This is similar to last week's assignment - of the chapters we have left to read - please pick one that is most interesting to you and read that for this assignment.
Briefly discuss why you picked this chapter and how it might build on your interests of thepsychology of humor.
Of the various aspects 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 aspects of this chapter fit best into the Theory "Z" your group came up with (make sure you say what group it was)? Which fit least and why?
(Note - those formerly in the Anti Feud and Playdoh groups may need to go back to previous blogs to familiarize yourselves with the new Z-Theories you have adopted).
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.
I chose to read about chapter nine, Humor and Mental Health. I picked this chapter because throughout the class I've always been interested in the role humor has in our mental and physical health. I think many people overlook the benefits of humor and the impact that it can have on their mental health. This chapter will help me further my interests of the psychology of humor because it'll give me a better understanding of how humor can help us control our negative emotions, cope with stress, and build strong relationships.
The most interesting aspect from this chapter was distinguishing potentially healthy and unhealthy humor styles. Generally, we think of humor as offering positive health benefits. However, the book suggests that some humor styles might in fact be weakly related to emotional health. Some styles of humor are more strongly associated with well-being whereas other forms of humor are associated with poorer psychological health. An example of a potentially unhealthy style of humor could be self-defeating humor. This style involves the use of humor to ingratiate oneself with others. For example, a person might try to amuse others by saying funny things at one's own expense which in the long run can have negative effects of a person’s self-concept and overall psychological health. The book suggested that a healthy humor style could be self-enhancing humor. This type of humor style has a tendency to be easily amused by the incongruities in life and to maintain a humorous and positive outlook on life despite stress or adversity. Also, self-enhancing humor strengthens relationships and reduces tensions in a nonhostile way. Self-enhancing and non-aggressive humor seem to be positively correlated to a healthy humor style. On the other hand, research shows that aggressive humor seems to be largely related to unhealthy psychological well-being.
Interpersonal aspects of humor in mental health was the least interesting concept from this chapter. The book discusses how partners can use humor to cope with life stressors. Couples who use humor to overcome stress are shown to have a happier marriage because they use laughter to solve serious problems. However, if only one of the partners in the relationship uses humor to overcome stress then there is a better chance that the marriage will end in divorce. The book suggests this occurs because only one of the partners is using humor to deflect problems whereas the other partner has a more serious outlook on stressors. I felt this aspect was not nearly as interesting to read about because we have previously discussed how humor plays a role in relationships. I found most of the material in this aspect of the chapter to seem somewhat repetitive.
One concept I'll remember from this chapter is that people who have depression, anxiety, or negative emotions use humor but in a more cynical and self-disparaging way. After reading this idea, I question if individuals who suffer from these types of disorders are able to start using healthy humor styles if it will have an effect on their depression, anxiety, etc. I'll also remember that the ability to use humor to cope with stress is an important skill for a healthy mental state. This ability gives people power and liberation in difficult and stressful situations. Lastly, I'll remember that we can use humor to counteract our negative emotions and to boost positive emotions. For example, laugher and smiling can increase the mirth sensation which in turn creates positive moods.
This chapter relates to my groups theory, Swarm theory, because we believed that a flock of birds react to their environment and surroundings. In this chapter, people respond to stressful environment situations with humor which creates a more positive and healthy lifestyle. Birds respond to their environment in ways that relief tension and stress and in the long run will create positive outcomes for their flock.
Terms: self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, self-defecating humor, interpersonal relationships/humor, mirth
I decided to read Chapter 11, Applications of Humor in Psychotherapy, Education, and the Workplace because I thought it would be easy to relate to, especially humor in education, and humor used in therapy.
I thought the entire section of Humor in Psychotherapy and Counseling was very, very interesting. At first when I started to read about the different ways humor could be incorporated into therapy, I thought humor might actually be beneficial if used in the right way. But what I found most interesting was the risks of humor being used in therapy. I could definitely understand how humor used by the therapist could be misinterpreted by the client in the wrong way, and how it could potentially have negative effects not only on the therapy session, but to negative opinions about the therapist, or even about therapy in general. I also found it interesting that a client could actually use humor as a defense mechanism to avoid dealing with their problem.
Robert Piece suggested that humor is not appropriate when it’s directed at the client to make fun of them or put them down; when it’s used to redirect the conversation to a different topic; and when it’s only used for entertainment and it has nothing to do with the therapy session, which wastes both the therapist’s and the client’s time (pg 347). I also thought the rating scale developed by Waleed Salameh was very interesting. 1) Destructive – humor is used in a sarcastic, mean way that may cause the patient to feel hurt. 2) Harmful – inappropriate and beside the point and is not what the client needs. 3) Minimally helpful – creates a positive interaction between the client and therapist but is not initiated by the therapist. 4) Very helpful humor – helps the client and is initiated by the therapist. 5) Outstandingly helpful – is spontaneous and has good timing and helps the client grow and change in the therapy process (pg 348).
Another thing I found interesting about this section was what the author said in the conclusion about the fact that there are strong opposing views to using humor in therapy: “The existence of such strong opposing views suggests that the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle,” which makes a lot of sense (349). I tried to relate this to my experience I’ve had with this—when I was in junior high and high school I went to what felt like thousands of regular therapy sessions at U of I hospital because of an eating disorder, and I tried to think about if the therapists I had in Iowa City ever used humor in any sessions. I can’t remember that any of them did, but I think the use of humor may have helped me open up a little more and feel more comfortable in such an awkward setting. So I could relate with the section Humor as a Therapist Skill; I think for me it would’ve build a better trusting relationship, and I wouldn’t have hated going as much. But I think humor most definitely needs to be used in a positive way. In my case, if humor would have been used in a sarcastic way or like in the Paradoxical Intention way (where humor is used so patients can recognize the ridiculousness of their symptoms), I don’t think it would have been helpful.
The section that I found the least interesting was the Humor in Workplace section mostly because I couldn’t relate to it as much as I could relate to the other two. I did think it was interesting that humor can be used in that setting to bring up uncomfortable topics, to transition conversations, or even to maintain the status quo of authority in a work setting.
The first information I thought was useful was that humor in education can have a lot of benefits like reducing tension, stress, anxiety, and boredom; improving relationships between teachers and students; makes learning more fun; creates positive attitudes towards learning; and promotes creativity and diverse thinking (pg 350).
I thought James Neuliep’s categories of teacher humor in the classroom was very interesting: 1) teacher-directed humor – self-deprecating humor or telling an embarrassing personal experience; 2) student-targeted humor – joking about mistakes, insults; 3) untargeted humor – jokes, puns, incongruities; 4) external source humor – demonstrations, cartoons related to the material, relate to humorous historical event; 5) nonverbal humor – physical, funny faces, funny vocal style (pg 351-352). I found it interesting that humor can be used in the classroom to inflict social norms and hierarchy, which is similar to humor used in the workplace.
I found it interesting that the study done by Ziv, the group of students that received a lecture that included humorous material received average grades that were about 10 percentage points higher than those that received a non-humorous lecture. What was even more interesting to me was that “If only humorous material is presented, however, there is no apparent benefit for memory,” (pg 356). I can relate this back my Memory & Language class. When we learned about the different theories of memory, Transfer Appropriate Processing was one of the memory models that we learned. When the humor in the lecture can be related to the material, it makes the information more distinctive and more unique so it might make it easier to retrieve or recall the information later. So if a group only hears humorous material, there’s nothing distinctive about that because it’s all the same.
