Find a topic that relates to the material we have covered so far. Research the topic using at least three internet sites of content (not fluffy sites). These can include a video if used as an example.
After viewing the web sites, please take a moment to synthesize what you read/saw and then integrate it (along with the material from the text) into a quality post of what you read. When you write assume your reader has limited knowledge on the topic. Give the reader detail and background material so they can follow along, read and learn from what you are writing (i.e., explain things). It is OK to have fun and to be creative with this blog post.
Finally, go back to one of your earlier posts and briefly discuss how your writing about the psychology of humor has evolved.
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 really enjoyed our class discussion and readings covering the social perspective of humor. This material was something that I could apply to my own social interactions and gain a better understanding of the influence humor has in our society. I chose to further research the topic of intimate relationships and humor as well as using self-deprecating humor in relationships.
Humor is often a desirable trait in mate selection for both males and females. We have read that people who show a strong sense of humor are often characterized as having several other desirable traits including friendliness, extraverted, considerate, intelligent, emotionally stable, and more. A good sense of humor is one of the most highly rated characteristics for mate selection. Many of us assume that a partner with a good sense of humor will provide a satisfying relationship. Our text suggests that the more people are satisfied in their relationships, the more they report their partner has a good sense of humor regardless if they enjoy the same types of humor. However, it depends on the way in which humors interactions and the way it is used between partners in order for it to be beneficial for the relationship. My research on this topic suggested that visible humor amongst couples demonstrates a healthy relationship. Also, there are several ways to improve ones relationship by using humor. Some of these techniques suggest, learning to laugh at yourself, laughing at the little things, display funny jokes/cartoons, neutralize conflict with humor etc. Intimate relationships can become stronger and more fulfilling when we sharpen our senses of humor.
Self deprecating humor is also used when people are making a mate selection. This type of humor is often used in on the first few dates of a relationship. Self deprecating humor needs to be shown at the right times in order for it to be funny and not overly used. This type of humor allows the person to make fun of themselves or put themselves down yet entertain at the same time. One piece of research I came across provided an example of how self deprecating humor can be used on a date. The speaker suggests that this type of humor will demonstrate confidence which is an desirable characteristic in mate selection. Another piece of research I cam across discusses how self deprecating humor allows your to make jokes at your own expense which demonstrates that you don't take yourself too seriously. Also, it's important not to cross the line while using self deprecating humor. Over using this type of humor in some cases can undermine your confidence and other peoples ability to take you seriously. Self deprecating humor can be used in many different situations however it's important to not over-use this type of humor.
When looking back to my earlier blogs it seems obvious that my knowledge of the psychology of humor has developed significantly. I've really gained a better understanding about the theories that make up psychology of humor. The incongruity theory and superiority theory were easiest for me to understand and relate to. Throughout the class, my blogs have become more in depth when discussing material from class. I see a big improvement in my blogs when we are able to apply psychology of humor to real-world News events. This type of activity has allowed me to focus of class material and how it relates to our everyday life. As Mr. Maclin stated at the beginning of the semester, our blogs will develop and grow throughout the class. I feel my own blogs have improved and I now have an ability demonstrate my knowledge through a blog.
Terms: intimate relationships & humor, self-deprecating humor, incongruent theory, superiority theory
Research Websites:
http://eloquentwoman.blogspot.com/2010/07/when-self-deprecating-humor-doesnt-work.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adl2o8aQK8M
http://www.loveletterbox.com/dating_advice_sharpen_your_sense_of_humor.htm
Even though it seems as if many people did not enjoy chapter six, the psychobiology of humor, I found it to be quite interesting in some areas. The science behind why something is funny could be boring to some people but I thought the chapter was intriguing, especially the acoustics of laughter, laughter and the brain, and tickling as stimulus for laughter.
Humor and laughter in the brain can be described as having voluntary facial movements, which are likely to originate in the motor strip on the cerebral cortex and involuntary facial movements, which arise from emotion-related regions of the basal ganglia, limbic system, and brain stem. Voluntary facial movements are related to pathological laughter, which is forced laughter. Involuntary facial movements are related to normal laughter, which is initiated by incongruity or the recall of humorous memories. This normal laughter activates emotion induction sites in the telencephalon, which is involved in the “turning on” of the emotion of mirth. Since normal laughter initiates the feeling of mirth, then the sound of laughter would as well. The article from Webmd claims that the very sound of laughter makes someone laugh, and the areas controlling smiling and laughing in the brain become active. People in the study were scanned by an fMRI and were shown to have activity in the brain where the facial muscles were controlled.
While researching for this blog, I came across a lady named Edna Junkins. Junkins is known as the Laughing Psychotherapist, who uses laughter as a key to strengthening relationships, laughter in the workplace, and also strengthening yourself by using laughter. Along with her book, “Belly Laughter in Relationships”, Junkins also lists some lists of how to make your life better by using laughter. Since Junkins believes that laughter can make a relationship better, then the facial expressions of laughter and smiling play a large role in the relationship because it serves as a communication signal. Among Junkins list of ways to make your relationship better were some tips that used the acoustics of laughter. Some examples would be to echo your partner’s laugh, or laughing together for ten-fifteen minutes every morning. Even though she seems a little bit over the top, I think that she has some good tips for couples and individuals who are seeking more fun in their lives.
Why we can’t tickle ourselves has always been an interest of mine. There wasn’t much information on the web about tickling; the stuff that mainly popped up was about fetishes (which just isn’t my style) and book derived explanations as to why we are tickled. The site kidzworld.com is a website that helps kids and adolescents with their questions about their health, along with games, school, etc. The site explains how tickling feels to an audience directed towards children and adolescents. It claims that tickling feels like spiders crawling all over us, and tickling ourselves is related to bad feelings such as the feeling of the uneasiness of someone touching you. Though the site didn’t really do an extremely good job of explaining why we can’t tickle ourselves, I thought that it was interesting to see how to relate to kids when trying to explain the psychology of humor.
Looking back at my previous blogs, it is clear to see how my writing of the psychology of humor has evolved. I am now using more terms to explain my view and I am able to use the theories used in the previous chapters in my present blogs. Coming into this class, I really had no idea about the psychology of humor. I think that having to write a few blogs weekly has strengthened my ability to write and express myself easier with the information given. I personally feel that I am not as lost as I used to be and my blogs have improved significantly since the beginning of class.
Terms used: emotion induction sites, pathological laughter, acoustics of laughter, incongruity
URL’s:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20061212/laughter-tickles-the-brain
http://www.laughtertherapy.com/
http://www.kidzworld.com/article/650-why-we-cant-tickle-ourselves
Without having my book handy, I began thinking back on the abundance of material presented throughout our text and the topic of tickling as a stimulus for laughter popped in my head. In a previous post, I briefly talked about how I find tickling aversive as suggested in the text. Because I don’t want to retell why I feel tickling is aversive, I decided to do a little more research on why you are unable to tickle yourself.
The text suggests that we cannot tickle ourselves because our brain must be able to distinguish between us being tickled by others and us tickling ourselves. As cited in the text, Provine (2004) believes that these two distinguishing mechanisms allow us to prevent “accidentally” tickling ourselves as we go about our day-to-day lives. This makes sense to me because I feel it would be incredibly strange to be just sitting in class and move and all of a sudden you have tickled yourself.
The text also cites some research where functional imaging techniques were used to determine what brain regions are involved in self-inflicted tickling and tickling done by someone else. In summary, they found that when being tickled by someone else, there is greater activity in the cerebellum (which has been found to be involved in laughter in general) compared to when you tickle yourself.
Because the textbook doesn’t go in the great detail about this topic, I decided to dig a little deeper. I found that tickling is present among all types of animals including chimpanzees, rats (this is talked about in our book too), humans, etc. Because of this, tickling must have served as an evolutionary function. It has been suggested that tickling served as a way of social and sexual bonding. Tickling must also be done by somebody we are comfortable with and at least to some degree, be unpredictable.
