The Psychology of Humor An Integrative Approach

We all know what it is like to experience humor. Someone tells a joke, related an amusing personal anecdote, makes a witty comment or an inadvertent slip of the tongue, and we are suddenly struck by how funny it is. Depending on how amusing we perceive the stimulus to be, it might cause us to smile, to chuckle, or to burst out in peals of convulsive laughter. Our response as accompanied by pleasant feelings of emotional well-being and mirth. Most of us have this sort of experience many times during the course of a typical day.

Because humor is so familiar and is such an enjoyable and playful activity, many people might think they already understand it and do not need research in psychology to explain it. However, the empirical study of humor holds many interesting surprises. Although it is essentially a type of mental play involving a lighthearted, social, emotional, and cognitive functions, making it is a fascinating and rewarding topic of scientific investigation.