IRC-Galleria

[intermzzoa edelleen. pitää pitää draivi päällä tai käy tekemään tupakkaa enemmän mieli]

"Understanding the nature of humor is a
problem for psychology. Humor, comedy, and laughter are important and engaging
aspects of behavior. Consequently, they have received attention from many perspectives
and approaches. The amount and diversity of relevant information should have
made this book impossible to write. The material for a work on humor is widely scattered,
both in space and time. Even if the focus is on psychology, all the other areas
touching humor need to be examined. Not only empirical research, but rational and
literary thought must be included. Rod Martin has not only brought this material
together but turned it into an easy read. To borrow a simile from James Agee, it must
have been like "putting socks on an octopus.

Peter Derks
Professor Emeritus
College of William and Mary"

""

"Humor is a ubiquitous human activity that
occurs in all types of social interaction. Most of us laugh at something funny many
times during the course of a typical day. Although it is a form of play, humor serves
a number of "serious" social, cognitive, and emotional functions. Fascinating questions
about humor and laughter touch on every area of psychology. Surprisingly,
however, despite its obvious importance in human behavior, humor and related topics
like laughter, irony, and mirth are hardly ever mentioned in psychology texts and other
scholarly books. Although there is a sizable and continually expanding research literature
on this subject, most psychologists seem to have little systematic knowledge
of it.

--

We all know what it is like to experience
humor. Someone tells a joke, relates an amusing personal anecdote, makes a witty
comment or an inadvertent slip of the tongue, and we are suddenly struck by how
funny it is. Depending on how amusing we perceive the stimulus to be, it might cause
us to smile, to chuckle, or to burst out in peals of convulsive laughter. Our response
is accompanied by pleasant feelings of emotional well-being and mirth. Most of us
have this sort of experience many times during the course of a typical day.

Because humor is so familiar and is such an enjoyable and playful activity, many
people might think they already understand it and do not need research in psychology
to explain it. However, the empirical study of humor holds many interesting surprises.
Although it is essentially a type of mental play involving a lighthearted,
nonserious attitude toward ideas and events, humor serves a number of "serious"
social, emotional, and cognitive functions, making it a fascinating and rewarding topic
of scientific investigation.

The topic of humor raises a host of intriguing questions of relevance to all areas
of psychology. What are the mental processes involved in "getting a joke" or perceiving
something to be funny? How is humor processed in the brain, and what effect
does it have on our bodies? What is laughter and why do we laugh in response to
humorous things? Why is humor so enjoyable? What role does humor play in our
interactions with other people? What is a sense of humor and how does it develop in
children? Is a good sense of humor beneficial for mental and physical health?

As is evident from these and other related questions, humor touches on all
branches of academic psychology (R. A. Martin, 2000). Researchers in the area of
cognitive psychology may be interested in the mental processes involved in the perception,
comprehension, appreciation, and creation of humor. The interpersonal
functions of humor in dyadic interactions and group dynamics are of relevance to
social psychology. Developmental psychologists may focus on the way humor and
laughter develop from infancy into childhood and throughout the lifespan. Personality
researchers might examine individual differences in sense of humor and their relation
to other traits and behaviors. Biological psychology can shed light on the
physiological bases of laughter and the brain regions underlying the comprehension
and appreciation of humor. The role of humor in mental and physical health, as well
as its potential applications in psychotherapy, education, and the workplace, are of
interest to applied branches of psychology such as clinical, health, educational, and
industrial-organizational psychology. Thus, researchers from every branch of the discipline
have potentially interesting contributions to make to the study of humor.
Indeed, a complete understanding of the psychology of humor requires an integration
of findings from all these areas.

Despite the obvious importance of humor in many different areas of human experience
and its relevance to all branches of psychology, mainstream psychology has paid
surprisingly little attention to this subject up to now. Humor research typically
receives scant mention, if any at all, in undergraduate psychology texts or scholarly
books. Nonetheless, there has been a steady accumulation of research on the topic
over the years, producing a sizable body of knowledge. The overall aim of this
book is therefore to introduce students and academics in psychology, as well as
scholars and professional practitioners from other fields, to the existing research literature,
and to point out interesting avenues for further study in this fascinating topic
area.

The Psychology Of Humor An Integrative Approach
Rod Martin"

""

siitä se lähtee

luen itseni humoristiksi

miä meiltä moi