Our group’s Z-theory, Equilibrium theory, can relate to humor in psychotherapy and counseling in the area of Humor as a Therapist Skill. One of the goals in this section is to establish positive rapport between the therapist and client. Humor can be used to bring some balance this context. If the clients tension and anxiety is high because they’re nervous about the session, humor could be used to “put the client at ease and reduce tension,” (pg 342). That way maybe the client will feel more comfortable and open up more, and the therapy sessions might be more effective and efficient.
I think our Z-theory can also be related to Humor in Education as well. On page 352, it says that “humor serves a variety of social communication (e.g. social probing, enforcing social norms and control, status and hierarchy maintenance, etc.), and teachers use humor in their interactions with student for many of these purposes just as they do in their interactions with other people.” I think in this way, humor creates a social balance in the classroom, when used in a positive manner, of course. If humor is used, the classroom might not be so tense, and kids might actually look forward to the class and look forward to learning if it’s fun. It’s more balanced that way, especially if humor can raise boredom to classroom engagement, and bring nervousness and tension down.
This week, I chose to read the chapter on Humor and Mental Health. Like I have said before, I am going into the mental health profession and felt as though reading this chapter would give me a little more insight about the relationship between humor and mental health. Knowing these relationships may help me in the long-run by being able to recognize damaging humor styles as well as suggests ways to implement more beneficial humor styles.
Humor can contribute to one’s overall wellbeing by helping them manage their emotions and increasing their outlook on life. It has been suggested that having a sense of humor can help one manage and even overcome depression, etc., etc., etc. With all of this in mind, it is hard to imagine that humor can actually be detrimental to one’s mental health. Up until now, our book painted a pretty picture of humor and mental health; however, after reading this chapter, I realize that humor as a whole is not necessarily beneficial to one’s mental health; rather, it depends on the type of humor being used.
Early on in the chapter, the book outlines several different types of humor: aggressive humor, self-defeating humor, affiliative humor, and self-enhancing humor. Aggressive humor is more or less used to belittle others whereas self-defeating humor involves a person belittling themselves to become closer to a group of people. Someone who uses affiliative humor are more likely to tell jokes and engage in off the cuff humor. Self-enhancing humor which is considered to be the healthiest form, is one’s ability to find the funny in all situations including those which may be stressful or aversive. Self-enhancing humor is somewhat like seeing the glass as “half full” rather than “half empty.”
Studies looking at the differences in these humor styles on mental health have found that individuals who score higher in self-enhancing humor are more likely to have positive mental health benefits whereas individuals who score higher on self-defeating humor are more likely to have detrimental mental health benefits as a result of humor.
One thing I found really interesting what the effect of positive coping styles on the tendency to ruminate. The study cited in the text found that positive humor styles are negatively correlated rumination tendencies whereas more negative coping styles are positively correlated with rumination tendencies. As many studies have suggested, rumination is highly correlated with depression levels, so linking the two together, positive humor styles are associated with lower levels of depression. I’m starting a senior project soon and was planning on doing something related to rumination and depression, and I may just need to look more into this topic!
I was also surprised by the mixed evidence concerning the use of humor as a coping mechanism. In some instances, particularly situations with low stress levels, humor serves as an effective coping mechanism; however, in situations of high stress, humor has been seen to be associated with “greater emotional exhaustion and feelings of depersonalization.”
Lastly, I will remember the section where the humor styles I mentioned above are assessed in terms of relationships with others. Positive humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) have been associated with greater ability to initiate and maintain satisfactory, intimate relationships. On the other hand, negative humor styles (self-defeating) are associated with difficulty initiating and maintaining satisfactory relationships across the board.
The humor styles presented in this chapter fit in with my z-theory (PSSC) because they are defined in terms of social interactions with others. Also, although in some cases, mental health issues stem from organic causes, they can also stem from social troubles with others. In the cases of social troubles, humor can either be beneficial or be disadvantageous when coping with such troubles.
Terms used: aggressive humor, self-defeating humor, affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor
From this chapter I found it interesting that a healthy sense of humor is an important component of overall mental health. While I knew that it was a good thing to have I never really considered that it was actually an important part of it.
I thought that it was all pretty predictable, but two things I will remember are that first humor that is used as a coping mechanism is actually really healthy. I am a huge fan of the tv show Friends and when I think of humor as a coping mechanism I think of Chandler, who is really funny but also has a few issues from his parents. The other part of that is the idea that once humor turns aggressive or hostile is when it becomes unhealthy. This was something I knew before, but it was good to have it stated for me in black and white.
The other thing I think will help were the descriptions of studies, and most of all what the limitations were and what could be improved in the future. It could use daily experiences, and include repeated assessments of stressful events and how they are handled. I think this is useful because it shows what had been done, and the limitations give the current research an angle to look from, and a way to think about the research and develop questions and more in depth thoughts about the research. For instance, there was an unanswered question that individuals might be able to improve their sense of humor, how would we go about testing this? Is this something we can use in therapy and is there a way to go about it that isn’t aggressive?
My theory, Swarm Theory fits into this. Essentially according to our theory and this chapter, the flock is going to fly together, and humor can be used to help a member of the flock to get them back on their feet so that they can stay a part of the flock instead of being left behind.
Chapter 11
I chose this chapter because it also relates somewhat to what I want to go to graduate school for and pursue a career in and I believe it will help build on my interests by interpreting humor into my future career.
The aspect I found most interesting was humor in psychotherapy and counseling. Humor-based interventions are used for a variety of disorders such as OCD, Depression, Schizophrenia, phobias and many more. Humor therapy and counseling is recommended for marital and family counseling, child and adolescents, elderly, and group therapy. There are three ways of thinking about potential applications of humor to therapy. The first being “humor as therapy” approach, which attempts to develop a whole system of therapy that is based largely on humor. Second is “specific therapeutic techniques” that clinicians might have (along with a number of non-humor based interventions) and which they could apply to the treatment of particular types of client problems. The third is “communication skill” like other therapist characteristics such as empathy and genuineness, contributes to a therapist’s overall effectiveness regardless of his or her theoretical orientation. Therapeutic humor is defined as the intentional and spontaneous use of humor techniques in the self-understanding and behavior of clients or patients.
There are too well known therapy approaches that use humor. The first one is Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET): people develop psychological disturbance as a consequence of having irrational beliefs, dysfunctional attitudes, and unrealistic absolute standards. The aim of therapy is therefore to challenge and dispute clients’ false beliefs and to replace them with more realistic and adaptive assumptions. Humor is beneficial in therapy because it brings enjoyment and mirth, makes life seem more worthwhile and provides alternative ways of dealing with problems. The second is Provocative Therapy which is based on the assumption that clients can change their self-defeating behavior patterns and overcome psychological disturbance if they take responsibility for their own behavior, the goal of this therapy is to provoke an emotional response in clients that results in changes in their perceptions and actions. This is done by using humor to attack their beliefs, feelings and behaviors through exaggeration and sarcasm, causing them to fight back against the therapist and eventually gain a detached, humorous perspective on their dysfunctional behavioral patterns.
