Anne Tyler's rare talent for combining comedy and pathos enables her to create characters whose pain is felt by the reader or student even as that same reader is led into laughter by the ludicrous situations in which Tyler places these characters. In her last three novels, "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant,""The Accidental…

The American Indian appeared frequently in the almanac literature of 1783-1815 and was used as a source of humor, political comment, romanticism, etc, much of which contributed to the cultural conflict of the times. (JC)

A study investigated whether positive response to humor in a speech would enhance audience evaluation of the speech/speaker. A short informative speech on "listening" which included nine relevant jokes was audio tape-recorded in two versions, one in which each joke was punctuated by laughter, and one in which a stony silence greeted each…

The production and understanding of humor calls for a specific competence. It appears that second language learners fail to develop this competence even when they reach native-like proficiency levels. A review of the literature suggests that the notion of humor competence in second language learning has not been examined. Humor competence can be…

A total of 40 children in the three primary grades were studied to determine if they would donate more to a worthy cause after having been exposed to a humorous situation, in contrast to exposure to a serious one. The children who had heard a serious story about sharing donated slightly more to help Ethiopian refugees than did children who had…

Typically the humor response has been ignored as a communication tool for individuals in therapeutic settings. Counselors using various methods to focus on the client's problem areas should be aware of the potentially rich responses offered by the humor process. (Author)

The present investigation sought to obtain further evidence to show that the difference between male and female subjects is not simply a matter of persuasibility but a difference in the way objective (male) and emotional (female) information processing systems respond to audience cues. (Author)

Anthropomorphism is used in stories to develop ability to identify and escape into fantasy and humor. (JH)

The theory of a number of philosophers and psychologists, including Freud, is that humor is a biphasic sequence involving first the discovery of incongruity and then the resolution of the incongruity. Without the mechanism of resolution, we cannot distinguish humor from nonsense. The punch line of a joke is seemingly incongruous with the preceding…

Canadian adults see less humor and realism in Archie Bunker of "All in the Family" than does United States sample. (RB)

Examines the work of Kate Sanborn (1839-1917), who edited an anthology of women's humor and crusaded for 20 years to alter the stereotype of women's humorlessness. It is suggested that her work adds to our knowledge of feminist history, as well as presaging current theoretical developments in the psychology of women. (Author/ABB)

Examines audience reactions to informative public speakers' use of self-disparaging humor. Concludes that speakers using such humor may be perceived as more humorous, but also run the risk of reducing their perceived competence, having the audience associate with them less, and producing speeches that are rated as less interesting. (MM)

A sarcastic essay outlines ways in which the college faculty member can avoid carrying out committee service responsibly. (MSE)

The pilot study investigated receptive and expressive humor in students (total N=54) with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, or no handicap. Among results were that older learning disabled students were more like mildly retarded students than normal peers; and that learning disabled students had more difficulty understanding…

Discusses theories about humor as an important coping strategy among educators and students. Such observations prompted the study reported here, which investigates the relationship between humor and the principal's role, and the research implications of the relationship. Outlines the study's rationale, methodology, findings, and conclusions. (CJH)