The necessity of unpredictability to produce tickling has been tested by using a device where individuals can self-administer taps on their palms and these taps can also be computer generated. The participants rated the degree to which they noticed the sensation when they self-administered the tickles compared to the degree to which they were ticklish when it was not self-administered. The results suggest that because the brain is expecting something (self-administered), the sensation is less noticeable resulting in being less ticklish.
Unpredictability in relation to tickling has also been demonstrated through a make believe “tickle machine.” The book talks about a study where participants were blindfolded and told they were being tickled by a tickle machine when in reality, they were tickled by a human. The participants laughed just as much when they were told they were being tickled by a tickling machine as they did when they were told they were being tickled by a human. This to me is kind of interesting because to me, being told I would be tickled would decrease the unpredictability factor and result in being less tickled. Maybe because the participants were told they were going to be tickled, they acted accordingly and laughed even if it didn’t really tickle in order to please the experimenter. Either way, research on the inability to tickle oneself is interesting.
Although I do not feel as though this assignment is one of my best, I do feel as though I have learned a lot about the psychology of humor. We have read a lot in this class and it is difficult to remember every detail about this topic, but I do really remember what I write about because most of the time, I write about the topics I find relative to my life but have never really thought about or noticed before. I actually talk about some of this material to my friends which also helps me remember and as we have discussed in class, true learning is displayed by using the material outside of class and in real world contexts. Although I cannot prove that I do in fact use these materials outside of class, I know that I have learned something even if I don’t get an A to show for it.
With that said, I don’t necessarily think my blogs have necessarily gotten any better or any worse. I feel like I have done consistent work throughout the course, but as time has progressed, I have gained a bigger arsenal of material to work with. In some ways, a bigger arsenal makes it easier to talk about humor because it gives me more to talk about, but it is also harder to synthesize and pull the material together the more complex it gets.
Terms used: tickling, cerebellum, tickle machine
http://oreilly.com/pub/h/2832
http://www.livescience.com/health/050628_brain_tickle.html
http://www.nature.com/news/1998/981022/full/news981022-7.html
I chose to look back on humor and intimate relationships because I find it interesting as to why both men and women look for a partner with a sense of humor, but not always in the same way. Recent research on humor has revealed a surprising explanation for that difference. Although men and women both say a sense of humor is critical to attraction, what they mean by 'sense of humor' is, in fact, completely different. When research was conducted women said they wanted someone who makes them laugh and men said they wanted someone who laughs at their jokes. Men like a girl who will laugh at their jokes but in more cases then none see them as a buddy compared to a potential mate. On the other hand women look for a potential mate that will have good genes and show signs of intelligence. Funny men are attractive because humor is considered an indicator of both intelligence and creativity.
Furthermore, most laughter is not about jokes, it's about relationships between people. Laughing says more about how someone feels toward another person; it's an indicator of how much they like, trust or agree with that person. For couples laughing, you can sense there is a great deal of intimacy just from a look across the room from one another. According to our text couples who share similar preferences in humor styles will be more satisfied with their relationship. Also, couples who are more satisfied in their relationships report their partner as having a good sense of humor.
The one problem with too much humor is that couples are more likely to break up if one partner is really funny and the other is unsatisfied in the relationship. In this situation, humor only makes the problem worse. Some guys use humor to deal with serious situations in which they don’t know how to respond to. Also, humor is a good coping mechanism and can be used as stress relief. Couples, who can chuckle at themselves during an argument, are better able to diffuse some of the stress in their conflicts. Yet, humor must be used appropriately. When an individual resorts to joke telling or humor about issues that his/her mate sees as serious – hurtful feelings may follow. This type of lighthearted reaction may be a form of avoidance or even insensitivity to the partner’s emotions. People who repeatedly attempt to connect through telling jokes may be actually avoiding intimacy.
On another note I found a video that talks about women having a good sense of humor and it gives an example of a women having a bad day and a guy saying well that’s because women are bad drivers which she could find funny or take offensive and if she is one to not find humor then it’s not going to work out as a relationship very well. In our textbook, a humorous person is seen as likely to be enjoyable to be with, cheering us up when under stress, and refraining from becoming ill-humored and burdening us when he or she is having problems.
Looking back on previous blogs, I would have to say my understanding of psychology of humor has increased. I understand and know how to connect new and old material we have learned so far without just memorizing it and forgetting it after an exam like most classes. Furthermore, from blogs and from the past couple of exams it is clear to see that I favor the concepts of schemas, because they interest me and we have a schema for everything we do in our lives and we have to improve them along the road to fit with new schemas we come across. I think its interesting how something can be so incongruous and then we just adapt our previous schema to accompany what we didn’t know before but know now.
Terms: Humor and intimate relationships, schemas, incongruous.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20061208/NEWS/61208035?tc=ar
http://www.relationshipmatters.com/index.php?/archives/3056-Does-humor-enhance-relationships.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QIBlEyzIr0
Way back while reading chapter 6 which discussed the psychobiology of humor and laughter the book mentioned that there were three types of pathological laughter, excessive laughter, forced laughter and gelastic epilepsy. Throughout the course and especially in the current chapter I am reading about humor and physical health we have talked or read about the various different health benefits that might accompany laughter or humor or the mirthful feeling that goes along with humor, but it was interesting to see another side of this aspect of humor, where laughter is abnormal, disadvantageous, or a symptom of a disorder.
The first two types that were mentioned, excessive and forced laughter, are symptoms of other disorders, like depression, mania, dementia, schizophrenia, which deal with abnormalities in the parts of the brain that regulate and produce emotion, or degenerative brain conditions like Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and ALS or following a stroke or consequent of a brain tumor. People who experience these uncontrollable bouts of laughter also usually have uncontrollable crying spells as well. While researching, I found that it was very hard to find what I was looking for when I used the terms ‘excessive laughter’ or ‘forced laughter’ but searching ‘Pathological laughter and crying’ (PLC) gave me what I was looking for because these two symptoms, although opposite of each other, usually affect an individual together. Those with PLC do not feel the normal emotions that might be displayed by laughing (mirth) or crying (sadness). These come unprovoked or provoked by a neutral stimulus or a stimulus that should bring about a contrary emotion. For example, in one case study, a man who had suffered a stroke would cried after someone waved to him in some cases, laugh at the same stimulus at other times, or would laugh when receiving sad news or cry in response to a joke. The man was embarrassed by these outbursts and couldn’t control them, but usually after 30 seconds to a couple minutes they would stop. If the man had recently laughed at something, he was more likely to laugh again at something or vice versa with crying, but at times the laughing would turn into crying over the same stimulus. The man, along with many others who exhibit PLC, was given a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) which eliminated these attacks of laughter or crying. SSRI’s are drugs that are often used as anti-depressants and increase the level of serotonin in the individual’s cells. The authors of the article about this man’s case study examined his brain and found that there were lesions, caused by the stroke, in his cerebellum which they believed to play the biggest role in PLC because they believed that the cerebellum controls the control and adjusting of laughter and crying based on the social and cognitive context. People often laugh or cry in varying degrees based on what they feel is appropriate, given the situation. For example, a person might laugh loudly at a joke told in a social context conducive of laughter, but if they were in a quiet, serious environment and remembered a joke they had been told, they might just smile to themselves. Someone who has lesions on the cerebellum, like the man examined in this case study, or other defects in their cerebellum lack this filter and so laughing or crying comes automatically, without regard to the context or stimulus. The man in this case study has a case of forced laughter as opposed to excessive laughter. The difference is that he did not feel mirth when laughing or sadness while crying, In cases of excessive laughter, like when an individual has mania or depression, because the uncontrollable laughter also brings about a feeling of mirth or euphoria.