In addition, most therapies share the same goals. One being establishing positive rapport with the client; two: gaining an accurate understanding of the client’s thoughts, feelings and behavior patterns; three: helping clients to gain insight into their difficulties, recognize unrealistic aspects of their thinking and develop alternative perspectives and new ways of thinking; four: reducing levels of emotional distress and increasing feelings of well-being; five: modifying dysfunctional behavior patterns. Furthermore, laughing together may promote feelings of intimacy and friendliness and facilitate a client’s trust in their therapist. By using mildly self-deprecating humor/ taking a humorous perspective on a potentially embarrassing or threatening situation that arises in the course of therapy, the therapist can also serve as a role model for the appropriate use of humor. As clients begin to overcome rigid defenses, become more aware of unconscious assumptions and attitudes and gain new perspectives on their life situation, they often experience an “aha” experience that strikes them as humorous and produces spontaneous laughter.
There wasn’t a concept I found least interesting since I found this whole chapter very useful for my career in the near future. One thing I will remember is that some clients that have therapist who use humor do not feel like they or their problems are taking seriously. Robert Pierce suggested that, although it can often be beneficial, humor is inappropriate in therapy due to three things. One, when it is used to belittle, laugh at, or mimic the client; two, when it is used defensively to divert attention away from an emotionally charged problem onto safer topics; three, when it is irrelevant to the therapeutic purpose, gratifying the therapist’s own need for amusement and wasting valuable therapy time and energy.
A second thing I will remember is that of teachers using humor. James Neuliep came up with 5 categories in his study. One: teacher-directed humor (e.g., self-deprecation, describing an embarrassing personal experience; two: student-targeted humor (e.g., joking insult, teasing a student about a mistake); three, untargeted humor (e.g., pointing out incongruities, joke-telling, punning, tongue-in-cheek or facetious interaction, humorous exaggeration); four: external source humor (e.g., relating a humorous historical incident, showing a cartoon that is related or unrelated to the subject, humorous demonstrations of natural phenomenon); five: nonverbal humor (e.g., making a funny face, humorous vocal style, physical bodily humor). humor can be used by teachers in beneficial ways to illustrate points, to make lessons more vivid and memorable and to make the learning environment more enjoyable and interesting to students. Bryant and Zillmann observed success in teaching with humor and that it depends on employing the right type of humor, under the proper conditions, at the right time, and with properly motivated and receptive students. Information that is presented in a humorous manner is remembered better than information that is presented in a serious manner even in the same context. Teachers need to be careful when using humor and making sure to relate it to relevant information.
Lastly, I will not forget the aspect of humor in the workplace. Humor is a mode of communication used to convey certain types of information that would be more difficult to express using a more serious mode. In addition, humor is often used to communicate a socially risky message in an ambiguous context in a way that allows both the speaker and the audience to “save face” if the message is not well received. Also, humor in the workplace reveals the paradoxical nature of humor, showing that although it can be used to increase cohesiveness and facilitate working relationships, it can also be used in subversive ways to express disagreement and create division among people. There are two subversive ways to express humor, the most frequently being “quips” which is short witty or ironic comments about an ongoing action or topic under discussion. The second is jocular abuse which is witty insults or put down remarks aimed at someone present and role play, in which one person parodied another person’s style of speaking.
According to my PSSY theory, this chapter has some aspects that relate to the social aspect of our theory since it ways heavily on the social side. It relates to humor in education, psychotherapy and in the workplace. You have to have a social relationship with a therapist in order to trust them with your personal life (at least I would). Plus in most cases in the classroom or workplace we find humor more easily and understanding when we are in groups else if we were the only one with a teacher or co-worker something might not be very humorous.
The book states that the idea humor can be beneficial for ones’s heath has become very popular recently. Laughter and the feeling of mirth can help people assist modern medicine or provide healing beyond what modern medicine can do. Health physiology covers such topics that deal with health such as; the influence of stress, coping, the benefits of social support, psychology of pain and disease, and relationships of health care provider and patients. Clinical health psychology deals with the “treatment intervention of helping people to cope effectively stress, modify their behavior in more health-enhancing ways, manage pain, cope with chronic illness, and so forth”. Much research in these areas has been conducted on the benefits and effects of humor. Norman Cousins wrote an article and book about his experiments with humor when modern medicine could not offer any more solutions. Norman Cousin’s article was widely referenced for the health benefits of laughter, new ways of getting therapeutic benefits of humor were introduced to the public. Laugher and humor has also been cited as a protection against cancer, heart attacks, strokes, asthma, diabetes and such illness. Many of these claims are not proved however what is well-liked about humor and laughter is that it is enjoyable. You don’t have to give up any pleasurable things like smoking or overeating. We all have these popular beliefs about humor and health, however are they correct.
The book first defined what health is First, physical health is not a unitary concept; it involves cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physiological and social aspects. First, that laugher itself can have physiological effects. Laughter involves respiratory, muscular, and vocal activity. Research shows that laughter provides many of the same benefits of physical exertion; like burning calories. There are also physiological effects of the positive emotion or mirth. The pleasure emotion stimulates activity has been known to activate the limbic system which in turn stimulus the endocrine system and autonomic nervous system, which makes us feel good or a cheerful temperament that is correlated to happiness, and joy. Humor can also be good for cognitively coping with stress, and being able to see the humor in life; its unfairness and incongruities. Finally it can mean social health. Social support is also good for dealing with life challenges, the book states that humor can help us build relationships and reduce interpersonal conflicts and tension with in them.
The book discusses whether humor can prevent illness, provide or improve our immunity. Some research indicates that negative emotions like depression, and fear can adversely affect our immunity and product poorer health. However the effect of positive emotions on health is less studied. The book cites some research done on humor. By using humorous videos and “disinteresting” videos on the “secretory immunoglobulin”, “a component of the immune system foun in saliva that is involved in the body’s defense against upper respiratory infections”. The data from this study showed there was an increase in the hormone after watching the comedy videos. The book however points out, that this research and its findings are pretty unreliable and there is no evidence of long-term health evidence.
The book asks if Humor has a pain-reducing effect, in one research study, it was found that both humor and relaxation have a calming in the face of pain. In another study, researchers found patients who watched humorous movies needed less aspirin after surgery. However the researchers are unaware the mechanism behind this what causes these results. Researchers hypothesize that the results are related to the release of endorphins within the brain caused by the feelings of mirth and other positive emotions. Thus the book states that although Cousin hypothesize that laughter is related to pain reduction, it is really the positive emotions and mirth. If humor and laughter have beneficial effects on immunity and aspect of health like the research has suggested then individuals who engage in humor should be healthier and should live a longer life. However there is no consistent evidence that people with a sense of humor are less sustainable to illness. What the studies do suggest is a correlation between satisfaction with health and humor. Positive attitude, positive emotions and mirth are correlated with humor. Similarity there is no research that states a sense of humor adds to the longevity of life. In fact there are discouraging results. More cheerful people are actually found to die at an earlier age. More cheerful people are less concerned with health risks than serious people. Also they are more likely to engage in a more risky life style.
How this relates to our swarm theory is that. A bird being able to react to stimuli in a quick and healthy way ensures better survival and makes a better fitted bird; however it does not seem to be a person being able to react to stimulus in life in a humorous way ensures survival or a more fitted healthy person.
