological perspective.
Instead of finding an idea from this chapter to be uninteresting, I found one idea to be unbelievable. I do not agree with the Darwin-Hecker Hypothesis. The hypothesis is a collaboration of ideas from Charles Darwin and a German psychologist named Hecker. The hypothesis suggests that the social play of tickling results in laughter and is therefore an effect of the same positive emotions that create humor. In other words, the laughter caused by tickling is generated by the same emotional mechanisms that cause a person to experience humor. The text goes on to say that a research study conducted by Christine Harris and Nicholas Christenfeld (1997) supported this hypothesis when they observed a positive correlation between participants who laughed while being tickled in a lab and how much they laughed in response to a comedy film. This study is neglecting to realize that these two forms of laughter are completely opposite and stem from two entirely different social contexts. Additionally, although a person may be ticklish, this does not mean that that individual is necessarily an overall ‘happy’ person. I did not find this hypothesis to be at all falsifiable and therefore found it to be uninteresting.
In the text, it is noted that Charles Darwin expressed laughter as a way of communicating to others that one is feeling a particular emotion. I believe that this point is useful for understanding the psychology of humor because it is a very simple way to explain the idea that humor is a social concept meant to be used as a way for communicating one’s feeling. Similarly, it could also be said that it explains the cognitive aspect of humor because in order for communication to be effective, someone has to be able to understand what is being communicated. According to the Duchenne display, both the zygomatic major and orbicularis oculi muscles in the face are necessary for a person to smile in response to a humorous event. As stated in the book, the zygomatic major is the muscle in the cheeks that pulls the lips upwards and backwards. The orbicularis oculi creates wrinkling on the outer corners of the eyes, also called crow’s feet. What is interesting is that smiles that use muscles other than these two usually indicate other, mostly negative, emotions besides mirth. I found this to be a useful point because it explains how visual displays of humor may be used to express the presence or lack of happiness in one’s laughter. The last point that I believe is useful for understanding the psychology of humor is that humans are not the only mammals capable of laughing. Biological psychologist Jaak Panksepp and his colleagues found the existence of laughter in rats. This supports the idea that different animals are capable of experiencing different feelings and are able to process ideas. Additionally, this may help to further research on the social and cognitive interactions of different animals.
An aspect that fit best into my groups Playdoh Theory is the idea that humor occurs in both hemispheres of the brain. This idea would refute Freud’s theory that humor is a result of releasing sexual or aggressive tension; if that were the case then the brain imaging studies would have found humor to activate primarily the hypothalamus, which is considered to be the area for sexual hormone production. One idea that does not fit well into my groups Z theory is that there is an evolutionary basis for humor, meaning that our current thoughts about humor and how laughter is expressed is the result of natural selection and has changed across generations. Our Playdoh theory is based off the idea that humor as an innate quality that everyone experiences, but left little room for the idea that different aspects of humor change over time. However, incorporating this idea into our theory would probably be a better idea rather than not agreeing with the idea at all.
Out of the various concepts presented in this chapter, I found the section on humor and brain injury and the brain imaging studies to be the most interesting. When I read about the studies done on patients who have damage to the right and left hemispheres of the brain in relation to the cognitive processes of humor, I found the differences between the hemispheres relavent to knowledge I have learned about in biopsychology. Results from the study which described how the patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) were unable to piece together endings of the nonverbal and verbal jokes due to the fact that they could understand the incongruity, however were unable to resolve it. The patients damage to the left hemisphere (LHD) however, were the opposite. Although they were capable of understanding how to piece the jokes together better, they chose endings to jokes which did not involve incongruity, indicating they had difficulty recognizing this aspect of humor. I also found the study with advanced techniques of fMRI interesting. Release of cortisol and dopamine in different areas of the brain due to elicitation of mirth and humor results in positive and pleasureable emotions. I found this interesting because release of these and other neurotransmitters correlate with activities such as sexual activity, positive states of arousal, eating, listening to enjoyable music, and so forth.
One concept in this chapter I didn't find interesting much less convincing overall was the research on laughter in rats. The "chirping sound" upon being tickled by handlers which sugguests the rats are experiencing mirth seems a bit odd. I would agree mammals such as chimpanzees elcit mirth through means of rough and tumble play and tickling, however the brains of these animals are far more developed and I am not convinced the rats have the capablilty of experincing this through tickling. Although I do think the role of endorphins in the brain of these mammals may exude a greater neural base for positive heightened arousal, I do not think it can be concluded that mirth and "laughter" can be conclusive in rats.
