Though previous research has established a strong link between resilience and cognitive creativity, few studies have extended this association to social creativity. The underlying mechanisms of the influence of resilience on social creativity remain unknown. Therefore, the current study introduced sense of humor and positive mood to explore the…

This study focuses on examining the importance of affectivity and humour as part of Learning by Observing and Pitching In to family and community endeavours (LOPI). Specifically, it highlights the role of laughter in the form of a spontaneous expression of a certain type of humour. This laughter is the central element for coexistence during…

Over the last decade research has reported a range of positive life and learning outcomes for adult and child choristers through first-person accounts derived through surveys and interviews. Little is known regarding parent and child perspectives on choral learning, particularly regarding the impacts of participating in excellent choirs on musical…

Becoming a professional worker involves a wide range of cognitive, social, and cultural processes that have received extensive attention over the past decades amongst various disciplines. It is also not external to language use and communication. Novices in any occupation have to learn technical terms and are expected to master specific discourse…

This paper discusses a project that used comedy workshops to explore the humour of autistic teenagers, focusing the discussion around three traits often -- and negatively -- associated with autism. The paper will then point to ways of rethinking these traits, and argue that doing so opens up a space for considering the aesthetics of comedy on the…

One crucial property of verbal jokes is that the punchline usually contains an incongruency that has to be resolved by updating the situation model representation. In the standard pragmatic model, these processes are considered to require cognitive effort. However, only few studies compared jokes to texts requiring a situation model revision…

Over the past decade, there has been considerable attention given to college students' experience of pressure to pursue perfection through hyper-achievement and the psychological and emotional toll this process takes on them. The popular press has highlighted this phenomenon and raised specific questions about some of the related consequences like…

Inconsistencies within the literature result in teachers not having sufficient guidance to develop their humour use in support of learning without risking their professionalism. This article argues for more comprehensive evidence to guide teachers' use of humour, based on mixed methodological approaches. The case is also made for the Interpersonal…

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of various constraints on the processing of jokes. Participants read humorous jokes and nonhumorous alternatives of the jokes, which were presented in 3 conditions that manipulated discourse context (comedy, political, and control). In Experiment 1, participants rated the funniness of texts and…

Presents a taxonomy of jokes and wit as a useful, descriptive tool. Argues that humor processing may occur in a parallel rather than serial fashion by contrasting a serial-processing, incongruity-resolution model with an alternative dual-processing model. Also presents a taxonomy of the social functions of wit. (JK)

Humor cannot solve every problem facing school administrators, but it can reduce the psychological gap between boss and staff, create camaraderie, increase problem-solving abilities, and help people cope. Administrators can look for humor, find a model, develop perspective, get support, revamp the office environment, start a "funny" file, swap…

The Toulmin model of argument was introduced in 1958 by British philosopher Stephen Toulmin in "The Uses of Argument" and adapted by compositionists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Consisting of six parts--claim, support, warrant, backing, rebuttal, and qualifiers--the model provides a means for composition students "to describe the process by…

Presents a tongue-in-cheek system for classifying educational administrators into four categories (Artful Dodger, Commander in Chief, Leader of the Pack, and Facilitating Master) according to leadership style and administrator characteristics. A brief sampler survey is included. (JAC)

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to determine what successful managers do to create healthy work environments in a healthcare organization. Managers using exemplary behaviors were selected and interviewed based on employee satisfaction surveys, and focus groups were conducted with employees who worked for them. Effective…