This assignment is similar to the week #12 assignment. Please be sure to synthesize.
Find a topic that relates to the material you discussed in your previous post (http://www.psychologicalscience.com/humor/2010/11/web-divergence-activity-week-12-due-around-tuesday.html).
Briefly recap what you discussed in week #12 about this topic (1 paragraph should be sufficient).
Conduct further research the topic using at least three new internet sites of content (not fluffy sites) or research articles. These can include one 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.
Next, write a brief paragraph on how this builds on your previous post on this topic from week #12.
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.
In my previous post, I discussed the use of humor in the workplace. The textbook discusses how humor can function as a great service to enhancing the quality of one’s workplace by helping resolve tension and stress, provide building blocks for getting to know coworkers and establishing relationships with them, as well as “saves face” when disagreeing with opposing views. It also helps increase overall job satisfaction and morale within the environment.
Along with these benefits, there can also be consequences to using humor in the workplace. We all know that there are some types of humor that do not belong in the workplace (racist, sexist, etc. jokes/humor), but even though we acknowledge this, it doesn’t mean we always abide by these laws.
After outlining common guidelines when determining whether or not something is appropriate for the workplace, I realized that individual differences in humor styles is likely the cause of the ambiguity surrounding the arguments as to whether or not x, y, and z (for example) are considered sexual harassment. Just as we all have different humor styles and appreciations, we all have different views regarding what material is harassment and which is not. Because of this ambiguity, the government has outlined two types of sexual harassment in the workplace: 1) “tangible employment action” – in other words, exchanging sexual favors for work advancements (quid pro quo), etc. and 2) hostile work environments. Unlike the first type of sexual harassment, hostile work environments can be a little fuzzy – what one person may think creates a hostile work environment and what another person thinks may be two different things. Even after the government’s attempt to clear up this issue, there is obviously still ambiguity. Because of this, I still believe in the suggestions I outlined in my previous post, but also like the suggestion I found from one of my sources “because the legal boundaries are so poorly marked, the best course of action would be to avoid all sexually charged conduct in the workplace. You should be aware that your conduct might be offensive to a co-worker and govern your behavior accordingly.”
Regardless as to whether or not this ambiguity plays a role in the frequency of sexual harassment incidences in the workplace, it happens more frequently than it should considering in an ideal world, it wouldn’t happen at all! According to one of my sources, 40-70% of women have experienced sexual harassment whereas 10-20% of men have experienced sexual harassment. Along with those statistics, the source reported that only 62% of companies offer sexual harassment prevention programs and 97% have a written policy regarding sexual harassment. These numbers come from a survey taken in 1999, so I would anticipate these numbers being higher now with more companies reporting prevention program opportunities for their workers.
With all of this in mind, I still believe that humor in the workplace is not all bad; however, it can be detrimental not only for you, but for your employer if not used properly. Overall, to me, the best thing is to get to know your coworkers well before using humor frequently in order to reduce the risks of being offensive.
I also included a YouTube clip about sexual harassment in the workplace. The clip is lame, but it displays some inappropriate behaviors as well as behaviors that would have been more appropriate. There are a few other clips online about this topic that were funny, but a little inappropriate!
There wasn’t a whole lot more that I could look up on this particular topic without getting into specific cases, but I did learn a little more about the frequency of this type of behavior. Because of this, the importance of monitoring one’s behavior in the workplace was reinforced.
It also makes me realize that the text doesn’t always go into great detail about the consequences of humor. It talks a lot about how humor helps ease depressive symptoms, aides in relationship building, and can even be beneficial in psychotherapy, but not a lot is mentioned about possible backlash resulting from using humor inappropriately.
http://www.dotcr.ost.dot.gov/Documents/complaint/Preventing_Sexual_Harassment.htm
http://www.sexualharassmentsupport.org/SHworkplace.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UEpVdGaPk8
My week 12 post discussed the relationship between brain damage and humor. My research suggested that the right frontal lobe plays a bigger role in humor processes versus the left frontal lobe. It appears that the right frontal lobe allows us to appreciate and comprehend humor processes. Also, people who have sustained brain damage in the frontal lobe usually experience blunt or crude humor which is usually referred to as "slapstick humor." Often times, those who have right frontal lobe damage will express inappropriate humor or experience humor at inappropriate times. Overall, my previous post suggested that once a person's right frontal lobe is damaged, their humor processes will most likely be disrupted and they will no longer be able to appreciate and comprehend humor in a way that a normal brain would.
Our ability to understand and interpret humor involves several cognitive functions such as working memory and abstract thinking. Research has shown that damages to the frontal lobes disrupts these cognitive processes and usually causes a noticeable change in personality. One of the most obvious changes in personality of people with right frontal lobe damage appears to be the appreciation and comprehension of humor. One of my sources conducted a study on 42 people in which half of the people had right frontal lobe damage caused by stroke, tumor/surgery etc. The results of the study showed that people with right frontal lobe damage had a more trouble comprehending written and spoken jokes than those people without brain damage. Also, the many of the brain damage individuals chose the wrong punch line to jokes however, almost all of those same people showed enjoyment for slapstick humor. This study relates to another source I found which discusses the impact of frontal lobe damages. Within this source a mother briefly described her son’s accident which caused severe damage to his frontal lobes. She said that prior to his accident he had a razor sharp sense of humor but after the injuries his sense of humor became blunter and it was evident he now enjoys slapstick humor.
Humor is something that almost all of us experience on a daily basis and many of us take for granted our ability to process jokes, sarcasm, comics, and more. It's interesting to learn how brain injuries can affect humor because often times humor is not something we expect to be lost or are concerned about after a severe brain injury.
After my research for this blog, I have gained further knowledge about the personality changes and humor processes that occur after a brain injury. I was able to find sources that had conducted research to compare a normal brain versus and damaged brain and see the results in terms of humor appreciation.