For this assignment, I chose to read chapter 10’s “Humor and Physical Health.” I chose this chapter because Chapter 9 showed how humor did not have a strong effect in benefitting one’s mental health so I was curious to see how it affected a person’s physical health. I believe the material in this chapter will build on my interests in psychology because it will contrast two very dissimilar subjects: mental versus physical health.
The topic I found to be the most interesting was the section on how humor affects health. I found this to be the most interesting because I felt that it gave a comprehensive view of how some factors of humor might be beneficial to some aspects of health, but detrimental to other aspects. The first health benefit mentioned results from the physiological effects of laughter itself. It is speculated that laughter may burn calories; however, the laughter does not have to stem from a feeling of mirth and amusement. The object of one’s laughter is unimportant to produce health benefits. A second potential mechanism where humor can influence health is through positive emotion. Some of the physiological effects of mirth might have beneficial health benefits, for example, increased heart rate resulting from sympathetic arousal might provide a sort of cardiac workout. Additionally, it is stated that actually laughing aloud may not be necessary to achieve these physiological effects. In contrast, it is hypothesized that these potential benefits might not be specific to mirth and might result from other positive feelings, such as love, joy, or happiness that are not specifically humor-related. If this were correct, humor and laughter would have a smaller role for health enhancement. Third, humor might benefit health through cognitive mechanisms, by moderating the adverse effects of psychological stress on health. This also introduces the idea that certain types of humor may be more adaptive and health enhancing than other types. Fourth, humor might indirectly benefit health through an interpersonal mechanism by increasing one’s level of social support. In this sense, a “healthy” sense of humor would involve the use of humor to enhance relationships with others in a nonhostile way. Lastly, humor might benefit health by promoting a healthy lifestyle. However, research for this hypothesis, although limited, suggests the opposite. High-humor individuals seem to have a less healthy lifestyle. Each of these models is interesting because they all propose a different approach for the application of humor in health care.
One section from chapter 10 that I found uninteresting was the section on humor and illness symptoms. It is stated that if humor and laughter offer beneficial effects on immunity and other aspects of health, individuals who laugh more frequently and have a better sense of humor should be generally less likely to become ill. The studies found that humor contributes to one’s quality of life without making one physically healthier. This section seemed unnecessary because I believe that it is obvious that humor would not heal illnesses. Furthermore, previous research in this chapter already pointed out that there is strong support for the notion that because humor is generally a positive emotion, that is why it tends to help people with life stress and illnesses. All positive emotions, such as joy, happiness, and love have been proven to help improve one’s subjective quality of life. Thus, I found this section to be redundant and unnecessary.
Three points made in chapter 10 are useful in studying the psychology of humor. First, humor affects different people in different ways. In a positive sense, this is important because it explains how it is possible that mirth could produce biochemical changes having some health benefits, or that the use of certain styles of humor could facilitate coping with stress or enhance intimate relationships, indirectly producing positive health effects. Second, the most consistent research for the health benefits for humor and laughter have been found for its analgesic effects. This aspect is important because it provides the most consistent and supportive research for humor in regards to physical health. Third, there is still more research needed to test the possible effects of humor on immunity. Lastly, this third point is important to understand because so many articles and reports falsely conclude that laughter and humor benefit one’s immune system. The studies that have been found to support this notion usually have small sample-sizes, with methodological limitations, and are often inconsistent across studies. Thus, this is important to understand because many researchers generalize the idea that humor benefits one’s immune system without having empirical supportive evidence.
A point made in chapter 10 that supports my group’s PSSC Theory is the idea that negative and aggressive forms of humor are not entirely detrimental to one’s personality. Our group supported Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory by stating that certain people use aggressive styles of humor for different reasons. However, this does not mean that those people suffer from psychological issues. In contrast, the idea that all positive emotions help decrease stress is not supported by my group’s theory. Our group claims that humor-related mechanisms help to de-stress people during adverse situations. However, the text states that all positive emotions benefit people in stressful situations; therefore, humor does not have a definitive role as a defense mechanism.
For this assignment, I chose to read chapter 11. This chapter covered the applications of humor in therapy, education, and at work. This seemed like an obvious chapter for me to read because I have already written about and shown interest in humor and education and humor and psychotherapy.
I found the section on humor in psychotherapy especially interesting because before reading this chapter, I didn’t know much about the topic. As I had previously blogged about humor and education in a web divergence post, I did not really find much new information on that topic. In the section about humor in the workplace, it seemed like much of the information was common sense if you have ever worked in a common (office, retail) job before. I personally have experienced humor in the workplace and have seen firsthand how it is used. It’s pretty recognizable.
One thing that I read about in this chapter that will stick with me is that humor in therapy has to be used very carefully. There are certain dos and don’ts of using humor in psychotherapy which are very important to the improvement (decline) of the client’s condition. I have already gone through these specific things in my previous post so I won’t be repetitive.
Another thing I will remember from this chapter is the amount of teachers who use aggressive forms of humor in the classroom. I will remember this because I found it very surprising. “As many as 20 percent of all humorous comments by instructors made fun of an individual student in the classroom or the class as a whole…” (p. 351). The text did mention that some (10 percent) of these instances of aggressive humor are slip-ups.
Lastly, I will remember the concept of immediacy. Immediacy was described in the text as the teacher making a personal connection with the students in an educational setting. This creates positive student attitudes and fosters more student-teacher communication (learning). Humor is often a great way of creating immediacy.
My Z Theory group is the PSSC group. I have not yet found a topic that cannot be explained or related to my group’s Z Theory. This chapter’s topics also all have to do with social interaction and cognition. In psychotherapy, the therapist must be very careful to create the appropriate type of social interaction between themselves and the client. They must create ways to do this cognitively.
Education is all about cognition and teaching is about social interaction. Humor must also be used carefully in educational settings to use socially appropriate forms.
In the workplace, the use of humor revolves around communication between others. It seems that every way that humor is used in the workplace helps to convey a specific message about something or someone.
For this week, I decided to read Chapter 11, the Applications of Humor in Psychotherapy, Education, and the Workplace. I thought it would be easy to relate to because I am a psychology major, and work part time.
Humor has benefits in the work place, school, and at home. Even though humor is seen as being positive, there are always negative sides to it. This is because of the aggression aspect used in humor. Since humor has a negative side, it is important to know that humor can be risky to use, especially in the work place. This is the section that I found to be the most interesting. The work place is often seen as a serious place, but to me, it is seen as a serious, yet fun environment. I do take my job seriously, but I enjoy joking around with my coworkers while at work. I think that it is a healthy way of viewing work, but it is also important to remember that you have to be serious about it in order to succeed. It has been found that having humor in the workplace sets social norms. If you reject these norms then the humor may lead to teasing, and get offensive to other employees. Also, humor often does not involve the managers because most of the time the jokes are being told throughout the employees and humor is often used to exclude managers.
The section I found to be the least interesting in this chapter was the humor in education, even though it still listed some good points. From experience I have learned that humor in the classroom makes the class more relaxed, therefore encouraging discussion among the students. Humor obviously helps students express themselves easier and more in depth, and I personally believe that students do better if the professor does have a sense of humor.
One of the things that I will remember are James Neuliep’s categories of teacher humor. The first one is teacher-directed humor which is self-deprecating humor or telling an embarrassing personal experience. The next one is student-targeted humor which occurs when the teacher is joking about mistakes, insults. Untargeted humor is jokes, puns, incongruities and external source humor is demonstrations, cartoons related to the material, relate to humorous historical event. Nonverbal humor is physical, funny faces, funny vocal style. This was interesting to me, therefore I will remember it because it deals with social norms, which is also used in the workplace.
