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Psychology

Western University

Theses/Dissertations

2014

Humor

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The Integration And Evaluation Of Humor And Positive Psychology Approaches To Well-Being, Nadia Maiolino Jun 2014

The Integration And Evaluation Of Humor And Positive Psychology Approaches To Well-Being, Nadia Maiolino

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The research domains of humor and positive psychology promote strategies that can enhance well-being. However, these lines of investigation have proceeded in relative isolation. Therefore, this thesis considered how positive psychology constructs, namely, gratitude and savoring, share features with the humor styles. Study 1 mapped out the inter-relationships among these strategies, as differentially used by individuals. Findings indicated that these strategies share meaningful relationships, and that humor and positive psychology have unique roles within the context of well-being. The humor styles also moderated relationships gratitude shared with well-being. Study 2 extended this work by manipulating use of positive psychology and …


Punchline Predictability, Comprehension Speed, And Joke Funniness: Investigating Incongruity Theories Of Humour, Robert J. Fearman Apr 2014

Punchline Predictability, Comprehension Speed, And Joke Funniness: Investigating Incongruity Theories Of Humour, Robert J. Fearman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Surprise is an important element of many cognitive theories of humour (e.g., Suls, 1972): the less predictable the punchline, the funnier a joke is expected to be. Many theories also predict a curvilinear relationship between speed of joke comprehension and funniness: jokes that are too easy or too difficult should be less funny than those that require an intermediate amount of processing. This study was designed to investigate these two assumptions of past theories. Undergraduate psychology students (N = 183) participated online and completed two tasks. The Joke Completion Task required the participants to read the joke stem of …