Humor And Its Relationship With Positive Life Outcomes

The article goes on to say that, a lot of jokes do not translate very well, and sometimes, they do not translate at all, mainly due to the differences in social structure and cultural norms; what may be considered funny in one culture, may not be in another.” (Psychology Today, 2012)

Norman Cousins said, “Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions" (Moss 1). Humor is studied by many researchers in sociology, psychology, art, literature, and medicine. When people wonder whether humor aids in areas other than health, a treasure trove of possible benefits to the learning or educational community is opened up. Humor can be used as a tool to promote learning.Research speaks to the many benefits of humor in healing, to its benefits in the classroom or boardroom, from reducing stress of students or employees, to boosting self-esteem and feelings of camaraderie. Additionally, studies show that those who use humor to convey a message are often more favorably perceived. Humor helps deliver the presenter's message to

“Humour is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.” The term Humour has been derived from the Greek language, which teaches that humour is the balance of fluids in the human body. Humour is savoured by different taste-buds like: Anecdotal, Blue, Dark/Gallows/Morbid, Epigrammatic, Hyperbolic, Ironic, Satirical, Satirical, Situational and Slapstick. Franz Kafka, the author of the outright existential classic ‘The Metamorphosis’ uses depressing humour to deal with the bitter deathly truths of life.

People always say that laughter alleviates tension. If this is the case, then it makes sense that the use of humor when discussing uncomfortable topics can make the conversation easier and more light-hearted. One of Mark Twain’s most frequently used devices in works such as “Advice to Youth”, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness”, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is satire, which can provide society a method to bond over uncomfortable topics, and facilitate the ability to sustain that bond through an easier way to create discussion.

Humor’s foundations are made up of seeds of truth, from which comedy and laughter can grow from. Within these seeds different types of issues are found that cast a wide array of topics in which are discussed or given question to by humorists. As the evolution of humor continues to grow it can be seen that it will continue down a darker road, as history has

Humor is viewed by some people as an important part of life. Most people enjoy amusement, and some turn to humorists as a source for that amusement. Some further view humorists as holding an important position in society because society allows humorists to say things that others can and will not say. Due to their unique position in society, humorists serve a role that is certainly unique and can be important, but not vital. Furthermore, humor can very well have a dangerous side, whether intentional or unintentional, so humorists should try to be careful with their powerful position.

Humor is our way of expressing our opinions and thoughts, in a way that lets us see the gravity of the situation but in a less complex, serious tone. In the book Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton, believes that Humor is vital to Society, due to it allowing “humorist to say things that other people cannot or will not say”. Button is right in believing that Humor is vital to society. It allows for other people to feel more comfortable expressing their own opinions without it turning into a serious discussion. Humor as found itself in political cartoons, Stand-up comedy like comedian Gabriel Iglesias, and TV shows like Saturday Night Live.

Humor and entertainment can be found in everyday life. It’s crucial to our lifestyles. In fact, many doctors have found that humor and entertainment is part of keeping ourselves healthy. It can be found if we are controlled by the government or if we are self-reliant. Being self-reliant is appropriate in most cases. You have to vote, you have to manage your own money and you have to make sure you are healthy. These are all examples of the appropriate time to be self-reliant.

While some may argue that humorists may serve a pointless purpose in the community, it is apparent they play a factor in the world. Humorists consist of cartoonists, stand-up comics, satirical writers, and hosts of television programs, all of which are actual jobs. Stating they just make people laugh discourages their self-esteem, ultimately affecting society because they are influentially deprived. Thereby, humorists should not be viewed as incompetent because they speak openly for a multitude of people, and impact them in solicitous

In a study conducted by Kuiper & Harris (2009), the extent to which humor styles can predict different components of physical health was examined. A sample of 105 undergraduate students within the age range of 17-34 years was selected for the study. The different components of physical health included physical symptoms, attitudes about physical health issues, and coping strategies for dealing with a variety of common physical health ailments and complaints. Adaptive and maladaptive humor styles were expected to show differential relationships with the components of physical health. It was found that humor styles were unrelated to the number of physical symptoms experienced by the participants. The results also showed that higher levels of adaptive

The present study uses humor as an emotion-regulation and tries to determine whether different types of humor have different effects on negative emotion. Another major issue with this research is that author fails to acknowledge the other aspects of emotion as a variable. The author is only interested in different types of humor and it effects on those emotions, which are perceived negative. However emotion as a variable is not only limited to negative aspects but it may also include other aspects (e.g.,

There are some studies which show biological role of coping humor in health status. In one such study conducted by Lai et al. (2010), coping humor was found to exert effects on health. Coping humor was found to have a significant effect on the overall cortisol level in the awakening period of participants. Participants scoring high on coping humor exhibited lower levels of cortisol in the awakening period as compared to those scoring low on coping humor. The loss of hormone, cortisol, has been found to result in progressive decline in the ability to fight with diseases. Therefore, these findings suggest coping humor to have significant effects on

Humor affects how people relate to one another. As “much humor draws on the sophisticated use of grammar and lexicon, as well as culture-specific references, genres, and discourse patterns,” (Shively 1), it is considered the height of knowledge of the language to understand its humor. Humor is a type of ludic language play, or using words for one’s own enjoyment or amusement.

Most often as people age, life happens, and their social world changes; therefore, so do their sources for humor. Thankfully researchers observed that less humor led to a less enjoyable life. One particular study of “laughter therapy” done by Kuru and Kublay showed positive outcomes in nursing home residents. The National Cancer Institute defines laughter therapy as one that “uses humor to relieve pain and improve well-being. It may include laughter exercises, clowns, and comedy movies, books, games, and puzzles.” Kuru and Kublay concluded that “[a]fter the laughter therapy intervention, general and subscales (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and spiritual health) quality-of-life scores of residents in the experimental group significantly increased in comparison with the pretest.” If nothing else, this conclusion should motivate nursing home administrators to incorporate some type of laughter or humor therapy into the daily schedule of their

My top humor style is self-enhancing. According to the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin et al. 2003) I am 5.2 points away from the women’s average, that is a 36.8 for this style. According to an article that I found, Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire, people with self-enhancing humor style have a humorous outlook on life and tend to be amused by its incongruities. Even when a person that has this style is faced with stress and adversities, they still maintain a humorous outlook (Kuiper, Martin, & Olinger, 1993).