Another thing I will remember from this chapter is that it is important that psychotherapists have a sense of humor. This is important because they are able to relate to their clients more, therefore increasing the chances of the client succeeding. It is also important to establish rapport, gain an accurate understanding of the client, gain insight and alternative perspective, reduce emotional distress, and modify dysfunctional behavior. These are important because it makes the client feel more comfortable and gives you the possibility of shared humor between the client and the therapist. The last thing I will remember from this chapter that even though humor is mostly positive, it is important to realize that a person can view humor in a negative way. This is especially important for clients in a therapy session, because the client may see the humor at his or her’s own expense. This makes humor to be best used in a social situation rather than in a therapy session.
Even though I am no longer in the Freud group, I am now in the PSSC group. This theory views Freud as being beneficial towards evolution, and there weren’t very many aspects in this chapter that used the aggression for different reasons. The only aggression concept was that some people use aggression in the workplace to make social norms. The PSSC theory claims that humor related defense mechanisms help distress people in certain situations, therefore the theory could be used in relation to the client in the therapy session.
(Again, sorry this is late.)
For this week, I decided to read Chapter 11, the Applications of Humor in Psychotherapy, Education, and the Workplace. I thought it would be easy to relate to because I am a psychology major, and work part time.
Humor has benefits in the work place, school, and at home. Even though humor is seen as being positive, there are always negative sides to it. This is because of the aggression aspect used in humor. Since humor has a negative side, it is important to know that humor can be risky to use, especially in the work place. This is the section that I found to be the most interesting. The work place is often seen as a serious place, but to me, it is seen as a serious, yet fun environment. I do take my job seriously, but I enjoy joking around with my coworkers while at work. I think that it is a healthy way of viewing work, but it is also important to remember that you have to be serious about it in order to succeed. It has been found that having humor in the workplace sets social norms. If you reject these norms then the humor may lead to teasing, and get offensive to other employees. Also, humor often does not involve the managers because most of the time the jokes are being told throughout the employees and humor is often used to exclude managers.
The section I found to be the least interesting in this chapter was the humor in education, even though it still listed some good points. From experience I have learned that humor in the classroom makes the class more relaxed, therefore encouraging discussion among the students. Humor obviously helps students express themselves easier and more in depth, and I personally believe that students do better if the professor does have a sense of humor.
One of the things that I will remember are James Neuliep’s categories of teacher humor. The first one is teacher-directed humor which is self-deprecating humor or telling an embarrassing personal experience. The next one is student-targeted humor which occurs when the teacher is joking about mistakes, insults. Untargeted humor is jokes, puns, incongruities and external source humor is demonstrations, cartoons related to the material, relate to humorous historical event. Nonverbal humor is physical, funny faces, funny vocal style. This was interesting to me, therefore I will remember it because it deals with social norms, which is also used in the workplace.
Another thing I will remember from this chapter is that it is important that psychotherapists have a sense of humor. This is important because they are able to relate to their clients more, therefore increasing the chances of the client succeeding. It is also important to establish rapport, gain an accurate understanding of the client, gain insight and alternative perspective, reduce emotional distress, and modify dysfunctional behavior. These are important because it makes the client feel more comfortable and gives you the possibility of shared humor between the client and the therapist. The last thing I will remember from this chapter that even though humor is mostly positive, it is important to realize that a person can view humor in a negative way. This is especially important for clients in a therapy session, because the client may see the humor at his or her’s own expense. This makes humor to be best used in a social situation rather than in a therapy session.
Even though I am no longer in the Freud group, I am now in the PSSC group. This theory views Freud as being beneficial towards evolution, and there weren’t very many aspects in this chapter that used the aggression for different reasons. The only aggression concept was that some people use aggression in the workplace to make social norms. The PSSC theory claims that humor related defense mechanisms help distress people in certain situations, therefore the theory could be used in relation to the client in the therapy session.
(Again, sorry this is late.)
I chose to read the last chapter on the Applications of Humor in Psychotherapy, Education and the Workplace. I thought it would be a good chapter to read because it would kind of synthesize all of the things we have learned in class up until this point and give realistic examples how what we know about humor from research and how it could be applied in different areas.
I got the most out of the section on humor and psychotherapy. One approach is using humor as the therapy. I think this is pretty risky and from the book seemed insensitive and detrimental. This method often uses sarcasm and exaggeration to point out the irrationality of the patient. To me, this seems like one of those things where if the individual was realizing this themselves it might be therapeutic for them, but having someone else point it out, particularly a professional, would be a sore subject.
The next type of humor that was described was using humor in specific therapeutic techniques, but not relying entirely on humor, like the first method. The clients were asked to exaggerate or try to increase the frequency of their symptoms, which allows them to kind of take a look at themselves and laugh at themselves.
The last type of use of humor and the type that I think is probably most beneficial to the client is using humor as a skill of the therapist. This, like many of the other uses of humor in other social groups, is used to form a better bond between the patient and therapist. Humor may be used to put the client at ease, for the therapist to gain a better understanding of the client, reducing distress, and modifying dysfunctional behaviors. I think that when a therapist is using humor for these purposes, and is doing so in a nonthreatening, genuine manner, it is the least risky and is much more natural in these situations. Those therapists who might use humor inappropriately risk sounding like they don’t care to the client or that the client, which may create a bad, closed relationship between the two.
I thought I was going to really enjoy the section on humor in the workplace, but it was kind of boring. I thought that the majority of what was said was either a review of what we had learned through the semester or common sense. Basically the book stated the different us of humor that are done in any other social group or relationship, like saving face and testing the waters to see what was appropriate, and applied it to a specific group of people, a person’s co-workers. The book also mentioned that in the workplace humor is often used to express disagreement between people and sort of create and divide between people who might not get along. Specifically, the book mentioned that some ways that this is done through little quips or witty comments about something, put downs, or mocking how another person does something, which reminded me of this clip from the Office where Jim dresses up and acts like Dwight. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOV36T58_fg)
One study that the book mentioned I thought was really interesting. The study was done by Avner Ziv and examined the effect that humorous lectures had on student’s performance in a class. Ziv found that those students who were in a humorous condition, on average, scored about ten percent better than those students who were in a course with the same content, but who had nonhumorous lectures. The book uses this as an example supporting humor to improve learning and memory, but I don’t think that’s really very accurate. This study was done in a college setting, where typically, it’s up to the student if they want to attend class or not. Maybe the students in the humorous condition were more motivated to go to class if they knew that the professor was usually funny, and those in the nonhumorous condition did not have this motivation so went to less classes. The more classes that a student attends, the better they probably will do in a class. If attendance wasn’t really a factor, the students in the humorous condition would probably be paying more attention to what was being said in the lecture than those in the boring condition.
In the section discussing humor and education, I thought it was ironic how the author mentioned that those educators who are for using humor as way of improving their teaching say that aggressive forms of humor have no place in the classroom. Types of aggressive humor in the classroom include put-downs, ridicule, and sarcasm, which about 20% of jokes made by teachers were directed towards making fun of another student. Even though some teachers advocate not using humor in this way, a couple of studies that the book mentioned found that using aggressive humor towards one individuals acted as a deterrent for other students to commit the same undesirable behavior, such as being late, not paying attention, or being disruptive, but these teachers were evaluated more negatively than teachers who did not single out individuals.