The last type discussed in our book was called gelastic epilepsy, when an epileptic individual has seizures that are in the form of bouts of laughter. These seizures are rare, only about 1 or 2 in a thousand individuals with epilepsy have ever had them. The most common cause of gelastic epilepsy is a small tumor on the hypothalamus, but it has also been found in individuals with lesions in other parts of the brain of people who have had a family history of migraines. The uncontrollable fits of laughter, which tend to last anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds, are unprovoked by external stimuli and are also usually accompanied by other symptoms, like twitching or unconsciousness. Usually those individuals with gelastic epilepsy develop it early, typically before they are 3 or 4, and these individuals also tend to have other developmental problems, including learning and behavioral problems, and enter puberty early. Gelastic Epilepsy is often hard to diagnose without tests because it can be confused with other behavioral or emotional disorders and it is treated by using anti-epileptic drugs, but these drugs do not completely stop all seizures, and the other problems associated with it don’t usually respond to medical treatment. Also, a couple places in the world offer a special form of radiotherapy that attempts to remove the tumor that causes gelastic epilepsy, but this also has limited effectiveness.
While researching these types of pathological laughter, I came across another disease called Kuru which there was an outbreak of in New Guinea. It is also known as ‘laughing sickness’ because when people start to develop symptoms that usually have uncontrollable bursts of laughter. Kuru is a neurological brain disease that is caused by an infectious protein. This is found pretty much exclusively in New Guinea because as part of their funeral rituals, they eat the brains of the deceased, which carry this infectious protein. Like I said before, pathological laughter as well as tremors, difficulty swallowing and difficulty walking are all symptoms, and pretty much if you get it you’re screwed because there are no treatments and people usually die within a year of showing the symptoms.
We usually associate laughter with positive emotions and mirth, but there are a few cases where this is not true. Sorry this was such a downer post.
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/124/9/1708.full
http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/gelastic.html
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/kuru/overview.html
I am a very sensitive, ticklish person. I was that little girl that laughed so hard even before my dad tickled me that my mom yelled at him to stop before he even started. Why? What is so funny about tickling? It has been said in this class, and I resolutely agree, that the root of all humor is incongruity. But what is incongruous about tickling? Not really anything. The ever present question is: Why can’t we tickle ourselves? This phenomena called tickling has been hypothesized about for centuries. Literally. Plato, Bacon, Galileo, Aristotle, and Darwin have all tried to figure out what tickling is all about.
Aristotle feels that tickling is fundamentally the element of surprise. The reason we cannot tickle ourselves is because it is not surprising. This sentiment has been echoed many times. Professor Clarence Leuba found that surprise elicits the maximum amount of giggling in experiments with his own children.
Professor Leuba experimented with both of his children to try to learn more about tickling, and see if it is a learned response that is conditioned by parents and others, or if it is an innate behavior. When his son was young there was no laughter in the Leuba household except for the experimental period where he would cover his face with a mask and practice different techniques with his son. He would start by tickling lightly and move to a more vigorous tickling starting at the armpits, then ribs, then chin, neck, knees and feet. He repeated the same experiment with his daughter and found that tickling is most effective under ribs and arms, and that it was indeed an innate behavior.
Another thing found to be important in tickling is acknowledgment. If we cannot identify the source of tickling then it could potentially become a negative thing. Perhaps it was caused by a bug, and that idea is not pleasant and does not elicit laughter as a result. It was also found that tickling that was prolonged after the laughter stopped is considered abusive. It quickly becomes a very negative thing. I think this relates to the arousal theory. It demonstrates this theory perfectly because this theory incorporates and arousal boost mechanism and an arousal jag mechanism, which means that if it gets too hight or low , respectively it is no longer funny and becomes aversive. In this case prolonged tickling would be an arousal boost mechanism because after too long it becomes very aversive.
Dr. Christine Harris did an experiment on the social aspect of tickling. She felt that laughter from tickling was reflexive, and that it did not require social contact. To test this she made Mechanical Meg, a robot that was supposed to tickle the participants. They were blindfolded and then an assistant who was hiding would come out and tickle them, when they thought they were alone with the robot. In every case the participants laughed. I feel this experiment was flawed because the presence of Mechanical Meg would be pseudo-social, and may not make a difference.
What about people like me? Who bust up into insane laughter without being touched? This has been referred to as a “Pavlov Effect.” The mind overreacts to the stimuli it feels is coming.
Another theory that relates to tickling and laughter would be reversal. According to Darwin, laughter as a result of tickling requires a light state of mind. In the reversal theory this would be referred to as a ‘telic’ state of mind. Francis Bacon felt that no matter what state of mind you were in tickling would induce laughter. The reversal theory states that we switch back and forth between the telic and paratelic state of mind. Bacon would feel that it was an easy switch during laughter, and that tickling itself would be the trigger that switches into a telic state of mind.
Terms: Arousal theory, boost mechanism, jag mechanism, reversal theory, telic, paratelic, incongruity.
http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/are-we-programmed-to-laugh-when-tickled.php
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199612/ticklish-situation
http://www.helium.com/items/642104-why-we-laugh-when-tickled
https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/867a7a085ae2507f85257402005fe968?OpenDocument
For this assigment, I chose to write about something we discussed in class last week which was bodily functions and why or why not they are humorous. One specific example we discussed in class was humor revolving around farting. The class was somewhat divided on why or why not they perceived farting to be humorous. Some of the class agreed farting is funny because it is "taboo" (in other words, breaking a social norm), some thought farting was funny only under certain circumstances (for example, when a woman farts in front of someone else because it is more unexpected), some people thought the farting involved some sort of aggression in humor (for example, the farting boyfriend leaving the girlfriend in a public place to make it look like she was the one who did it) could evoke mild aggression and even embarrassment depending on the person. and others did not find farting humorous at all because "everyone can do it" or simply, because the mere thought of farting is disgusting.
I read an article online about questions concerning bathroom humor and young children. The article discussed why words such as "fart" or "pee" are humorous to young children, in that they are becoming curious about their bodies and bodily functions. They also know that they can get a reaction from adults by using these words publicly, and for this matter they receive attention. Young children are still in the process of learning why using "bathroom talk" is embarrassing (they do not fully understand why yet) and they also use this kind of talk to "test their limits" and to see how much they can get away with before their parents or gaurdians intervene. The article discusses the best way to deal with these behaviors in young children is to set limits in public (inform children why it is inappropriate to use these words loudly in the presence of strangers), to inform them that everyone experiences these bodily functions and that they are completely normal, and finally to help children engage in other kinds of humor that don't involve these inappropriate words. Since this is a developmental issue, chilren are in the learning process of their bodies and the world around them and it is something they eventurally grow out of. (However, I have met certain college kids who would probably still find it humorous to use bathroom talk in public to get attention!)
I decided to look at some videos on you-tube involving farting in public places (in a library in particular) and also picking one's nose in fast-food restaurants and in the check-out lanes. Both videos featured the same child (he looked around middle-school age, so he should be expected to follow social norms in public) as he was filmed by his father in the scenarios. In the nose picking video, most reactions were not directly looking at the child when they saw him performing this behavior, and basically ignoring it. Not a single person mentioned anything to the middle-schooler or mentioned that it was rude to do this in public. One man was seen making a disgusted face and shaking his head when the kid walked off. In the scenarios involving food, the kid ended up getting free fries because it appeared the worker at the counter was disgusted (by the look on his face) and just wanted to hurry up with the order. The kid then sticks a french fry in his nose when he sits down, and this is the first time it is seen that people laugh (the co-workers see it and crack-up). In the end, the father states that the reactions were either distraction, or sympathy (in the case of the free food!) This article relates to class discussion as it centers around the social aspect of humor and what is considered an "acceptable norm" in public situations. It is not common to see someone blatantly picking their nose in front of strangers (especially when food is involved!) and this tends to make people uncomfortable (which is probably why they tended to ignore the kid in the video).