So far I haven't be able to find any treatment available to help "re-learn" humor for those with people with right frontal lobe damage. I'm interested in finding out if treatment is in the works or if there is currently a type of therapy available to help reconstruct the humor processes for those who have right frontal lobe damages.
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/05/health/he-24260
http://progressofabraininjury.blogspot.com/2010/03/impact-of-frontal-lobe-injuries.html
http://www.neuroskills.com/tbi/pr-humor.shtml
For this assignment I researched humor as a defense mechanism. For the most part, humor as a defense mechanism is a normal, healthy thing. However this is every once in a while. There are different ways humor can be used as a defense mechanism. I think the most common is sarcasm. This is sort of tricky because sarcasm is something that is very common, but also a bit aggressive. So it is typically used as a means of deflecting or displacing (which is another mechanism that does not involve humor) feelings onto another person. If the person on whom it is deflected gets upset they are often labed ‘sensitive’ or given even more grief for not being able to handle a joke. This was interesting to me because my friends do this a lot, to the point that it offends people, and I’ve offended people myself before I learned that the excessive amount of sarcasm we us is not typical.
Humor as a defense mechanism happens a lot in childhood. At this stage it is the easiest way to cope. I found that using humor is a way to put distance between things that are unpleasant or uncomfortable to process and ourselves. Which is why it is healthy to use humor to defuse situations. While it is used more in childhood, it typically drops off after adolescence, except (in healthy persons) every now and then in order to lighten the mood. It is also a way to save face, or a method of self disclosure and decommitment. Saying “just kidding!” after a statement that is potentially offensive gets the point across, but in a way that makes it harder for the other person to take offense.
An interesting thing I found was the type of laughter at the end of a sentence the denotes what the speaker truly means. If “ha-ha-ha” follows the statement, the person is afraid of conflict, and is laughing to note that they are only joking and should not be taken seriously, because they are uncomfortable with conflict. If “tee hee hee” follows the sentence it is covering an aggressive impulse. I don’t feel either of these are correct, because I know when I’m being passive aggressive or sarcastic I don’t have a particular laugh and I’m unsure that anyone laughs the exact same way after one of these comments.
I have said that humor as a defense mechanism is normal, however it can get to a point where it is unhealthy. If humor as a defense mechanism reaches a pathological level and is used all the time it can prevent an individual from processing reality or impair their ability to cope properly with things.
A really interesting thing I found was using humor as a defense mechanism during the Holocaust. There was a study done on survivors from the concentration camps, asking about how humor was used, and they actually used humor to defuse the situation around them. They would make jokes about the gas chambers, their hair being shaved, all sorts of things, in order to keep their spirits up. One survivor said that he did not believe he would have been able to take the situation seriously. That there were many who committed suicide and he would have been one of him had he not used humor to keep sanity.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2294835_use-humor-as-defense-mechanism.html
http://web.macam98.ac.il/~ochayo/absract.html
http://www.guidetopsychology.com/ucs.htm
http://www.divinecaroline.com/22189/71096-defense-mechanisms-what-s-normal-what-s
http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2004/08/psychiatry-101-defense-mechanisms.html
http://www.dailystrength.org/experts/cyndi/article/the-anatomy-of-sarcasm-is-it-real-humor-or-just-someones-defense-mechanism
I had some difficulty finding more information that emphasized on both humor and persuasion together. But I did my best to try and find three more articles that were similar to my previous blog on this topic. Last time I talked about how our book talks about how advertisers use humor to persuade their viewers to buy their products. Also, in my last blog I swayed more towards humor and persuasion as it contains to advertisement. Therefore, I will continue in this same direction.
Our text also states that humor seems to be more effective in influencing emotional variables, such as liking and positive mood, rather than cognitive ones, such as comprehension of the message. On t.v. they have shown a tampon commercial that I find hilarious and its persuading you to buy their product and ignore other advertisements for other tampon commercials since they advertise false advertisement by showing blue liquid absorbing and what not and dancing like they love their menstrual cycle with all their heart….Not Kotex, they are sarcastic but let you know the message they are trying to persuade you with.
Furthermore, persuasion and humor are not only seen in commercials on television, but can be heard/seen online, the radio, magazines, media and so forth. The goal of persuasion is to "convince" someone to incorporate that particular persuasive statement and "adopt" the new attitude as a part of their core belief system. There are several categories advertisers use when incorporating persuasion which consist of:
-The Bandwagon Appeal: In these types of persuasive techniques in advertising, a commercial highlights on the idea that, since everyone uses this product, so should you. Many viewers purchase the product so that they also fit in with the general concept or they just assume that "since everyone else is using it, it has to be good".
- Celebrity Association or Testimonial: One of the oldest trick in the books, using a celebrity testimonial to promote the product. Viewers who respect, look up to those celebrities in the advertisements, and buy the product.
-Emotional Appeal: Such persuasive advertising techniques are used to play with the emotions of the viewers. Emotions like fear, sadness, excitement, or happiness are implicitly or explicitly drawn to get people to buy the product. Concentrating on sentiments by showing images of parent-child moments or cute animals, advertisers tend to distract the viewers and try to eliminate their rational thinking.
-Humor: These kinds of commercials concentrate on making the viewers laugh. At times, the information of the product is not enough. But the idea behind this is to get the commercial stick to the viewers' minds in a positive way and influence them into buying it.
-The Anti-Bandwagon Appeal: These persuasive advertising techniques try to take a different route, getting the viewers to think differently, celebrate their own style and individuality, and rebel against what everyone says, does, or buys. The word "individuality" is what they're hinting at and that's the subliminal advertising message we sometimes see and believe in.
-Slogan: We all know this one; a memorable phrase or slogan used in commercials and campaign. Viewers remember them, associate with it and the product, and the next time they're out shopping, they're tempted to buy it. These catchy slogans become a part of our everyday life and language.