Three things that I believe will be useful in understanding the pyschology of humor from this chapter are pathological laughter, tickling as a stimulus, and acoustics in laughter. I found it intriguing that sometimes regulation of laughter cannot be directly controlled, and in the event of certain disorders, involuntary and inappropriate laughter can occur without warning. When I read about tickling, I found the "tickle machine" study interesting in that laughter and mirth elicited did not have to be dependent on the belief that an actual human was performing the action. Lastly, I was able to take away an interest on the specific sounds emitted in laughter, and that indeed there are many components of language, pauses, and amplitudes pertaining to the way humans exude laughter.
The aspects of psychobiology which fit the best with our theory, the Z theory, are that of social concepts, more specifically how the "play face" of mammals and humans suggests that the activity at hand is nonserious and "just for fun". Also, the rough and tumble play in mammals as a "joyful social exchange", dominance in playful interactions, and teasing along with forms of verbal play all appear to be ways of competing as discussed by Panksepp (1998). This relates back to our theory in that there is a certain amount of agression present, and that superiority is at work. Areas that do not fit with our theory (although I did find them intriguing) were the more cognitive aspects such as brain scans and which areas are crucial to understanding humor, only because our theory does not hold that cognition does not play a large role.
Overall, this was an enjoyable and engaging chapter to read.
Oops, I forgot to mention my group's theory I am relating my information above to is the Swarm Theory.
Looking at the various aspect of psychobiology, I think that I found the section of evolutionary theories of humor and laughter to grasp the greatest amount of my attention. I’m all about being natural in just about everything I do. With the application of Evolutionary principles humor and laughter come about very easily. There are various studies done to show that humor and laughter are in fact products of the use of natural selection. We can even see that infants actually express laughter and positive emotional senses of mirth when they’re 4 months of age. Some researchers found that chimpanzees display laughter in a sense of social play which also adds to the fact that they use natural instinctual feelings to determine social playing and laughter. I found the theory from Geoffrey Miller quite interesting which focused on the creativity of humor. This theory make the argument that sexual selection had a major role in evolutionary prospective. If you’re creative, know how to use great linguistic skills, and have a witty sense of humor it indicates that you have stupendous intellectual capabilities as well as an outstanding will to compete for specific resources. Now this leads to how humor plays a massive role in mate selection. By displaying all of those characteristics mention before, this shows the status of being a high value male in which the scientist may call it the Alpha Male. This is shown to be different between a male and female when it comes to how humor attracts the individual. Males are more likely to pick a woman who actually laughs at their jokes or wise cracks and consider that a strong since of humor. This is opposite for females because they see the Male who is initiating the jokes or humor to be attractive. It sends positive emotional senses of mirth which hits a home run for women.
The section about laughter in the brain and rats I believe to be of lesser interest. It was very hard to follow this chapter in particular because of the heavy terminology and the topics seem to be not as appealing as the other chapters we’ve read. I found it harder to stay focused when reading this chapter because there wasn’t much application of the material to our various humorous ways of thinking. For someone who is terrified of Rats I found it to be quite aversive when they linked laughter and how it’s contagious to humans. I promise you if I see a Rat I would not send off laughter with positive mirth attached. One the other hand one may in fact find it hysterical with me being terrified of rats in which they would be able to start some great conversational humor.
This chapter helps with understanding the psychology of humor by pointing out the emotional aspects to humor and laughter. Strong emotions of mirth trigger the expressive behavior of laughter which communicates to others that positive sense of mirth and a positive emotional state of mind. The cognitive component also adds my understanding as well because it focuses on how the brain processes humor. It hits on the cortical brain circuits which are needed in analyzing perceived incongruity in various humorous situations. The Biological approach also brings the evolutionary basis of humor to the table as well. This makes known how humor was detected in a variety of animals even the ones closest to humans like Chimpanzees by the use of social play. It points out how our social play can be seen in conversational humor or jokes. Laughter is another component that helps us a individuals determine humor distinctive characteristics such as different vocalizations, facial expressions, and respiration. Since laughter is a social behavior, with a fixed pattern, it causes the contagious effect due to the sounds eliciting feelings of mirth in others.
The PSSC theory can use a piece of evolutionary prospective: part being the theory Geoffery Miller use about creativity. In order for creativity to occur, the person has to use systematic processing in the brain to be unique in its approach to humor. If this accomplished they can be seen as alpha male which most women seek. When determining your mate selection creativity put you at the front line of being selected. This enhances our cognitive foundation of our theory