I found the farting clip to be more humorous in the event of reactions evoked by others. The same kid walks into the library with a "noise maker" hidden in his pocket. He walks by a group of two young boys and they both laugh and "fan the air". Most reactions from people sitting and reading or working on computers were to look over, but not say anything. The librarian who helps the middle-schooler look something up on the computer when he makes the noise just continues to help without acknowledging the situation. At one point, the kid walks by a middle-age man sitting at a table and makes the noise. The camera shot shows the man staring, shaking his head, and then covering his face with his hand as he appears to be laughing. I wondered what the reaction would be if this was a grown adult and not a kid in middle school performing this type of behavior in public. It would have been interesting to see an adult do this as well to see if any differences would emerge. This article also relates to social psychology in the case that farting in public is considered breaking a social norm. I also associated this concept with conflicting schemas (when you go to the library, you expect a quiet, serious environment, and the loud farting noise breaks the quiet barrier, and the serious framework associated with the library environment schema). I thought this clip was funny overall because of the setting (in a library where most people can hear the fart noise).
terms used: aggression, social theories of humor, schemas in humor.
http://library.adoption.com/articles/bathroom-humor.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s80duribYVI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3ejlkzDCuc&feature=related
I thought this was a funny clip too. Birthday surprise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5_-ialR_-g&feature=related
I thought that the chapter we just read about developmental psychology and humor was very interesting, so I decided to try and find some material on the internet concerning that. When I was reading in the book about humor in babies, there was a You Tube video that I thought of. It’s a really popular video of a baby sitting in a highchair, and the dad (I think, or someone off-camera) is making a funny noise, and the baby just laughs and laughs. In the book it says that infants find humor in incongruous events in an environment that’s perceived to them as safe. And I think that maybe the reason the baby laughs is because someone is making a funny sound that they don’t usually hear from that person, so it’s incongruous to them. An article that I read from Parents magazine online, written by Emily Perlman Abedon, had very similar theories that the book had. The article agreed with the book by saying that around six months, babies have enough information about their environment to notice when something out of the ordinary happens. The article also mentioned that infants find it amusing when they have to process a little bit of new information along with a little bit of familiar information.
I found another online article written by Lawrence Kutner called “Humor as a Key to Child Development” that was pretty interesting. This article mentioned how our humor changes throughout the stages of development. A good example he used was peek-a-boo. To a one-year old peek-a-boo is the funniest thing, but a six-month old probably won’t respond to it, and a six-year old will find it entirely boring. This is very similar to what the book says about humor and cognitive development. There is a parallel between the development of humor in a child and their overall cognitive development. As a child gets older, the child develops more sophisticated schemas which allow them to appreciate more complex forms of humor that a younger child cannot understand. The two articles that I found said very similar things, but one thing that I found interesting is that when a child is going through potty training, they tend to use a lot of “bathroom” humor. I find this pretty interesting just because I don’t have kids or have friends that have kids, and there aren’t any young kids in my family right now, so I don’t know much about this stage of development.
One thing that both articles and the book seem to agree on is that humor appreciation really starts in the second year of life. The first article says that by the age of two, kids have a pretty good understanding of the rules and patterns in their lives and they find humor in breaking them—which is incongruity. At this age they have the capacity for fantasy, pretend, and make-believe play, and they can apply different schemas to different objects making it humorous. For example, they could hold a banana up to their ear and pretend it is a telephone—this is an example of fantasy assimilation, according to McGhee (pg 237). McGhee named this stage the first stage of humor development in the Four Stage Model of Humor Development - incongruous actions toward objects (pg 239). The second article by Kutner says that around this age, children are starting to master language, so when incongruities are applied to language, it is funny to them. For example, a child might make up nonsense words or syllables, and when they understand that the words and syllables are out of place, they find it humorous. This is a way that they can show their mastery of knowledge about the world around them. In the book, McGhee says that children predominantly like humor that involves concepts that they’ve just recently mastered or become familiar with. This lead to a proposal of the Cognitive Congruency hypothesis which suggests that there is “an inverted-u relationship between cognitive difficulty and enjoyment of humor” (pg 243). McGhee suggested that children find the greatest humor in material that “presents an optimal level of challenge to their cognitive structures” (pg 244).
The second article by Kutner talks about humor later in life as it relates to subjects that they are currently dealing with. It also mentions teasing and how humor and jokes help to define particular social groups. It also mentions the “save face” aspect of humor in that if someone says something that doesn’t come across the group very well, they can recover by saying, “I was just joking.”
One thing that I found interesting about the first Parenting article written by Emily Perlman Abedon, I found interesting because the article talked about how you should encourage your kids to have a sense of humor and to make life more enjoyable by the use of humor. And I completely agree with that. When the book talks about family environment factors in the development of humor, there are two main hypotheses: Modeling/Reinforcement Hypothesis and the Stress and Coping Hypothesis. This article seems to agree with the Modeling/Reinforcement hypothesis, which is parents who participate in humor themselves and laugh a lot act as role models to their children and positively reinforce their child’s effort at humor and making others laugh.
http://www.parents.com/baby/development/laughing/why-laughter-is-a-sign-of-learning/
http://www.drkutner.com/parenting/articles/humor.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk
The first article from Parenting by Emily Perlman Abedon, says that a good way to encourage your child’s sense of humor is to simply be a role model for a good sense of humor. For example, laugh at yourself if you spill something to show that it’s okay to make a mistake. Encourage your kids to make funny observations, and try to do something silly together every day. The idea is to try and make life more enjoyable with humor, and it may also encourage creative thinking in a child. Humor can help us to look at situations from a different angle; so as a result, your child might be able to see different situations from others’ points of view and will be better prepared to solve problems in the future.
From our reading, what I find very interesting is our innate tendency to laugh and enjoy humor. It is very clear that we have some mechanism within our brain which leads us to laughter and humor. First our closest cousins the apes enjoy humor as much as we do. They engage in social play using “playfaces” to communication the “just kidding”. I see ourselves engaging in this social play just as often, except we use our words to play tease and fight, and “save face” by actually saying “just kidding”. We and apes both use social play to communicate overlaying serious elements. Like showing superiority or setting boundaries to another. The “For Great Apes, Addressing Inequality is Child’s Play” article by Eric Johnson talks about this social interaction. It states that research has shown that apes use this kind of play to “prepare juveniles for the kind of social interactions they would face as adults”. It is a way that great apes learn important lessons. Furthermore, Johnson witnessed a younger juvenile hitting an older, higher ranking juvenile. Thus he also suggested that social play is a way to challenge inequality and social hierarchy of the group. Learning these lessons now will save the apes from aggression or costly challenges in the future as adults. Overall Johnson finds though observation that apes learn much about social boundaries within their group through their social play.
Laughing is one of our first pro-social behavior. The book mentions the humor that we share helps build a bond. The article “Encouraging Your Child's Sense of Humor “ echos the book. Teaching humor and using teasing can be a good way for parents to help their children develop socially and cognitive. The article states that humor in kids is collated with more optimistic and a higher self-esteem, thus parent should teach their children to use humor in everyday life. It suggests using simple incongruities or testing the limits of their basic schemas as babies and toddlers “when mom puts a diaper on her head or quacks like a duck”, and physical humor like tickling. Then as children develop mentally, they will start “getting” and finding wordplay; like puns or rhythms to be more interesting and humorous, even sarcasm at school years age. Also Humor, like in apes, can be used to teach social limits. What can be said to others, hurtful or inappropriate things should not be say to others, even in a joking way. Lastly the articule suggests that humor within a child’s life can be a good way for children to handle stess or adverse events, like “from moving to a new town, to teasing, to torment by playground bullies”.
We have learned that humor is also a good way for adults to handle and cope with stress. The article “humor as stress relief” explains the process a little different. It forces on how humor and laughter positively affects our bodies. It first suggests that having a good sense humor is good for our immune system, and that laughter can ease our muscles and encourage proper breathing. Engaging in laughter also stimulus and alerts the brain which can elevate our moods.