-Glittering Generality: Glittering generalities are creative advertising techniques which are filled with words that have positive connotations attached to them. Words like "good", "healthy", "low fat", "sensational", or "tasty" are all examples of glittering generality.
-Product Comparison: Persuasive techniques in advertising uses product comparison more often these days. Comparing two products which are in competition with one another, and trying to show that the other product is inferior.
On another note, the way in which we find something humorous/persuading depends on out mood at any given time. Sometimes using a good funny commercial can elevate a person’s mood if they just watched a scary movie, having a good day, or bad day and just that one advertisement sparks a smile or laughter. When a person is in a good mood they are more likely to listen and agree with what someone is saying, than if they were in a bad mood. Good moods tend to lowers a person’s defenses, whereas bad moods raise defenses making persuasion more difficult.
In terms of persuasion, humor is useful because it can quickly gain someone’s attention, rapidly create rapport and make a message more memorable. In addition it can also relieve tension, decrease a person’s stress levels and motivate people. Therefore, we have two potential routes that account for this which include our central processing route and peripheral processing route. According to our text, the central route, involves active elaboration of the message by the listener , occurs when the listener finds the message personally relevant and have pre-existing ideas or beliefs about a certain issue. In contrast, the peripheral route involves less well thought out responses bases on heuristic cues such as moods and emotions, familiar phrases, or the attributes of the message source.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/persuasive-advertising-techniques.html
http://www.eruptingmind.com/how-mood-effects-persuasion/
In the previous post I discussed tickling and why some people are as ticklish as they are and why others aren’t. I also found articles that stated that they believed tickling came about in defense mechanisms when being attacked. People tend to be the most ticklish in places that are the most vulnerable. Tickling appears to be humorous because typically when someone is being tickled it is in a playful mood. People don’t usually tickle people as a way to hurt them rather they know that someone is ticklish so they do it to evoke laughter from someone.
Research has also shown that the cerebellum shows more activity when our touch is a surprise rather than anticipated. If the touch of being tickled is known that it is coming the brain allows the nerves to prepare for the touch. This could help explain as to why people can’t tickle themselves; they know it’s going to happen. Laughter also appears to be a natural reaction when someone is being tickled. The response is a natural defense to rising panic. Tickling also usually happens when we least expect it to happen. Someone may surprise you from behind and begin tickling you or you can see it coming but either way the response to tickling is usually the same; laughter. Another theory is that the parts of the body that typically aren’t exposed like the bottoms of our feet are ticklish because it’s a reminder that our feet are exposed and vulnerable. This could also have a connection to the idea of “fight or flight” response our bodies have.
I was able to find more websites that discussed tickling and the possible reasons for being ticklish, but the jury is still out as to why being tickled is funny. The consensus is that it may have come from a defense mechanism to being attacked back in the early days of man. It makes sense that the most vulnerable areas on our body (feet, underarms, and waist) are typically the most ticklish. When being tickled most people have that one place that if they are tickled they feel like they have no control over the actions that follow. For instance my dad is very ticklish on his feet and we’ve always been warned that if we decide to tickle him there, he is not responsible for the consequences meaning it is very likely he may kick us or hurt us accidentally.
http://www.helium.com/items/1706096-tickling
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/other-emotions/question511.htm
http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/65925-ticklish
I discussed self-defecting humor. Self-defecting humor is an extreme form of self-defecation. That instead of making fun of yourself or using humor as a way to loosen up about life and its troubles, like in self-defecation, self-defecting is a little more extreme. It can be used as a defense mechanism to deal with negative feelings of self-loathing or problems with self-esteem; however this technique just seems to perpetuate the problem. Chapter 11 is about the use of humor within a variety of professional and education domains mainly psychotherapy, in education and in the workplace. I think it is easy to see how self-pointed humor can be used at lot in any of these situations. In therapy humor can be used in many different ways. The therapist can use specific therapeutic techniques or using humor as a communication skill between the client and the therapist. It can also be use as a communication device between the therapist and clients patients because it can convey friendliness, caring, genuineness, in short build a relationship between the client and the therapist and can be used to obtain the goals of the therapist has for the client. For example, guiding the client to gain insight into their difficulties and reduce level of distress. However there are risks in using humor in therapy, humor can make the patient feel belittle or laugh at, or self-defecating humor can be used defensively to divert attention away from the “emotionally charged problem”. In the article “Researchers are learning more and more about humor’s effects on our physical health and overall well-being” on the IPTV website, the article states that self-defeating humor, although can be used to amuse others is not always good for ourselves. It can be used as a defense mechanism to hide to avoid low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety or other serious psychological issues that need attention in theory.
The book mentions that Humor in education is also a growing area, it is suggested that humor in the classroom can help reduce tension, stress, and boredom. This made me think of the articles I read for the last post that talked about Chris Farley’s use of self-defecation from childhood. He used making fun of his weight and being the class clown as a way to fit into the in-group in school. This trend developed for his whole life. In an article called “Class clown uses humor as defense mechanism” posted by the Lawrence Journal World and News, the author states that this humor is just a classic response to low self-esteem, or other problems and pain because of family issues or self-image problems. On the other hand, what the book and other articles suggest is that it is beneficial for teachers to use self-defecating humor. An article listed on “The Play Portal: your educator resource for laughter, fun, and games” suggests that using self-deprecating humor demonstrates to students that teachers are human beings to and do not take themselves too seriously. And this, the article suggests creates an environment that students feel comfortable in, and willing to take risks in.
The book lastly covers humor in the workplace in chapter 11 as a main subject matter. Humor can help build more enjoyable workplaces which can “translate into greater productivity and a better bottom line for the company”. We talked about this in an earlier chapter that, like teachers, bosses can use humor, like self- defecation, to set a standard or tone of interaction within their workplace. The book states that it can help in areas such as making decision, influencing people, giving information. It can also help coworkers cooperate and communication better. However the article “Jest Practices: Bring Humor into the Workplace” by Craig Harrison, suggests everyone from “CEOs to Southwest Airlines to southwest Airlines flight attendants” should use self-defecation to make fun of themselves, get people relax and laughing because it makes them seem more approachable to peers and customer and shows that we can take life and problems in stride if not overused.