Another point that the book mentioned, was that when using humor in psychotherapy, as far as being a therapeutic technique, those who normally had a very humorous outlook on life didn’t really benefit from those techniques. I assume that this is probably because they are more able to see their own irrationality or make fun of themselves without the assistance of a therapist, so having a therapist point out these things or being asked to exaggerate might not be beneficial, or at least not be able to be measured by the therapist as being beneficial because the individual has already done that and continues to do so.
My group’s theory, the Equilibrium theory fits in with this because we focused largely on using humor in ways to accomplish a harmony within a group or within an individual. All three of the sections discussed in this chapter (psychotherapy, education, and the workplace) seek to use humor as a means to accomplish a greater goal, whether that is better communication and openness in a patient/therapist relationship, to make lessons more memorable, reduced stress or better teamwork in the workplace, or just a more enjoyable experience in any context. I think that this chapter fits perfectly with our theory because when humor is applied in these different situations, it seeks to create a better environment, and our theory had this same basic principle because we thought that humor was used to create a more harmonious and balanced group.
I chose to read chapter 10 which covers humor and physical health. I chose this chapter because on the last assignment I read about humor and mental health and I believe the two are closely related. I feel that these chapters will help me better understand the role humor has in our day to day lives.
My favorite section from this chapter was on humor and pain. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, about 5 years ago. Pain has become a part of my everyday lives and I am always looking for ways to help reduce it. Therefore, I really enjoyed reading information about the effects that humor can have on pain. According to the text, humor has been shown to have positive effects for pain reduction. The chapter notes that the effects aren’t due to laughter but instead to the positive emotion of mirth. The text also says that the effects also work with negative emotions. I understand the research, however I feel that the results would be dependent on the type of pain. For me, negative emotions tend to increase my pain. My pain increases as my stress levels increase therefore negative emotions are more harmful. When I am experiencing positive emotions my pain tends to be reduced. The studies rely on participants watching stand-up comedy or movies. I understand that since it is an experiment that movies are the easiest way to test the hypothesis however, I feel that putting people in a positive social setting would be a better yet harder way to test this hypothesis.
My least favorite section was on humor, blood pressure, and heart disease. I believe I didn’t like this section again because of the test methods. The studies used self-report questionnaires. I tend to look more critically at studies that use self-report methods. Just because someone reports that they have a good sense of humor doesn’t mean it’s positive humor. I know a lot of people who think they are hilarious who tend to use aggressive forms of humor which may not have the same effects. The section shows that there is a significant sex difference in one of the studies. This study concluded that women with higher scores on the sense of humor scale had lower levels of systolic blood pressure whereas the opposite was true for men. The researchers noted that they believe that it could be due to the style of humor used by men and women.
One point in the chapter that I found interesting is that it was found that although research has shown that overall health does not seem to be related to sense of humor, people who report a greater sense of humor report that they are more satisfied with their overall health. Later in the chapter there is information about how some research shows that people who are reported to be more cheerful and have higher ratings for sense of humor have lower life expectancies. It is thought that this is perhaps due to the idea that these people are less concerned about health and therefore engage in riskier behaviors. Another portion that I found interesting was in the humor and pain section. In a study done by Diana Mahony it was shown that if a participant is told that humor has positive effects or not told anything there are increases in pain thresholds as compared to being told there are negative effects. Mahony concluded that there may be a placebo effect taking place in regards to humor and pain. This idea is interesting to me, however I feel that as long as the benefit is there it doesn’t really matter what it causing it. The last note that I’ll make is that I was surprised by the information about humor and immunity. According to the text the evidence is rather weak. Again, I question the methods. What I found interesting is that negative emotions tend to have a negative effect on immunity. Since I believe that humor can be used to cope with negative emotions I feel that even if it is not a direct connection humor can benefit immunity.
I adopted the swarm theory and am still struggling with some of the ideas. From what I’ve gathered from the posts the swarm theory is based mostly on the social aspect. This chapter doesn’t speak about the social aspect of humor. However, I believe if researchers looked at humor in social settings the results may be different. I agree with the swarm theory’s idea that humor relies heavily on social interactions. As I mentioned earlier in the post, when I am in a social setting and am experiencing the positive emotion of mirth my pain level seems to decrease. I think if researchers used this theory’s ideas the results may change.
For this last reading assignment I chose to read chapter 11 which deals with applying humor research to psychotherapy, educaction, and the workplace. This means I skipped chapter 9 on humor and mental health (which from references in the other chapters seems like it might have been the chapter that best supported my groups z-theory: equilibrium). I chose this chapter because I thought it would be a very broad chapter that might synthesize many of the ideas we've read throughout the rest of the book--it is the last chapter after all.
For the most part this was the case. The most interesting part of every chapter has been for me, that section which best seems to sumarize what we really know about how humor relates to various specific topics. This text discusses SOOO many studies with so many different--often contradictory--findings that a clear and concise sumarizing statement has always been the most informative and thus interesting for me.
In this chapter one commonality amongst all three categories--psychotherapy, education, and the workplace--is that humor is best seen as a type of 'social competence' or 'interpersonnal communcation tool' (pp349 & 359). This description of humor explains the contradictory findings so often found. Humor, by definition, must cause the emotional experience of mirth, and it most likely is generated through the perception--and possibly the resolution of--cognitive incongruity. However, humor does not seem to have any other NECESSARY effects. There are however, numerous consistent and significant CONTINGENT effects, but it may be that these contingent effects are part of some other construct like 'communication skill' in general or in the case of teacher/student relations the professor's 'immediacy' or being percieved as being present and in-the-moment.
One other very interesting finding discussed in the education section involved whether or not humor helps students remember information better. We've learned about many aspects of humor that MAY lead to it being beneficial for learning. The text discusses that the heightened emotionality brought about by the experience of mirth may help create strong associations similar to 'flash-bulb' memory events, also the incongruity inherent in humor can act as a mnemonic device for the information it pertains too, and also help create a unique experience that stands out which can aid memory and recall. However, many other variables make it so that humor isn't a sure fire way of making everyone into a genius--perhaps the 'perfect' use of humor, but who knows what that is, or how to consistently create it. What several researchers have found is that when both humorous and non-humorous information is presented to students the humorous information will be remembered better than the non-humorous information. This could be a double-edged sword however since teachers must be VERY careful how they use humor else their students might all remember, using my own personal experience for example, that Tycho Brahe--the guy who's notes about the placement of stars and planets in the sky were used by Newton--had a silver nose and owned a midget named Yep, but have absolutely no idea what his main contributions were or the relevance of those contributions.
My groups z-theory I think relates very well to this information. First, it is now quite apparant that humor in and of itself is neither benficial nor harmful (with a few exceptions) but is a tool or means towards a better end. It is a form of communication that has numerous potential benefits all of which seem to relate to moderating or balancing and organizing social--and sometimes individual--interactions. Regarding psychotherapy and the workplace humor functions predominantly as a type of social competance which can be used to present potentially harmful or discouraging information in a more positive light, and also to nurture or crystalize interpersonal relationships and social hierarchies.