To sum up, humor is basic as we have it from birth and our cousins the apes engage in humor and play. Humor is not only enjoyable but also a very important tool to both of our cultures and to both apes and humans individually. We both humor to communicate and interaction socially, and individually we use humor to cope with stress. I think it is kind of interesting to look at the union during lunch time, and think that instead of running around play tag like we did as children or how apes play on a daily basis, we are using wordplay to do the same thing.
http://www.thechildrenshospital.org/wellness/info/parents/46002.aspx
http://www.neuronculture.com/http:/www.neuronculture.com/archives/for-great-apes-addressing-inequality-is-childs-play
http://www.hr.umich.edu/mhealthy/programs/mental_emotional/understandingu/tools/humor.html
The topic I am going to focus on is the connection between humor production ability and self-monitoring (ch.7 Personality). Self-monitoring is a personality trait that can be defined as the degree to which individuals are sensitive to environmental cues of social appropriateness and ability to regulate their behavior accordingly. This suggests that the tendency to attend to and respond to social cues and the reactions of others causes people who are high in self-monitoring to improve their skill in creating and delivering humor successfully in their lives. In contrast, individuals low in self-monitoring due to not attending as much to the responses of others, do not learn as well from those responses which leads to a low ability in producing humor. Clearly, self-monitoring may be a significant personality trait that contributes to someone who is seen as having a good sense of humor. The text mentions a researcher named Robert Turner (1980) who studied the association between self-monitoring and the ability to produce humor. Humor production was measured in two ways. In one method, participants were asked to make up witty captions to with a series of cartoons in which the original captions had been removed. In the second method, participants were seated at a table on which were placed a number of miscellaneous items, such as a tennis shoe, a watch, and a box of crayons. The subjects were instructed to create a three-minute comedy monologue, describing these objects in a funny way, after being given only 30 seconds to collect their thoughts. In both methods, the participants’ humorous productions were rated by judges for witness. The results yielded what was hypothesized, individuals with higher scores on a measure of self-monitoring, as compared to those with lower scores, produced responses that were judged as significantly more witty on both humor production tests. In researching this topic I found several sources that provide a further understanding of the personality trait of self-monitoring, humor production, and the associations between the two skills.
One source that assisted greatly in understanding the personality trait of self-monitoring is an educational site that provides the official Self-Monitoring Scale developed by Mark Snyder in 1974. The site also provides some excellent information on this specific personality trait’s tendencies. The self-monitoring scale consists of 25 questions that assist in rating whether an individual has a low or high ability of self-monitoring. The source describes self monitoring as the ability and desire to regulate one's public expressiveness to fit the clues and/or requirements of the situation. The answers revolve around your personal reactions to a number of different situations. According to this source, people who are high in self-monitoring look for cues in the situation to tell them how to behave, whereas those who are low in self-monitoring use their own values and motives to guide their behavior. Self-monitoring involves three major and somewhat distinct tendencies (1) the willingness to be the center of attention -- a tendency to behave in outgoing, extraverted ways (closely related to the social skill of emotional expressiveness); (2) Sensitivity to the reactions of others; (3) ability and willingness to adjust behavior to induce positive reactions in others. In general, having great self-monitoring is imperative to successfully being social and just funny in many situations.
My next source is a research article titled, “Searching for the Sense of Humor: Stereotypes of Ourselves and Others”. According to the article, people hold implicit theories on the link between humor and personality and apply it reliably both to themselves and to others. Furthermore according to the article and past researchers, the people who imagine they have a good sense of humor benefit from a halo effect and are perceived as more pleasant and interesting but less complaining or shallow. High levels of sense of humor were related to high scores on positive factors like agreeableness, and low levels of sense of humor correlated with higher levels of neuroticism. In terms of actual relations between sense of humor and personality characteristics in real people, the correlational findings are mixed. Researchers Ruch and Carrell (1998) found a fairly strong relation between trait cheerfulness and sense of humor. This source shows that having a sense of humor can be defined by many complex personality traits and also being aware of having a good sense of humor can have an effect on us and others.
A third source is an educational site that provides the official Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale and a general overview of what it exactly is. I thought this was a great source of information to seeing possible connections between certain personality traits such as my topic, self-monitoring and the general idea of a sense of humor. The MSHS consists of 24 statements that respondents rate on a five-point Likert scale from 0 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Eighteen statements are positively-phrased and six are negatively-phrased to control for response-set bias. What struck me as interesting is the additional measurement to the overall Sense of Humor score, factor analysis of the MSHS indicates four principal factors: (1) humor creativity and uses of humor for social purposes, (2) uses of coping humor, (3) appreciation of humorous people, and (4) appreciation of humor. These principal factors show that a good sense of humor is not just about telling good jokes, but is relative to what your audience’s reactions to the jokes/humor. By being skillful in self-monitoring one clearly can become successful in producing humor, because one needs to consider the social aspect. A high level of self-monitoring causes an individual to be aware of whether their humor is hitting or not, which obviously will help in being funny, because you are able to cater to the audience well.
Looking back on one of my earlier posts I can see that I have evolved in a couple of ways when writing about the psychology of humor. Over time my posts contain more terminology and a better grasp of the many theories explaining why something is or is not funny. In general, my ability to impersonate the average college student who is well underway in a psychology course has only improved since my first post. This can definitely be accounted for by my improving ability to use psychology of humor jargon and increasingly new knowledge.
Terminology: Humor Production, Self-Monitoring, Personality Traits, SMS, MSHS
Sources
1) http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ckb/SELFMON2.html
2) http://www.ejop.org/images/10%202010/13.%20Stereotypes%20and%20Sense%20of%20Humor.Benis%20and%20O'Toole.pdf
3) http://www.hnu.edu/ishs/ISHS%20Test%20Bank/TestCat_MSHS.htm
Although the text talks about laughter, I do not really like how the information was provided. I feel I can synthesize the information I found on the internet into a more personal-interest-tailored explanation.
Everyone knows laughter when they see it: abnormal breathing and expulsion of air accompanied with vocal expressions such as “ha” noises, muscles are tense, and the mouth is open. What causes this? During laughter, around fifteen facial muscles contract and the larynx is half closed. Also, the tear ducts are often activated. With that being said, laughter comes out in a wide variety of ways and ranges.
When I searched to find how many types of laughter there are (a common idea among researchers) I couldn’t find an answer. Different types of laughter were listed as many as fifty-plus and down to two. I like the study that talks about two: one kind coming from true glee and the other as a social message. These two types are referred to as voiced and unvoiced respectively. Voiced includes all of the types of laughter that are a real, involuntary reaction to something humorous. Unvoiced includes all of the types of social laugher. These are laughs ranging from a polite laugh towards a boss to a sarcastic “HA!” in the face of another person. The laughter I am focusing on in this post is voiced laughter.
There are major brain functions that are necessary for processing humor. Unlike emotions which are produced by specific parts of the brain, humor processing runs through many sections of the brain. Research has been done using jokes and fMRI. The left side of the cerebral cortex is involved in analyzing the words and structure of the joke. The frontal lobe of the brain becomes very active like it does when social and emotional responses occur. The right hemisphere of the brain is involved in understanding or “getting” the joke. After these activities take place, the activity spreads to the occipital lobe that processes sensory information. There is also stimulation of the motor sections of the brain which produce a physical response. The text cites a study done using cartoons and therefore a larger range of humor. This showed many more areas of the brain getting involved in the emotional aspects of humor and laughter. These areas form a reward network which also comes into play while under the influence of mind altering drugs, eating, having sex, listing to music and other things that make us feel good. This area is important when considering the happiness factor that seems to be present when we experience humor or laugh.
Another aspect of laughter that I find interesting is that many people say it is “contagious”. This was found to be true. When hearing laughter, the brain prepares the facial muscles to smile and laugh. This is explained using the comparison of mimicking another person’s words or gestures when in conversation with them which has been seen in many experiments. The brain sends certain signals to the facial muscles upon hearing laughter in order to mimic the person laughing. This is a social skill that is useful in creating meaningful social interactions and relationships that we as humans need and therefore is a survival skill. Laughter truly is contagious.
