It’s a Funny Thing, Humor

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
John Morreall
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Humor ◽  
Human Behaviors ◽  
Aggressive Play ◽  
Signal Understanding

Abstract This article reflects on the oddness of humor and laughter as human behaviors. It argues against classifying humorous amusement as an emotion by contrasting amusement with standard emotions. It then examines amusement as a kind of pleasure, specifically, the enjoyment of psychological shifts. It argues that humor evolved from mock-aggressive play in pre-human apes, with laughter serving as a play signal. Understanding humor as play not only helps explain laughter but also clarifies issues in the ethics of humor, such as the wrongness of racist and sexist jokes, and the question of whether a sense of humor is a virtue.

Will Adult Disapproval of Cartoon Violence Lower Children's Aggressive Play?

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla Miranda ◽  
Nicholas J. McCluskey ◽  
Benjamin J. Silber ◽  
Bernadette P. Malqued ◽  
Charlene K. Bainum
Keyword(s):  
Aggressive Play

Effect of Adult Disapproval of Cartoon Violence on Children's Aggressive Play

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
Priscilla Miranda ◽  
Nicholas McCluskey ◽  
Benjamin J. Silber ◽  
Christian M. D. von Pohle ◽  
Charlene K. Bainum
Keyword(s):  
Aggressive Play

Explanation and Understanding in Animal Narratives

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Herman
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Human Behaviors ◽  
Discourse Practices ◽  
Strategic Oscillation ◽  
Experimental Narrative ◽  
The Way

With chapter 6 having described the way norms for mental-state ascriptions operate in a top-down manner in discourse domains, chapter 7 explores how individual narratives can in turn have a bottom-up impact on the ascriptive norms circulating within particular domains. To this end, the chapter discusses how Thalia Field’s 2010 experimental narrative Bird Lovers, Backyard employs a strategic oscillation between two nomenclatures that can be used to profile nonhuman as well as human behaviors: (1) the register of action, which characterizes behavior in terms of motivations, goals, and projects; and (2) the register of events, which characterizes behavior in terms of caused movements that have duration in time and direction in space. In braiding together these two registers, Field’s text suggests not only how discourse practices can be repatterned, but also how such repatterning enables broader paradigm shifts—in this case shifts in ways of understanding cross-species encounters and entanglements.

Meeting the Needs of Rural Teachers of Visually Impaired Students

1987 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 204-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Bina
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Rural Teachers ◽  
Sense Of Humor ◽  
Itinerant Teachers ◽  
Teacher Training Programs ◽  
Visually Impaired Students

A survey of itinerant teachers in Texas found that, despite the numerous shortcomings of the job, the respondents believed there were many advantages. The respondents further identified the much needed ability to adjust to change, to put things in perspective, to modify their expectations, and to exercise a healthy sense of humor. This article details these shortcomings and advantages, suggests strategies for overcoming obstacles, and discusses the implications of the findings for administrators of schools and personnel of teacher-training programs.

scholarly journals Incorporating human behaviors into theories of urban community assembly and species coexistence

Oikos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan L. Avolio ◽  
Christopher Swan ◽  
Diane E. Pataki ◽  
G. Darrel Jenerette
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Urban Community ◽  
Human Behaviors

scholarly journals Attentional focus modulates automatic finger-tapping movements

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xilei Zhang ◽  
Xingxun Jiang ◽  
Xiangyong Yuan ◽  
Wenming Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Pose Estimation ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Finger Tapping ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Human Behaviors ◽  
Attention System ◽  
Innate Capacity ◽  
Empirical Foundation

AbstractThe majority of human behaviors are composed of automatic movements (e.g., walking or finger-tapping) which are learned during nurturing and can be performed simultaneously without interfering with other tasks. One critical and yet to be examined assumption is that the attention system has the innate capacity to modulate automatic movements. The present study tests this assumption. Setting no deliberate goals for movement, we required sixteen participants to perform personalized and well-practiced finger-tapping movements in three experiments while focusing their attention on either different component fingers or away from movements. Using cutting-edge pose estimation techniques to quantify tapping trajectory, we showed that attention to movement can disrupt movement automaticity, as indicated by decreased inter-finger and inter-trial temporal coherence; facilitate the attended and inhibit the unattended movements in terms of tapping amplitude; and re-organize the action sequence into distinctive patterns according to the focus of attention. These findings demonstrate compelling evidence that attention can modulate automatic movements and provide an empirical foundation for theories based on such modulation in controlling human behavior.

scholarly journals Identifying and prioritizing human behaviors that benefit biodiversity

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Selinske ◽  
Georgia E. Garrard ◽  
Emily A. Gregg ◽  
Alexander M. Kusmanoff ◽  
Lindall R. Kidd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Behaviors
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