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/humor/humor
http://www.tomcappelletti.com/286/humor/humor.html
www2.ljworld.com/.../class_clown_uses_humor_defense_mechanism/
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/jest-best-practices-humor-workplace.html
The only part of the last chapter that I read that I didn’t cover was humor in the workplace so that’s where I will place the focus of this post. The text touches on positive and subversive aspects of humor in the workplace but surprisingly it does not talk about harassment in the workplace using humor.
Humor can be used in many positive ways in a work setting. It allows for things like asserting power to be more accepted in the workplace. It can be used to socialize new employees into the organization by creating inclusiveness and providing a socially acceptable way of other employees to express feelings about the supervisors or organization itself. It can also aid in sensitive negotiations and serve as a tension release at work. While all this is true, there are risks of using humor in the workplace. If jokes offend someone and persist, it can be labeled as harassment.
A shocking 70 percent of people claimed to have heard jokes in the workplace about a co-worker’s age, sexual orientation, weight, and other aspects that are viewed as inappropriate and maybe even illegal. There are laws in place protecting minorities, women, and people with disabilities in the workplace. Making jokes about someone’s race, gender, or disabilities can lead to a lawsuit. A joke that may seem harmless to the person telling it may offend someone else. Thus, humor is dangerous in certain settings. It does not even have to be a direct comment or joke to an individual to be considered harassment. Say two employees are talking with each other in the break room and joking with each other about a possible work inappropriate subject. Another employee walks in, hears the conversation and becomes offended. That employee could either ask the pair to not speak about such topics around him/her or they could go straight to a supervisor and then there could be consequences for that pair of workers who were joking with each other.
As I said, someone could believe they are telling a harmless joke but it may not seem that way to others. The text touches on using humor in the workplace to save face. Trying to save face in these situations could also occur. If someone makes a joke about overweight people and a co-worker becomes offended, the joker could say, “It was only a joke.” If the joker continues to tell these kinds of jokes and continues to try and save face, this can lead to issues with the offended co-worker feeling that maybe they should not report the jokes. The offended co-worker may be made to feel like they cannot take a joke or they have no sense of humor but in reality, the incidents (if continued) should be reported.
This topic builds on my previous blog post because although I touched on humor in the workplace, I did not expand on the topic. Also, this post is different from my others in that it is about the results humor can have as opposed to analyzing how humor can be used or why something is funny. This blog post, I think, is less inclusive of all of the concepts we have covered in class thus far but I still think it is an important and relevant subject.
http://stress.about.com/od/workplacestress/a/officehumor.htm
http://www.examiner.com/workplace-issues-in-seattle/workplace-humor-or-workplace-harassment-there-a-difference-1
http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/smallbusinesslegalissues/a/legalriskshumor.htm
Week 12 I discussed British humor and the different components that it has that are different than American humor. Irony is very dominant in British humor, and while we often use irony in American humor, we tend to use it a little differently. British humor involves a lot of irony. American humor uses irony too, but it is often followed by saying “just kidding”, even when it is pretty obvious that it is a joke. British humor often has an element of understatement, so unlike American humor where there is a laugh track playing or just the way that someone makes sure that you know that they are telling a joke, people have to pay attention to what is being said and realize the incongruity or bizarreness on their own, it’s not blatantly obvious. Finally there are several different reoccurring themes in British humor. These are innuendos, the absurd, the maniac character, disrespect to members of authority, humor inherent in everyday life, macabre (or dark humor), bullying and sarcasm, the war between parents/teachers and kids, class differences, the lovable rouge, the embarrassment of social ineptitude, making fun of foreigners, parodies of stereotypes, making fun of the class system and toleration/admiration of eccentric individuals.
A lot of the different themes were able to be related back to the Dead Parrot and Fry and Laurie clips that we had watched in class, but a couple were not so this week I’m going to find some clips that show some of the other themes and using what we’ve learned in class explain why they are funny.
Macabre humor is not used a whole lot in the States, but I guess is common in the UK. This type of humor tries to make light of a really serious situation. I think the reason a lot of times Americans are not fond of this type of humor is because, going along with the Reversal Theory, when someone loses a loved one or is fired from their job or some other unfortunate event happens, people are in a telic state of mind and are serious and focused on the issues. I think maybe the difference here is how we are socialized. If this type of humor was often used here in America like is it in British humor, maybe we would just be able to be in a paratelic state at a moment’s notice. I think that because we aren’t used to this type of dark humor, a person would probably get a few dirty looks and people would think we were insensitive if we often used this type of humor. This clip is from a show about a couple guys whose job it is to hang people and is a good example of macabre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADkpyVWAwQ&feature=related
These people are hanging someone, but continue with their conversation as normal, so there’s no evidence of a serious or paratelic state, and then he pulls the lever and makes a joke. I think the difference between the two is that Americans do this on some level, like when certain celebrities die or when someone dies in some crazy circumstance, but in close proximity to whatever serious event happened, it probably wouldn’t happen.
The war between kids and their parents or teachers is common I think in both types of humor because that is something that people in both cultures can relate to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuEY6jN6gY
This clip is from a series called Kevin the Teenager where Kevin turns 13 and because he is now a teenager, he goes from being nice to his parents and hyper to being really rude to his parents and just want to play video games. This is funny because of the exaggeration that goes into it. As the clock strikes midnight, Kevin completely transforms. This clip also fits the theme of making fun of stereotypes because the stereotype is that when people are in their teens they are rude to their parents, and the second that Kevin is 13, he is.