In my earlier posts, I could only explain my laughter by saying it was a reaction to something funny. Now I am able to go into much greater detail and explain the cognitive, social, and emotional responses involved. I can also say that I found a situation funny because maybe it was incongruous and I was in a paratelic mood. I’m able to think about and discuss humor in a more complete way.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/other-emotions/laughter3.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31802854/ns/health-behavior/
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061212_laugh.htm
I decided to research the topic of teasing that is discussed in chapter five. Teasing has been used to refer to different behaviors usually depending on the context of which it is being studied but most researchers agree that teasing can involve pro-social and negative components. As we read in our book teasing comprises three things humor, aggression, and ambiguity. The degree of aggressiveness in teasing depends on the ambiguity and humor that is present in the tease but the playful manner of the tease is intended to communicate that the tease should not be taken seriously. Teasing does not however include all forms of aggression. For example when you purposely hit someone with an object that causes pain this is unlikely to be categorized as teasing. Similarly not all forms of humor and play can be categorized as teasing.
Teasing is common in everyday interaction. People tend to tease others when they violate social norms. For example at young ages when playing with the same gender is the norm, boys are especially teased for playing with girls. Teasing can also be used as a playful way to negotiate conflict. For example it was found in one study that high school girls used teasing as a way to negotiate conflicts of interest particularly over affection for boys or intimacies with other group members. Teasing can also be used to avoid potential conflict. Teasing can also be done to flirt, socialize, play, enhance social bonds, teach, entertain, or to express affiliation, affection, and even love.
How can you tell when someone is teasing in a playful manner rather than being hostile? This is a question that was addressed in the research articles I read. According to Keltner et. al. there are different techniques that teasers can do to deviate from norms that would normally communicate truthful and appropriate messages these are referred to as off-record markers. Off record markers as mentioned in our book are verbal and nonverbal cues that accompany a tease and indicate that it is to be taken in jest, making it humorous as well as an ambiguous communication that is delivered directly or indirectly. For example exaggeration can indicate playfulness either by exaggerating detail, excessive profanity, or exaggerated characterization. Some other off record markers are pejorative nicknames, exaggerated facial expressions, mannerisms that mimic those of the intended recipient, ironic displays such as winking, elongated vowels, sing-song voice, loud rapid delivery, dramatized sighs or laughing and smiling before or after delivering the tease.
Even when a teaser does use some of these techniques the message is not always seen as playful to the target. There are some instances where the target of the tease takes it literally and are unmoved by the remarks made by the teaser. It has been found that a rift exists between the target of a tease and the teaser. For example the teaser often sees the teasing as playful and innocent while the target sees it as more malicious. As mentioned earlier there are many techniques that are used to demonstrate that one is teasing and the message should not be taken seriously but these techniques can be misunderstood. It has been found that speakers tend to design speech in accordance with their own perceptions and perspectives and the audience’s perspectives are rarely taken into consideration. Nonverbal signals are also prone to misunderstanding. Overall targets of teasing construe the teasing incidence more negatively then do the teaser and also find the intentions behind the teasing more negative then the teaser. Therefore even though a person may be teasing an individual in a playful manner the target may not be aware of the playfulness, and even when they are they still find the teasing to be more negative then what the teaser does.
It’s important when using teasing as a form of humor that you do your best to indicate to the target you are only kidding, and that you are close enough with the individual to be teasing them in the first place. When you are being playful teasing can still hurt someone’s feelings and when this occurs it’s difficult to find it humorous. A form of teasing that is evident it’s in a joking manner is roast. A roast is when friends or coworkers take turn to belittle a guest of honor. I have watched a couple of roast on comedy central and they are very entertaining. I have chosen to include a clip of a roast which demonstrates playful teasing and some of the off- record techniques.
Terms: Teasing, off-record markers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg4gzXMCbFA
http://www.ffri.uniri.hr/~ibrdar/komunikacija/seminari/Kruger,%202006%20-%20Teasing.pdf
http://147.143.95.81:1971/dspace/bitstream/123456789/9082/1/Keltner,%20Capps,%20Kring,%20Young,%20Heerey.pdf
I found the chapter five on the social psychology of humor to be the most interesting chapter. The most interesting section of that chapter to me was the section on humor and intimate relationships. The textbook discusses that most people assume that a person with a greater sense of humor will be someone with whom we can have a more satisfying relationship compared to someone with less humor. When I read this chapter I could completely agree with that statement. That is one of the first things that attracted me to my fiancé; his humor. This section posed the question about whether there is evidence that humor actually contributes to better relationships and greater relationship satisfaction.
The three websites that I found all discussed the main topic of humor in relationships. Most people will agree that humor is an important aspect in relationships and that it can become a very helpful quality during difficult times. Laughter provides many benefits to the person making the laughter happen and the people that are laughing at it. Those benefits include reducing stress levels, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, and produces are general wellness feeling. Regardless of whether the humor is used in intimate relationships or just in general relationships with friends, family, or strangers the timing of humor and whether those people surrounded are the butt of the jokes.
Humor is always a way for couples to communicate with one another. People usually tend to listen more when they feel humor is involved because it reduces humor is not typically non-threatening. Humor is a great way for couples to connect with one another and can be a good way to open up the door to having a more serious conversation if the mood prior was also non-threatening. It is also not recommended that humor be used when those serious topics do come up because then the other person may feel like what they are saying is unimportant to the other person.
One site discussed the methods of becoming a more humorous individual. The ideas included surrounding yourself with more people that are humorous and funny individuals. It’s important to learn to laugh at yourself and your mistakes and not always live life so seriously. Overall, research has found that the amount of humor communicated by spouses to each other relates to their current level of marital satisfaction but is not always predictive of the long-term stability of their marriage. A sense of humor is perceived to be a very desirable characteristic in a romantic partner it does not necessarily increase the likelihood that the relationship will be more satisfying and stable over time.
http://www.relationshipmatters.com/index.php?/archives/3056-Does-humor-enhance-relationships.html
http://www.hodu.com/humor-relationships.shtml
http://www.humormatters.com/articles/therapy2.htm
I decided to do some more in depth research on what we really know about the health benefits of humor. I found that for the most part the scientific community tends to agree with our text, that the actual evidence is still quite lacking, probably as a result of to many confounds, and the fact that “humor” is too broad of a concept. The only sources that support the idea that humor is a type of ‘cure-all’ are either ill-informed opinion pieces, or else sort of radical or fringe holistic medicine websites and resources.
The reason that there is confusion is actually pretty simple. There are a number of different studies that all demonstrate various health benefits of humor and laughter. However, the methodology of each of the studies is very different such that combining all the studies together is not valid, though the individual studies may be. This means that although laughter may temporarily increase immune system functioning, we cannot necessarily say that this directly relates to being more resistant (long term) to viruses and disease. The reason for this is that there are many other variables that also impact your chances of getting illnesses.
As a result of the large number of studies documenting various benefits when you look at them all together it appears as though humor is incredibly beneficial. However, flaws and weaknesses in each individual study show that humor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Here it seems that philosophy and science have been mixed in a bad way. When constructing your own world view (something philosophy helps you with) it’s a good idea to include a place for humor, laughter, and mirth, however, we need to make sure that we are not overstepping our grounds and making scientific claims about these phenomena just because they are important to our philosophical world views.
Science certainly supports the view that a sense of humor is important and possibly can provide health benefits, but there is little reason to make specific claims on exactly what humor does, and exactly how it does it. One big problem discussed in the text, and also the Oxford Journal website is that people may begin to place too much of an emphasis on humor and laughter which may eventually cause harm either physically or emotionally.
If we overstate the benefits of humor people may have regrets or feel guilty for not having been funny enough, or not laughing enough, etc. Similarly people may forgo truly beneficial treatments for laughter or humor therapy because of the exaggerated claims about the health benefits. Many of the benefits of humor are also benefits of other positive and negative emotions, exercise, meditation, getting a massage, and many other situations and there is little research indicating which are better than the others.