If humor, at it's core, is predominantly a tool used to create a 'balance', that is to increase the level of some emotions, relationships, knowledge, etc. etc. when they are perceived as too low, and to decrease the level of those same aspects when they are perceived as too high then we really ought to see a lot of contradictory research findings, just like we do. If humor produced only good or only bad results than it would not serve as a good balancing tool as whenever you were towards one poll or the other humor would not be beneficial. Humor can be used to foster interpersonal relations (e.g. by promoting in-group values largely by having a clearly defined mutual enemy, the out-group) yet also to distance people that are getting to close (e.g. by turning an un-wanted sexual advance into a joke so the other person isn't hurt too badly).
The only thing lacking in our z-theory right now may be a better explanation for why humor is almost exclusively created through cognitive incongruity. The only thing we can say is that cognition must lie at the base of any construct, and any theory. Thus, in order to act as a balancing tool the cognitive componant of humor must invovle ambiguity, polarity, or incongruity. I'm as of yet not totally satisfied with that answer.
For this assignment I chose to read chapter 10 on humor and physical health. The main reason I decided to read this chapter was to build knowledge upon the chapter on humor and mental health, and researching how humor is beneficial with regards to stress management for the diversity assignment. Most of the research I have looked at so far has been positive; this chapter introduced some other ideas, not all positive.
The section I found most interesting out of this chapter was on the investigations between humor and pain. The experiements in the book yielded findings that when exposed to humorous (comedy films) and relaxing conditions, subjects who were exposed to a painful (not harmful) stimulus of ice water reported higher pain tolerance in these conditions when compared to the control group (non-humorous, or serious films). Studies also carried over from the lab conditions to clinical hospital conditions, however interestinly only when the film could be chosen to match humor preference. In the case of not being able to chose (the patient did not prefer the type of humor in the film), the opposite result was actually recorded (reports of aversive, or more painful conditions). When subjects were exposed to films inducing emotions of disgust and horror, they also reported higher levels of pain tolerance after. I found this interesting because in this way, effects of pain tolerance (positive or negative) may also be due in part to arousal mechanisms in the body which do not necessarily involve humor. I related the studies on pain tolerance to a personal experience of a time when I was bragging to some friends about how well I could walk in high heels in the winter time and in the process I slipped and fell on ice actually scraping both knees and elbows and bleeding, but instead of concentrating on the pain, I began laughing at the incongruity of the situation (bragging, and then having the opposite of what I was saying to be true happening right then). I had a higher pain tolerance and my attention was deflected from the initial feelings of pain by my laughter at the situation (the fact that I had consumed some alcohol probably helped a little with the pain tolerance too!)
The section I liked the least in this chapter had to do with the studies on immunity. After reading about research on the positive effects of humor (specifically laughter) leading to increased amounts of important immunoglobins important for a healthy immune system and finding certain aspects to be beneficial, it has been noted most of these studies have not been conducted longitudinally in order to determine how long the effects last. I would like to see evidence of how humor has long lasting benefits against combatting illness over time to be convinced on exactly how effective a role humor plays in this particular process. I do believe that a positive outlook on a healthy life could be influenced by having a light-hearted humorous attitude, but more scientific evidence is needed to back these assumptions.
I believe three things from this chapter that were beneficial to my own understanding of the psychology of humor are humor and longevity, the popular beliefs about humor, and the important components of how humor effects health.
The studies on humor and longevity were interesting because they were actually the opposite of what I would have expected. The individuals rated as more cheerful and humorous at a younger age seemed to have higher mortality rates; the reason given was becuase these individuals were more likely to engage in riskier activities (being extroverted was linked to higher rates of alcohol and cigarette consumption and other risky hobbies) and were also viewed less concerned about health risks than people who were more serious. I was a little surprised by this negative take on the matter. .. from what I have learned from the class, it seems people with playful, humorous outlook on life with a paratelic (non-serious) attitude would seem to live longer due to their positive spin on things. I didn't consider the risk behaviors associated with a more out-going, extroverted lifestyle.
The popular beliefs about humor I found interesting because there seems to be an underlying "humor cures all" viewpoint that some people hold about curing illnesses. people must remember that although beneficial, humor can only go to certain lengths and may not be the best way for everyone to cope in less fortuanate times. The components for a how humor might affect health (laughter iteself, positive emotions, coginitive mechanisms, interpersonal social support, and behavioral mechanisms) are all crucial to ways humor can be beneficial. Most of these we have discussed in class, on that was a bit new to me was that on behavioral mechanisms, which discusses people with a better sense of humor are also likely to have a higher level of self-esteem and a more optomistic tend to engage in healthier lifestyles. This was interesting because the section on longevity actually contradicts this evidence supporting instead unhealthy, risky lifestyles. The evidence can go either way on this issue!
Out Z-theory (Swarm theory) relates best to this chapter when looking at positive effects of humor on health(specifically interpersonal social support). I relate this best to interpersonal social support when the "swarm" uses humor as a social mechanism to keep cohesiveness in the rest of the group. If one member of the swarm engages in a humorous comment or activity that is positively accepeted, the rest of the swarm will use humor (laughing) to show their support, or social acceptance of that member; this shows it takes the initiative of just one member to lead the flock in a positive fashion. I was also able to relate the use of aggression in humor as it pertains to health and our theory. Sometimes when used, aggression in humor can actually be detrimental (poking fun at another at their expense, undermining another person for personal gain in humor-this can result in lowered self-esteem and immunity-thus adverse health effects from stressors). This can be seen where an aggressive leader of the flock singles out a weaker member and the other memebers of the flock follow the action, potentially driving out someone from the group (from an evolutionary standpoint, this is seen as getting rid of the weaker link). this would be a negative aspect, but it would still fit in how to explain the way our theory works.
In selecting the applications of humor, I thought about how it can relate to the field of study I plan on going into and there were other topics in different sections regarding education I found interesting. This chapter basically talked about the different theories’ regarding humor and how these particular types of therapy can be implemented for the therapist stand point. All over the nation you are seeing more therapists and psychologists utilizing humor in there sessions. This is because it has been proven to actually help the client deescalating the situation. Some use humor for the sole purpose of having the client do a self-actualization to determine the problem. By implementing humor in therapy, it can be used as an anecdote in order for the client to understand what it is in particular there trying to get across. Some of the key therapies the book discussed with regards to humor are Ration Emotion Therapy and Provocative Therapy. One of the main goals in Ration Emotion Therapy was to challenge the clients discover more. This decreases irrational beliefs and helps dysfunctional families. An example would be for a therapist to a sarcastic comment to point out the clients absurd thought process or their belief system. The provocative approach was designed for people had some form of schizophrenic will patients in order to sustain a positive behavior cycle. A purpose for this practice was to change the self-defeating behavioral patterns and to overcome psychological disturbance.
One thing I found in this chapter that was interesting was the section that brought up the issue if Humor was a skill! As stated in previous chapter, humor actually had something to do with environmental aspects which help develop a skill at a very early age. Being in a humorous environment, on a consistent basis, allows the person to listen for placement also allows you to gain experience practicing with multiple aspects and styles of humor. In becoming a therapist you have to develop and practice multiple skills in order to become an expert at what you do. Just like you have to learn non-verbal communication, problem solving, empathetic understanding, it’s pretty much the same for humor as well. This is what causes a therapist to utilize humor based on skill level. The more the therapist practices these theories, the more he/she becomes comfortable executing the material. Even though a therapist is administering humor in his/her sessions, they must be able to pick up on the client’s countertransference feelings.