A few of the different themes of British humor, including making fun of foreigners, making fun of the class system, bullying and parodying stereotypes can be explained using the Superiority theory of humor. This type of humor is used and people find humorous because an individual or group is singled out and poked fun at. Because the people making the joke or listening to the joke feel like the subject being mocked is inferior to them in some way, it is funny. Usually, when making fun of the class system, they make fun of the upper class, and how they are stupid and don’t work as hard as those in lower classes. The skit “The Upper Class Twit of the Year” was featured in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which only aired 4 episodes before it was canceled because a lot of people found it offensive. In this “competition” 5 dumb upper class men had to compete in different challenges. This clip shows the whole thing and is a little long, but these men fail at doing really simple tasks, like walking in a line. The final task is that they must shoot themselves, and the first person to do so wins. I think that the lower classes used this as a sort of way to express their feelings, but at the same time doing it in a comical, obviously funny way. As I mentioned in my last post, British humor uses the same idea of “saving face” as Americans, they just don’t feel the need to specifically say they are kidding, because they feel like it is obvious. By sort of exaggerating the extent that they felt like the upper class was not as intelligent as the lower class, they were expressing their ideas but still making it comical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqkdcT25ss
Finally the tolerance or even admiration of eccentric individuals is often found in British humor. This last clip is from a comedic trivia type game called QI (short for Quite Interesting) and it a show where people are asked a random question and if they get it wrong or right they’re usually told they’re incorrect and the other people on the show just go off telling whatever story they have they relates to this particular subject. The questions are usually something really obscure so no one ever really gets them right, but points are given for interesting answers. This is different than most of the game shows in our culture because we like things to be systematic and to have a definite yes or no, right or wrong answers. As we saw in the Dead Parrot video, British shows don’t always have this. Skits are often absurd and don’t really have an ending or something that ties it all together, they simply drop it and go onto something else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1zuAQAhhMI
This post builds on my post from last week because it gives examples of what each of these different themes means exactly because by just reading what the themes were I didn't exactly have a clear idea of what they meant. From the sites I viewed last week, examples of each type of theme were given, but aside from Monty Python's Holy Grail and a few Mr. Bean clips, I hadn't really seen many British comedies, so I wasn't familiar with hardly any of these examples. I found that as I watched more examples of British humor, I thought they were funnier. I think that this might be because I was just getting used to it a little more, and by just knowing what the themes were, I had a better sense of what was trying to be accomplished with that particular clip. British humor isn't always as obviously funny as humor we might see on sitcoms in America, so I think familiarizing yourself with it is probably the best way that a person would find it funny because you need to know when people are being sarcastic, without them necessarily saying that they're kidding, like they do here.
In my previous post, I blogged about relationships and how humor can be used to strengthen them. Even though they are seen to strengthen relationships because humor is seen as positive, it can also weaken them. The textbook and my previous websites agree when it discusses how humor can be used to be a mediator in a fight, but can also get the person to be even angrier. Thus, humor is shown to have two sides; both in relationships or not.
Our ability to understand how humor is used in relationships correctly is determined upon how much we already know about the subject. Some people obviously don’t know how to use humor in relationships, therefore causing conflict. From my previous post, I discussed how humor can be used as a tool in relationships. Figuratively speaking, if that tool is not used correctly because the person does not know how to, then the other partner may take it the wrong way. So, in that case, someone has to show the couple how to use humor correctly. On spirituscounseling.com, Matt Laughlin, a couples psychotherapist claims that owning “your part” in a conflict can be done by using humor. Laughlin also discusses how to use humor by laughing at yourself, which would ease a lot of the tension. Laughlin also claims that you should listen to yourself whining or arguing for a week in order to see how you are communicating with your partner. If you are able to use humor then you would be able to use that as a mediator, which goes back to using humor as a tool.
Even though humor is used to help strengthen relationships, it is also shown that self-deprecating humor, or the ability to laugh at your own self, can actually hurt relationships. A recent study from an article on nerve.com claimed that if a person is laughing at or making fun of themselves, then it may actually embarrass the other person. This makes total sense, because if your partner is making fun of their recent financial struggles, weight gain, or other personal issues then that would definitely embarrass the other person. Therefore, humor being used as a tool in a relationship would perhaps weaken a relationship.
So if there are always two sides to humor, being that it could be either aggressive or not, then how does a couple know when to use what type of humor? Most sites claim that humor is used to strengthen a relationship, very few mention that it can actually be detrimental to one. There are forms of aggressive humor that I was not aware of; one of them being “belabored” humor. Belabored humor involves poor skills at either sharing humor or responding to humor of others. This would most certainly be detrimental to a relationships because the couple would not know how to take the other person’s humor, which would ultimately mean they wouldn’t share the same sense of humor.
After my research for this blog, I am able to see how humor is used as a tool in relationships and how to use humor correctly. I found it to be really interesting that there are so many websites on how humor is all positive in a relationship and how many people try to sugar coat it. Since a major part of a relationship is to get along then it would only make sense that the research and websites on the internet would contain only positive humor and ways to use it.
URL’s: http://www.spirituscounseling.com/couples-counseling-boulder-humor-practice.html
http://www.nerve.com/news/love-sex/self-deprecating-humor-is-bad-for-relationships-says-study
http://books.google.com/books?id=ubiQ8wCrP0IC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=humor+being+detrimental+to+relationships&source=bl&ots=YCeMu-TIcf&sig=_LDN4n9oxXRE-MStO6ku12CPA7Q&hl=en&ei=7RP9TL6sGMuVnAeyw8jJCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=humor%20being%20detrimental%20to%20relationships&f=false
The topic I chose to investigate in week 12 was how the corporate world utilizes humor and humor research. My basic finding was that most of the corporate world probably falls into the category of over-emphasizing the benefits of humor and under-selling the research findings that are more vague or inconclusive. However, it's unclear whether or not the corporate worlds misunderstanding or misrepresentation of humor resarch is really all that detrimental to their cause; in spite of their ignorance and over simplification of the scientific research they appear to be doing just fine.