There are many reasons why humor therapy has become popular lately. First it is very cheap, almost everyone has access to video or audio recordings of famous comedians or comical situations, and telling a joke or thinking about something funny is completely free. Similarly you don’t need any special equipment or a lot of people. Another important point is that at the very least there have been very few research findings showing that humor causes any harm to a person. This creates the “Well it can’t hurt” mentality about humor therapy.
Just like with most topics the information available to the public is distorted, exaggerated, and sometimes totally wrong. It doesn’t help when people with PhD’s are behind the faulty misinterpretation of the data (as one of my sites demonstrates). This just proves the point once more that people need to learn to be very critical of the information they read.
http://helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm
http://www.holisticonline.com/humor_therapy/humor_mcghee_article.htm
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/3/1/61
The idea that humor is beneficial for coping with stress suggests that people with a greater sense of humor should be less likely to suffer the adverse emotional and physiological consequences of stressful life events. Our text states, although high-humored individuals may be just as likely as their low-humor counterparts to experience stressors such as financial losses, occupational pressures, unemployment, death of a loved one, and relationship breakups, their more frequent use of humor might enable them to appraise these stressors as less threatening, garner more social support, and generally cope more effectively, resulting in less likelihood of becoming emotionally distressed and physically ill as a consequence of the stressors. Therefore, I was curious to see how a sense of humor acts as a stress moderator for individuals who suffer from a mental illness, specifically those with depression. An article on the Fox News website states that more than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness. The article went on to state that it found 14.8 million Americans had major depression last year, and 10 percent of the jobless did, compared with 7.5 of retired people or those not in the job force, 7.3 who worked part time and 5.4 percent who worked full time.
In an essay by Paul McGhee (Ph. D.) titled, “Emotion: The key to the mind’s influence on health,” McGhee explains how positive emotions interact in the body to improve one’s health. McGhee cited a study by Candace Pert that claims, it is through the emotions you experience in connection with your thoughts and daily attitudes (specifically through the neurochemical changes that accompany these emotions) that your mind acquires the power to influence whether you get sick or remain well. According to Pert, the key to humor assisting in one’s health is in complex molecules called neuropeptides. Neuropeptides are the means by which all cells in the body communicate with each other, and all individual cells, including brain cells, immune cells, and other body cells have receptors connected to these neuropeptides. The kind of neuropeptides available to different cells constantly varies depending on the emotional state a person is in. The kind and number of emotion-linked neuropeptides available at receptor sites of cells influence your probability of staying well or getting sick. Therefore, our emotional state will affect whether or not we will get sick or suffer from a psychological illness. According to Pert and McGhee, neuropeptides are the key for a person’s humor to interact in the body to improve one’s health. In other words, people who suffer from a mental illness may be able to prevent the onset of the illness by exhibiting positive emotions and having an optimistic outlook on life.
According to a website on HelpGuide.org titled, “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” it states that laughter has many different mental health benefits including: adds joy and zest to life, eases anxiety and fear, relieves stress, improves mood, and enhances resilience. This website claims that laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins are said to promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily reduce pain. According to Pert in the former study mentioned, endorphins are a form a neuropeptides that are elicited from the receptor sites when one is experiencing a positive and joyful emotion. Therefore, it would make sense to assume that neuropeptides might be the key to humor benefitting person’s suffering from a mental illness. However, these studies do not explain the exact mechanisms involved for what emotions produce which neuropeptides and which neuropeptides are results of positive emotions versus negative emotions.
Steven M. Sultanoff (Ph. D.) reported similar findings for laughter improving one’s psychological health. Based on his research conducted during a ten year period, Sultanoff established that individuals who employ humor as a “serious” part of their everyday lives have fewer physical complaints (associated with heart disease), less arterial blockage, fewer angioplasties, fewer hearth attacks, and greater longevity when compared to subjects who exhibited a depressive, anxious, or angry lifestyle. Sultanoff’s results conclude that it appears that the experience of “pleasant” or mirthful emotions counteracts the deleterious, long-term physical effects of distressing emotions. Sultanoff’s research further supports the idea that people suffering from a mental illness would be less likely to have these physiological problems if each person exhibited more positive emotions in their daily life.
All three of these websites support the idea that if people suffering from a mental illness have a more positive outlook on life with a greater sense of humor, it will help those suffering to overcome their problems. However, I do not agree with these claims. I believe that people suffer from mental illnesses because of chemical imbalances that are in their brain. For this reason, I do not believe that humor will be able to correct those chemical imbalances. Furthermore, I find that Pert and Sultanoff’s research is not factual and lacks a certain element of cohesiveness. Their research does a poor job explaining the numerous and complex inter-workings of the brain that are necessary to explain the benefits of one’s humor on their mental health. I hope that more research will be done to help explain how humor and positive emotions would assist individuals suffering from mental illnesses so that less people will have to experience such devastating disorders.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/11/18/nearly-americans-mental-illness/
http://www.laughterremedy.com/article_pdfs/Emotion-The%20Key%20to%20Mind%27s%20Influence.pdf
http://www.helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm
http://www.humormatters.com/articles/heart.htm
I chose to read chapter 9. I work with kids with mental health issues so I thought it would be interesting to read more about humor affects ones mental health. I also plan on going into counseling so I’m always open to learning more about what affects ones mental health.
My favorite section of this chapter was humor, stress, and coping. This section talks about how humor can be used as a way to step away from stressful life events and then deal with them in a more positive way. The text states that “a great deal of research has shown that psychological appraisal and coping processes play an important role in determining whether or not potentially stressful life experiences result in adverse physiological and psychological outcomes.” Dixon suggested that humor may have evolved specifically for the purpose of coping with these stressful events. The idea behind humor being effective as a coping mechanism is that since most humor involves incongruity it gives people a way to shift perspective on a stressful situation and look at it from a “less-threatening point of view”. I use this idea at work when my clients are in crisis. I’ve learned that if I walk into a situation where a resident is upset if I say something off-the-wall and make them laugh just once it’s easier to break them out of their crisis cycle and allows for discussion of the stressful situation.
My least favorite section of the chapter was experimental investigations of humor and emotions. The studies they discussed showed that humor have beneficial short term mood effects but there isn’t really evidence of long term benefits. I’ve never thought that humor was a cure for mental health disorders such as schizophrenia but I have felt that it can help in specific situations. The researchers are looking for humor to cure people of mental health issues and I don’t think that’s a realistic goal. I’ve always felt humor was best used on a situational basis to help deal with stressful life events in a positive way instead of letting them build up which can have negative psychological effects. Also, I don’t think watching movies is the best way to test the theories.
One idea that I think will stick with me is that there types of humor that may be detrimental to psychological health. The book mentioned that aggressive humor and self-defeating humor are two types of humor that can have a negative effect on one’s mental health. The book talks about Chris Farley who use self-defeating humor to be more accepted by others as a child. They also mention that Farley seemed to have deep self-loathing and ended up having issues with drugs, alcohol, and overeating. Another thing I’ll remember is most of the section Humor in Coping with Specific Life Stressors. The results were very surprising to me. It showed that in severe situations such as being a POW humor had a positive effect in coping. But then the results from research on stressful occupations were mixed. I was really surprised by this. I work in a highly stressful environment and I can’t imagine how my coworkers and I would deal with the stress if we didn’t have humor. The last thing I’ll remember is the idea that “smiling and laughter by themselves, even without humor, can induce positive feelings of mirth. I remember being told that if I’m in a bad mood just laugh and you’ll start to feel better. This research shows that there is truth behind the idea.
I’m working on adopting the swarm theory. I’m still not an expert on it but from what I’ve read the theory relies heavily on the social aspect of humor. One area that fits into this theory is the section humor in coping with specific life stressors. In the POW study Henman reported that using humor to cope was done during interactions. According to the text “one participant observed that “the larger the group, the more lighthearted things were. The smaller the group, the more intense things were”. This shows that even when humor is used to cope the social interactions of humor is still important.