Humor in education is an essential and effective strategy to administer in the process of teaching students. Throughout my years in school, I personally did better in classes in which the teacher used humor in their material. This is because it gave me the ability to relate with the concept. Also it may have presented in a unique way that would cause me to remember the material. Sometimes coming to class every day, doing the same things through a repetitive cycle can be old. So by throwing something different like having a game or presenting “the lineup” this would ease up on this situation. Numerous schools around the country are trying to encourage different teaching styles mainly utilizing some aspect of humor. We are also seeing the material in the textbooks becoming more humorous too because students aren’t enjoying the ones that don’t implement humor. Humorous style textbooks are seen as more creditable and are considered to be more persuasive than non-humorous textbooks. A lot of students find it quite difficult to maintain focus on something that’s not intriguing, meaning in order for this to occur, the material has to be presented in a fashion that attractive to the reader.
Throughout this chapter I really didn’t find anything of disinterest. Each section had something I was able to identify with and the way the information was presented keep me focused. I especially enjoyed the section that hit the closest to home in which was the therapeutic side pertaining to humor.
I recently found something interesting in another one of my psychology classes that had me thinking about humor and personality. For this reason, I'll be reverting back to Chapter 7 and the effects of personality on humor.
There are many different types of humor styles, put down, self-defeating, bonding, etc. However, the idea I stumbled over in my other class seemed to fit my style of humor perfectly. The idea is called the Von Restorff effect. Essentially, it claims that we remember things that stick out like sore thumbs. For example, if we highlight things in green that are most important to us in our study notes, we are more likely to remember them. This can also be applied to humor. It seems the more bizarre some types of humor is, the easier it is remembered. Also, since it is more easily remembered, and more likely referenced more frequently, we may possibly grow to like it more. This idea is supported by our earlier readings in that exposure leads to acceptance.
I am very appreciative that I stumbled onto the Von Restorff effect. It is easily relatable to the humor of psychology, and specifically, the different personalities of humor.
The aspects of this chapter that fit best into our theory (Equilibrium) would have to be the overall factor of adjusting to use humor so our personality can use it in the most effective way possible. (presumably) Since there are constant strenuous social situations, our mind has strategically devised a way for it to use humor in order to balance out these stressful situations. The personality is shaped over time in accordance to the way it can best be used to equal out times of social unease. This adaption can explain why each individual has their own specific form of humor. A weakness in our theory is the idea that everyone has a humor "ability". Some peoples ability may be better or worse than others. This is a problem because, since the mind is shaped into a humor personality, essentially, we should all be shaped into what works best for us, and that should work all the time. However, we know this is not true. Some people completely lack the ability to use humor as a mediator in social situations, and others completely lack the ability to flip the humor switch off. This is the setback of the chapter for our theory. Other than that, the Equilibrium theory lends itself pretty well to this chapter of the book.
Overall, the Von Restorff effect is what made me revert back to subsequent chapters of the book. This effect states that we remember humorous things that or bizarre, or that stick out. This is certainly true to my sense of humor, as most of the videos I've posted are bizarre or different than most humor.
I chose to read Chapter 11 Applications of Humor in Psychotherapy, Education, and the Workplace. I picked this chapter because I was interested in the application of humor in the workplace. We use a lot of different types of humor at my workplace so I felt as though this chapter would be easy to relate to. This chapter builds on my interest of the psychology of humor by applying it to areas that are relevant to my daily life such as school and work.
When I chose to read this chapter I thought that I would enjoy reading about humor in the workplace the most but actually I really enjoyed reading about applications of humor in psychotherapy and counseling. I found this section to be most interesting because the concept of humor in counseling and psychotherapy was new to me. I didn’t realize the beneficial and detrimental effects humor could have on patients in therapy. I also was unaware that there are certain therapeutic techniques that involve forms of humor. I also enjoyed reading about the use of humor during systematic desensitization. OCD and phobias have always been fascinating to me so to read about a different form of treatment for them was enjoyable.
The section I found the least interesting was humor in education. Some of the information presented in this area I thought was kind of common sense. Of course students are going to enjoy classes and teachers that use humor and respond favorably to test that incorporate humor. Also it is very hard to figure out that students would respond more negatively to aggressive humor use by teachers.
A concept that will be most useful for me in understanding the psychology of humor is the different therapeutic techniques and guidelines of using humor in therapy. Rational emotive and provocative therapy use humor in the form of exaggeration and sarcasm. Rational emotive therapy aims to replace patient’s irrational beliefs with realistic attitudes by using exaggeration and sarcasm to draw attention to the patient’s absurdity. Provocative therapy uses humor to attack clients beliefs, feelings, and behaviors that cause the patient to engage in disagreement with the therapist which eventually allows for the patient to gain a detached humorous perspective on their dysfunctional behavior. Natural high therapy is less aggressive then the prior two therapy techniques. Natural high therapy focuses on increasing self actualization which a good sense of humor in regards to this therapy is a defining characteristic of self-actualization. A humorous outlook and spontaneous humor that occurs during therapy is encouraged. It’s important to know when humor is used in therapy it must help the client gain insight and alternative perspectives, reduce emotional distress and modify dysfunctional behavior. Common goals that are shared by several different therapeutic techniques are establishing positive rapport with client, gaining an accurate understanding of client’s thoughts and feelings and behavior patterns, helping clients gain insight into their difficulties, reducing levels of emotional distress and increasing well being, and modifying dysfunctional behavior patterns.
Humor can also be detrimental in therapy if it is not used properly. Humor should not belittle patient, used defensively to change topic, or be irrelevant to the therapeutic purpose. All this information is important to my understanding of psychology of humor because it increases the knowledge of how and when humor can be used to help someone which is important to me because overall I know that I want to help people in some shape or form.
In the humor in workplace section I found the section social functions of humor in the workplace to be most interesting. One thing that will be most useful to me is the notion that humor can be used as a way to define group identity. Dwyer suggests the power and goals of individuals in a work setting determine who tells the jokes, who is the target, and who laughs at them. At my current workplace I am aware of the different groups but if a stranger were to observe the humor that used among the different employees it would be evident which employees belonged with which group. At my workplace humor is often used to enforce expectations and reinforce the rankings of the employees as Dwyer suggests. Humor in the workplace serves many functions not only can it make work more enjoyable but can also be used to voice complaints, increase cohesiveness and enforce norms. This information is useful because hopefully I will be a new employee at a job and how humor is used in the workplace can be an indicator of the power structure, dynamics, and group identity of the workplace which would be beneficial to any new employee.
Another thing that will stick with me is the term gelatophobia because as I mentioned earlier I am fascinated by phobias. Gelatophobia is the fear of being laughed at or not taken seriously. Individuals with this disorder are fearful of exposing themselves to others in case they may be laughed at, tend to be socially avoidant and anxious, and have high levels of neuroticism, introversion and low-self esteem. They have difficulty of enjoying humor because they are too worried that people are laughing at them.
My adopted Z theory is PSSC. PSSC theory believes that humor is a social phenomenon this is presented throughout this chapter. Humor that takes place in therapy, at work, or school involves a social setting. I don’t think that any section in this chapter does not fit into this theory because PSSC incorporates ideas from all theories we have learned about.
Terms: gelatophobia; humor; systematic desensitization