I continued to search various websites but I seemed to run out of good quality websites from a corporates perspective. Most are either informative sights with various Drs. or motivational speakers discussing the pro's and con's of humor in the workplace. Many do make claims about the increasing importance that various large corporations are placing on humor, though we have to take them at their word for the most part.
The sites I was able to find seemed a lot better than my original ones, though I may have just gotten better at quickly finding sites that don't know what they are talking about.
I basically found 2 websites of profesional speakers who focus on using humor to teach various skills and also a relevant article from 'about.com.' I found a common theme throughout each of my sources that I believe accounts for why they are good sites, and I think are also very helpful to anyone who may be fortunate enough to stumble upon them.
First, they begin like almost all sites discussing humor, by explaining many of the benefits that various researchers have found. Humor can lower blood pressure, stimulate endorphines (the bodies natural painkillers), bring people closer together, motivate employees, and many more different for each site.
What makes these sites different is that they are then quick to explain that many of these findings have limited applications outside of the research experiments, and that they do not indicate that humor is always or invariably a good thing. All of my websites took the approach of explainig that the humor research of most relevance to the workplace is discussions on sense of humor, and slowly changing your outlook on life to be more positive, less serious, more flexible, and to simply be a more emotionally pleasant person.
**All of these deal more with developing your humor apprecaition skills rather than your humor production skills.**
That sentence seems to be the best advice you can give to the corporate world in regards to humor, help people develope appreciation rather than production. There is still a risk that workers may become flippant or incapable of taking anything seriously; however, this is a problem anytime you encourage the use of humor.
Most of the sites discussed the pitfalls of the humor that takes place naturally in the workplace, and we can assume that most of this humor is produced spontaneously and not the result of a 'humor seminar' the employee's have had. In this way a 'humor teaching seminar' should not be viewed as silly or completely unnecessary since humor production is going to take place anyway, learning better ways of telling a joke and what types of jokes to tell should still be beneficial.
I'd like to provide now a brief paragraph or two of what I feel would be the best way for a company to organize a "Humor Seminar" for their employees:
First: a brief introduction explaining what humor is, what we know about it (or lack there of on many topics), and why the company is investing in this type of critical appraisal. With this employees would learn that humor is a kind of social communication tool that works by way of creating a cognitive incongruity leading to the experience of numerous pleasurable emotions such as mirth. This explanation makes it pretty obvious that humor has incredible potential for helping a company.
Second: As a tool humor can have beneficial and detrimental effects (hence the inconsistant research findings), and as a linguistic device it is symbolic and as such is very easily misunderstood or miscommunicated. I envision a type of star wars Jedi quote here, "with great power comes great responsibility." This would hit home the idea that humor must be taken very seriously.
Third: Here the company discusses how to maximize the benefits and minimize the detriments. I think this is best done by promoting humor appreciation, and showing how humor can be used to change your outlook of negative situations. With this they are promoting many of the most interesting benefits of humor, i.e. lower blood pressure, increased feelings of euphoria and mirth, decreased stress and anxiety levels, and several more small but important physical characteristics.
Fourth: With this new appreciation for appreciation the company can discuss the importance of continuing to allow employees to use humor in natural settings. If everyone has a positive and humorous outlook it is probably a natural extention that people will engage in more joking behavior. They are now prepared to deal with this however because: 1- since they have begun to encourage a more positive outlook to situations and educated their employees on what humor is and how it can be used poorly, it is probably the case that people would be less likely to engage in negative humor. but importantly 2- people ought to be better able to deal with offensive humor because they have also began changing how they look at situations, and they also would know that it is common to misunderstand humor so they would be more likely to seek clarification or correct the individual.
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I think this appraisal is a little idealistic but I had fun thinking about it and I do think it is a good and useful template.
Sources:
http://stress.about.com/od/workplacestress/a/officehumor.htm
http://www.drhumor.com/workplace/
http://www.allenklein.com/
In my previous post, I discussed Humor and Physical Health. I visited a site that talked about how humor and laughing is good for many aspects of health including both mental and physical. I also visited a cancer treatment center site that discussed laughter therapy. It wasn’t just about humor, it was about the actual physical act of laughing, and how it made patients feel better after the therapy sessions. The third thing I mentioned was the movie Patch Adams and how this movie shows how patients may benefit from humor.
I found three new websites that discuss the possibility that humor is beneficial to our physical health. However, one site turned out to be a little skeptical and brought up some good points. According to these articles, laughter is beneficial in several different ways including heart health and overall immunity. One study that was done at the University of Maryland asked subjects of the same age group to fill out a survey. One half of the subjects had heart trouble in the past and the other half hadn’t had any. According to the survey, those with heart trouble tend to laugh less, find less humor in various social situations, and tended to be more angry and hostile compared to those in the other group. Paul McGee discusses in his article that humor has a positive effect our immunity. He also discusses how cancer patients that have more of a sense of humor may be able to cope better. These are all interesting findings to me, but the Web MD article would bring up the issue of personality. Maybe people with more upbeat and humorous personalities have a better threshold to begin with in order to deal with pain, stress, or the trauma of having to deal with a chronic disease. It also discusses how laughter is a very social thing, so maybe those who have more humor in their life also have a great social support system in addition to their humorous personality. Getting back to the humor and heart health article, I think personality probably has a lot to do with those results as well. People have more of a Type-A personality may tend to be more hostile and angry people to begin, which may cause more cardiovascular problems than people who are more easy-going and happen to have a more humorous outlook on life. What I thought was interesting is that none of the articles that I’ve looked up so far mention what kind of humor is beneficial for good health. The book says that more negative types of humor like aggressive or self-defeating humor may not help at all or even make it worse.
