Mothers of children with special needs have various difficulties, mostly as direct caregivers of the child. The level of coping with these difficulties is also related to the psychological resilience of mothers. Although there are many coping mechanisms to protect the psychological resilience of people, humor is one of them. For this purpose, it…

In recent years, several investigations of the medical clowning profession have appeared in the literature. However, few studies have focused on factors associated with turnover among medical clowns early in their careers. The current study examined whether individual differences in humor disposition predicted turnover behavior. Participants were…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore what contributes to egalitarian teams and facilitates for team learning in professional service teams. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study, including 41 in-depth interviews (n = 18) of professional service team members and managers in one of Nordics largest professional service…

In addition to the undergraduate programs provided by faculties of education, in Turkey, Pedagogical Formation Education Certificate Programs are also provided by these faculties. Graduates of such programs are positioned as teachers in Turkey, the same as the graduates of faculties of education. Individual differences of teachers are of great…

This study investigates the role of character strengths in peer relationships among early adolescents. A sample of students (N = 339; [X bar] age = 12.84 years, 53.1% female) nominated friends in the classroom and completed assessments of character strengths, the desirability and importance of character strengths in a friend, and friendship…

Humor and language play have been recognized as important aspects of second language (L2) development. Qualitative studies that have documented the forms and functions of language play for adult and child L2 users have taken place largely in classroom settings. In order to gain a fuller understanding of such creative manipulations by L2 users, it…

The business case for diversity--the practice of connecting human differences to an organization's bottom line--has been critiqued for its compromised treatment of human difference. Through a grounded in action discursive analysis of 19 interviews with diversity consultants, this research identifies three occupational demands that prompted…

The primary goal of this project is to provide a summary of extant research regarding humor in the classroom, with an emphasis on identifying and explaining inconsistencies in research findings and offering new directions for future studies in this area. First, the definitions, functions, and main theories of humor are reviewed. Next, the paper…

We all come to the human family--and our schools--with different kinds of intellectual baggage and different kinds of lingo to describe it. "Underprivileged" to one becomes "over-exploited" to another; the same goes for "multiculturalism" versus "ethnocentrism." We all must learn to share perceptions honestly and respect these differences. (MLH)

Understanding how laughter communicates helps to explain how individuals respond to laughter in intercultural situations. There are three manifestations of laughter: reflex responses to particular physical stimuli; automatic reactions to informative stimuli that can be intentionally controlled; and symbols encoded with semantic meanings…

Previous research has suggested that behavioral differences between shy and not shy persons may be explained by differences in inhibition rather than differences in interpersonal skills. To investigate the behavior of high and low social anxiety subjects in both ambiguous social situations and in explicitly structured ones, three studies using…

Studied the relationship between depression and humor in 85 college students who took the Beck Depression Inventory and then rated 10 cartoons. Results showed no difference between mildly depressed and nondepressed subjects. However, some trends were noted on a mood scale related to immediate feelings and humor preference. (Author/JAC)

A middle-school teacher humorously observes seven other intelligences of students: random thinking; virtual memory void (erasing entire sections of personal memory); antigravity (balancing on two chair legs); intravacancy (achieving perfect, effortless aplomb); inter-Origami (intricate note-folding); stealth-kinesthetic (peashooting spitballs…

A study was undertaken to determine which types of verbal humor are preferred by children and to discover how well adults can predict what children will perceive as humorous. Fifteen adults (education students, parents, and teachers) were asked to rate 25 jokes on a four point scale ranging from not funny at all and not very funny to kind of funny…