Take a Class

Have the class develop a psychology of humor
Besides being intrinsically interesting, the nice thing about humor is that it allows you to relate theory to hypotheses. For example,
· Piaget's theory can be used to make predictions about developmental differences in humor.
· The cognitive response theory of persuasion can be used to predict that humor will increase the persuasiveness of a message if the humor distracts the audience from thinking about the holes in the message's argument
· Schachter's cognitive labeling theory might explain why students are often likely to laugh loudly at a remark made a few minutes before an exam is to be handed out.
· Opponent process theory might predict that people's moods would not be improved by exposure to humor
· Social comparison theory can explain why people might look to others to find out whether something is funny.
· Theories help us understand why people find certain things humorous--and even help us to categorize humor. For example,

1superiority theory suggests that we laugh because we feel superior to others

2 Incongruity theory suggests that we laugh when we see events as incongruous.

3 Freud's relief theory says that laughter involves a released of accumulated psychic energy.

Not only does having students generate hypotheses based on humor have the advantage of illustrating the value of theory, but it also is an easy way for students to meet what some of them will consider a daunting challenge--generating their first hypothesis. Projects may include the relationship between humor and health, humor and creativity, characteristics of people with a good sense of humor, characteristics of "class clowns", humor and persuasion, why people have poor memory for jokes, and a humor test as a disguised test of prejudice.

BE Humorous enjoy your life....