I think that this post adds to my last post in that I found some articles that talk different parts of our health that humor can affect. With this post I’ve added heart health, and immune system health. It also adds to the previous post in that there’s a little more reality thrown into this blog from the skepticism from the Web MD article. I’d really like to believe that humor and laughing really does have an effect on our health, but there really isn’t all that much consistent and reliable evidence out there yet.
http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/laughter.htm
http://www.laughterremedy.com/article_pdfs/Boost%20Your%20Immune%20System.pdf
http://women.webmd.com/guide/give-your-body-boost-with-laughter
In week 12’s blog, I wrote about how humor and laughter benefit one’s immune system. Our text states that there needs to be more rigorous research done in regards to how humor benefits one’s immune system, because right now the findings that are making this claim tend to be poorly supported. I found three websites that supported the idea that laughter and humor benefits one’s immune system. However, there were obvious limitations to each one of the studies making these claims. By researching this topic more in depth, I found that although humor does not directly benefit a person’s immune system, humor may have indirect benefits for improving someone’s physical health.
The most agreed upon and well-supported benefit of humor is that it helps improve one’s quality of life. When a person experiences positive emotions in their daily life, that person will start to have a greater outlook on his or her quality of life. This is especially true for cancer patients. Cancer patients are usually faced with adverse circumstances where they are required to go through extremely painful medical procedures, for example, chemotherapy. Although available scientific evidence does not support the claims that laughter can cure cancer or any other disease, it has been shown to reduce stress and enhance a person’s quality of life. Similarly, scientific evidence does support the notion that humor may have physical effects because it can stimulate the circulatory system, immune system, and other systems in the body. However, these effects have been found to be indirect responses from humor and are more closely related to the improvement of one’s quality of life. Laughter aims to use the natural physiological process of laughter to help relieve physical or emotional stresses or discomfort and improve quality of life. Different ways that humor may show indirect benefits for a cancer patient’s symptoms include: improve overall attitude, reduce stress/tension, promote relaxation, improve sleep, strengthen social bonds and relationships, and produce a general sense of well-being. In the same ways that yoga can help alleviate stress through breathing, humor may do the same thing through the breathing associated with laughing. This idea would explain the indirect benefit that humor has on reducing stress and how it may be used as a defense mechanism, a key component in Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory.
Although scientific evidence does not support the idea that humor may have physical benefits on someone’s physical health, neurologists and neuroscientists have been making scientific attempts to explain the complicated process of humor and laughter and the impact it has on the brain. Our text supports the idea that in order for laughter and humor to have positive impacts on someone’s physical health, it needs to have a positive impact on a person’s mental health first. The perception of humor is dependent on certain faculties of the brain, such as attention, working memory, mental flexibility, emotional evaluation, verbal abstraction and the feeling of positive emotions. Given these involvements, theory dictates that (at least) those regions of the brain associated with these processes should be active in the perception of humor. In other words, the perception of humor requires some sort of neural network in the brain that creates a “feel good feeling” when a person laughs. Our text states that this “feel good feeling” elicited by humor is probably central to the reward system in the brain that releases increased levels of dopamine. The neurotransmitter, dopamine, being released as a result of laughter may be the reason that humor is said to increase a person’s pain tolerance. Therefore, when a person experiences positive emotion associated with humor, their overall quality of life improves and the mechanisms in the brain associated with humor release an increased amount of dopamine, which helps relieve pain. In turn, this idea further supports the notion that humor may have indirect rather than direct reactions on a person’s physical health.
The idea that humor and laughter has indirect, rather than direct benefits on a person’s physical health would explain why there are so many disparate ideas as to how humor is beneficial for someone’s health. This helps explain why so many researchers claim that humor has physical benefits for improving one’s immune system without empirical evidence that directly shows the reasons for these improvements. Although it is true that humor may help in aiding one’s immune system, it is not factual to state that humor is the direct reason for improving one’s immune system. There are many other indirect mechanisms that take place in aiding a person’s physical health. Without being able to explain the neurological mechanisms in the brain that take place as a result of humor, scientists will have a long way to go before any one is able to explain how humor benefits one’s physical or mental health.
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/MindBodyandSpirit/humor-therapy
http://www.shockmd.com/2009/01/07/were-does-humor-and-laughter-reside-in-the-brain/
http://www.hopenavigators.com/managing-matters/mind-body-matters/laughter-lightens-a-cancer-journey
In my previous blog I discussed some of the physiological health benefits of laughter. Repetitive laughter can produce similar results as repetitive workouts. For example laughing is believed to enhance positive mood, lower stress hormones, increase immune activity, and lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels similar to moderate exercise. Laughter has also been found to have a similar effect as moderate exercising on two hormones that regulate appetite. During a good belly laugh the diaphragm is exercised, contracts the abs, and works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed when done laughing. Laughing increases heart rate, breathing and oxygen use which beneficially stimulates the circulatory system.
Since laughing seems to be so beneficial to our health it’s not a surprise that laughing is becoming a therapeutic technique on its own. In this blog I would like to touch more on how the benefits of the action of laughter can be used as a therapeutic means. I have previously discussed some of the physiological benefits of laughter so now let’s examine how laughter is being used to improve health.
Humor/laughter as therapy is not a new idea. Humor has been used as medical therapy throughout history. One of the oldest documented cases is the passage in the book of proverbs in the bible that states, “A merry heart douth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth bones” (Prv 17:22). In today’s language this passage basically means that laughter is the best medicine and without it you are bound to get sick. There are many other documented uses of humor as therapy throughout history such as in the 14th century surgeon Henri de Mondeville used humor therapy to aid recovery from surgery. He wrote "Let the surgeon take care to regulate the whole regimen of the patient's life for joy and happiness, allowing his relatives and special friends to cheer him and by having someone tell him jokes." During the 16th century Martin Luther used humor therapy in his pastoral counseling of depressed people. He encouraged them to spend as much time around friends and family that could make them laugh. In the 18th century it’s documented that the German philosopher Immanuel Kant used humor to restore equilibrium while English physician William Battie used humor to treat the ill. It was in the 20th century in the 1930’s when clowns were first brought into hospitals to cheer up children who were suffering from polio. In 1972 the Gesundheit Institute was founded by U.S. Hunter “Patch” Adams. As mentioned in our book Patch Adams was an unconventional physician who used humor to interact with patients. The Gesundheit Institute was a home based free hospital which strived to bring fun, friendship and the joy of service back into health care. In 1998 the movie, “Patch Adams,” based on the real Hunter Adams was released which lead to a renewed interest in humor therapy.