I chose to look further into the links between humor and mental health. After reading chapter 9 I saw that some of the research says that humor works to cope with stress and some research said they found no link. I’ve always believed that humor is a great way to deal with daily stressors and when you are able to cope in a positive way I believe it can benefit overall mental health.
One website that I found stated that laughter can reduce or increase the level of hormones in our system. Stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine are reduced and “health-enhancing” hormones such as endorphins are increased. It also states that there is an increase in the level of antibody producing cells. These effects mean our immune system is stronger and the physical effects of stress are reduced. The information didn’t go into laughter and specific mental health disorders but mental health doesn’t always mean specific disorder. The effects of laughter on our body can help in relaxation and stress reduction which will increase overall mental health. Humor can also serve as a distraction which then gives us the ability to look at situations from a less-threatening point of view thereby reducing some of the stress and anxiety we feel. Laughter also has many social benefits. Using humor can reduce the stress of those around you which can help you build positive relationships with others. Having these positive relationships in itself can help your mental health.
Most of the websites I found gave very similar information which supports the idea that humor can have mental and physical health benefits. According to an article in Psychology Today “humor is a natural stress reducer” Since the 1980’s there have been numerous studies on the effects of laughter on health. Much of the research supports the idea that “laughter stimulates the immune system and counteracts the effects of stress hormone”. Researchers still haven’t come to an agreement about why this is the case but the idea itself is supported. There are currently several programs who use laughter as a coping strategy. There are programs to teach health care providers to use laughter with their patients to help them cope. There is also a program called laughter yoga. The idea of this is to “fake it till you make it”. According to laughter yoga faking laughter will bring about real laughter and have the same effects of “real” laughter. I actually had to participate in a laughter yoga session for work since I am employed in such a stressful environment. I found it ridiculous but did find myself laughing because everyone else looked so silly doing it. By the end of the session my stomach hurt from laughing.
Dawn Miller did a study on the effects of humor on mental health. Miller began by talking about the positive effects of humor on the body. She notes that “Individuals with a greater sense of humor are more motivated, cheerful, trustworthy, and have a higher self-esteem. They are also more likely to develop close, social relationships (Kelly, 2002).” Having these close social relationships in itself are beneficial to ones mental health. Millers study included 111 students who were administered 2 questionnaires. One questionnaire was the multidimensional sense of humor scale and the other was a mental health questionnaire. Miller concluded that there is a correlation between sense of humor and mental health. The results showed that higher scores on the MSHS were correlated with lower scores on the mental health survey which showed that as sense of humor increased so did general mental health.
Overall, I feel that most of the research supports the idea that laughter and a sense of humor have positive effects on general mental health. I won’t claim that mental health disorders can be cured through humor but I believe it can help people deal with anxiety and depression.
Looking back at my first posts I feel that my knowledge of the psychology of humor has increased. I don’t know if it apparent in my blog posts but I understand the material and I don’t find myself having to look at the book every couple of minutes to get the information I need. My main improvement is my understanding of the theories of humor. I’ve used them so often in my posts and on my tests that the information has stuck with me. Some of my current posts don’t show this increased knowledge. I often don’t do well expressing my ideas clearly and I see that in some of my posts. I do feel that I am trying to put more information into my posts and am taking more time to complete them.
http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/405.php
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200806/humor-the-human-gift-coping-and-survival
http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/laughter.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o21_HdH6vLI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cejIigT-FJ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXix_dr3yHc
Throughout this book we have repeatedly seen the topics of Creativity and Linguistics show up in court for multiple felony charges which would actually make them habitual violators. There must be something they keep doing that causes them to keep appearing in court with the high class attorneys. Creativity actually is one of the Biggest Dope dealers in this country of psychology of humor. He distributes on the cognitive, social, personality, and even the psychobiological parts of town. The cognitive part of town speaks highly of him. They basically say that he is the one that makes Incongruity and Linguistic so successful. This requires one to actually do a lot of retrieval from the long and short term memory in the brain. Evidence shows that people who use creativity develop a great sense of humor which can also lead to dominating other aspects of life. This is essential because this bleeds into processing of incongruities, and various social processes His brother Linguistic is trying to dethrone his rival Incongruity, but he needs to bury the hatchet and work together as a team to conquer this topic of psychological characteristics related to humor and laughter. By All these various aspects coming together with having the team in their best interest they would be an unstoppable force. When all the buildings in New York fall the characteristics of humor and laughter will still be standing tall.
I think that throughout this writing process it has become easier to actually incorporate the terms and the ideas to make an argument about what really is funny. I think that the cognitive and the social chapters really expanded my implication of what humor really was. This is basically why I worded this first part like that because you can actually see within that story the key figures in society being Creativity and linguistics being predominate then the other characteristics need to be in empire because they each play a part of the distribution of what humor essentially is. These three clips pretty much display just about every characteristic discussed in the book.
I am interested in humor as a mechanism to assist in memory. In my last post I discussed the Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and its role in defining reward for our brain. Essentially the OFC releases dopamine in ascending levels when confronted with particular stimuli. The dopamine reaction to any particular stimulus is its reward value, and this value is associated with the stimulus that evoked it. The OFC recieves input from mediodorsal thalamus; a region of the thalamus believed to be associated with memory. This connection between the thalamus and the OFC presents a direct link between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex, which is considered our conscious decision making area of our brain. A link between the unconscious and the conscious. An article summizing many imaging studies on the OFC suggests that the OFC is a reward center for literally all of our senses as well as our emotional reactions. The study found that there were areas in the OFC specifically activating when the subject was tasting something pleasant or not pleasant and another area activated for touch. Each sense had a specific area on the OFC that would activate to provide a reward value, however the OFC only did this when a stimulus was either regarded as positive or negative; very rewarding vs very aversive. Neutral stimuli such as feeling a table did not produce consistent activation but painful experience or pleasurable experience, such as running a feather over the face, produced consistent activation in the OFC.
The OFC also has an area in the visual response region tuned specifically for faces and facial affect. The researchers describe the difficulty in activating this area because the OFC seemed to not react to artificial or two dimensional pictures of faces. Only real actual human faces seemed to cause consistent activation. In a reversal task the researchers presented two faces to subjects. The subjects had already been exposed to one, and they were asked to select the familiar face. If they did the correct face smiled, if they chose wrong the face looked angry. The researchers then reversed the task so the subjects had to select the unfamiliar face to get smiled at. The researchers found that specific areas of the OFC activated when the subjects selected a formerly correct face and got negative feedback. The authors suggest that error neurons exist in the OFC and record errors, or deviations from the norms that the brain has begun to assume and adapt for. These error neurons provide a check for the constantly changing emotional feedback we get from the people around us. But as with sensory stimuli the OFC only seems to react to positive or negative, reinforcement or punishment. The OFC creates with its dopamine reward system a standard value for the apparent emotion being displayed on the face of a person and a system of error neurons helps to keep continually adjust these values to help match the many ways in which people express emotion on their faces. So perhaps the OFC is more involved in behavioral processes rather than overt conscious memory.
So back to humor. We are constantly surrounded by people and we must constantly read the faces of those we interact with so we know how to interact with them. We discussed in class to some length how humor above all seemed to be a social phenomena used to form groups and to convey emotion and even to facilitate learning and induction into society. The OFC most likely regard humor as a positive emotion, and therefore assigns a reward value to humorous stimuli. Humor stimuli is often associated with other people, their emotional reactions and their facial information all tie in to how we experience a particular piece of humorous information. The reward value for humor stimulus is dependent on all these factors. This could explain why when we go to see a terrible movie with good friends we remember it as being really funny and good. Because our OFC associated the humor reward with the positive emotional reactions of our friends and any other positive experience.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008208000981
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medial_dorsal_nucleus