Laughter therapy also called humor therapy is the use of humor to promote overall health and wellness. Today more than ever people are turning to laughter therapy for healing. Anyone can use humor or laughter therapeutically either for preventative measures or as treatment. Humor is popularly used to treat chronic illnesses or cancer. Chronic diseases have a negative effect on mood and attitude which can often make the disease worse. Humor therapy can help reduce these effects by allowing a person to feel in control of a situation. Humor therapy helps reduce the effects of feeling unhealthy, out of control, afraid or helpless which are common among cancer patients.
Humor therapy can also serve as a diversionary tactic. Humor allows for a person to forget about their worries. When you are laughing you are not thinking about your problems, illness, or related moods. When people are in a hospital they do not show a full range of emotions. A hospital setting is surrounded by illness and death which causes people to become more serious and doesn’t allow for a full range expression of emotions. Experts suggest that people laugh about 15 times in a day but in a hospital this could drop to 0. In hospitals where humor techniques are implemented such as rooms with humorous DVDs, books, and other humorous resources allows for a balanced expression of emotions. Some hospitals today provide clown therapy. “Clown rounds” involve clowns performing for patients using music, magic, and the occasional rubber chicken. Clown therapy has shown to lower patient and parent anxiety. Clown therapy also provides the benefits of laughter such as increased immune system and pain reduction. Clown therapy is also effective for the elderly many nursing homes have begun to use clown therapy.
Some ways the average person can implement humor therapy into their lives are to watch comedy videos, read humorous books, participate in funny games and tell jokes. Basically doing things that make you laugh is considered humor therapy. If you are going through a hard time in life and need your spirits lifted try to surround yourself with positive people who make you laugh. Instead of beating yourself up over a mistake or a bad decision try to find the humor in a negative situation. A trick in finding the humor in a bad situation is to over exaggerate things out of proportion. Laughter helps put a negative situation in a more positive perspective helping a person to relax and work toward a superior solution.
Laughing has the ability to improve your quality of life. As we have learned humor is a very desirable trait and has always been a positive connation. People who use humor to deal with interpersonal conflicts are perceived positively by others leading to more healthy and satisfying social relationships. It is suggested that close relationships are stress buffers that can also lead to health enhancing effects. Overall it seems as though humor therapy is beneficial in different aspects of life. It’s also easy to implement in your daily routine and best of all its less expensive then pharmaceuticals!
My previous post focused on the similarities of the physiological benefits of laughter and exercising. In this post I decided to research how benefits of laughter can be used as therapy. My previous post discussed many of the different physiological benefits laughter has on the body such as increasing immune functions, providing exercise for muscles, improving blood circulation and the reduction of stress hormones. This post digs a litter deeper into how these benefits can be achieved in a hospital setting and in daily life.
http://laughtertherapy.webs.com/humourtherapy.htm
http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/humor-therapy-topic-overview
http://www.wellness.com/blogs/SyedShahidMD/992/laughter-therapy-pursuit-of-happiness-and-long-life/syed-i-h-shahid-md
In my past couple blogs I have examined humor and memory and possible connections between the two. There are areas in our brains which respond to humorous stimuli. In a study published by stanford a robust trend was found that people were able to identify unfunny stimuli as unfunny faster than funny material as funny. This may implie that more cognitive energy is being put into processing this funny stimuli. That alone may explain why memory seems to be especially robust for humourous stimuli, simply because we process the stimuli on a deeper level, probably because we are seeking to understand the joke. But humor seems to activate brain areas that are much deeper than the cortex implying that conscious processing of humor is not the only way the brain recognizes and deals with humourous stimuli. The mesolimbic pathway was found to activate intensely during stimuli that was considered humourous. This pathway is widely thought to be a sort of reward system accessing parts of the cortex and subcortical regions in the limbic system. Areas in the amygdala and hippocampus make up part of this pathway, both have heavy influences on both long term and short term memory. The nucleus accumbens is an area in the brain that releases both seratonin and dopamine in response to certain stimuli. It is thought this area is associated with reward and memory of pleasureable stimuli. The explanation is behavioral, we associate the feeling we get when we are full of dopamine and seratonin, (its a good feeling) with the stimuli that caused the release of these transmitters. But there seems to be an active process occurring as well, seratonin seems to provide satisfaction and decreases desire for the stimuli while dopamine seems to increase desire for the stimuli. So there is a biological adaptation process occurring, seratonin levels drop if the adaptation is to get more of the stimuli and dopamine levels drop after a time to match the level of seratonin. So at first the brain is highly attracted to the stimuli or the behavior that elicits the stimuli but after more exposure the brain stops to seek the stimuli because the chemical reward diminishes.
The ventral tegmental area of the brain is the beginning of what is called the dopamegernic pathway, basically a pathway interacting with the transmitter dopamine. This part of the brain is located in the mid brain and projects into the frontal and temporal lobes of the cortex as well as into the amygdala in the limbic system. It seems that these neurons transmit select messages from the cortex to the limbic system and down the dopamegernic pathway. And possibly in the other direction as well, the neurons making up this area are much more concentrated with dopamine sensative receptors than in surrounding areas leading researchers to believe that this area does represent a pleasure pathway.
http://spnl.stanford.edu/publications/pdfs/mobbs_humor_Neuron(03).pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolimbic_pathway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pleasure_center
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventral_tegmental_area