The wit: a personality analysis

Fifty-eight undergraduate psychology students were group tested on 12 variables thought to be related to the successful prediction of wit. In addition to a score on wit, scores on creativity, verbal fluency, need for play, need for impulsivity, self-confidence, dominance, exhibition, change, autonomy, personal adjustment, authoritarianism, and sex group were obtained. The results were analyzed in a stepwise multiple regression analysis. A significant Pearson product-moment correlation was obtained between wit and creativity (p < .01) and between wit and personal adjustment (p < .05). The multiple regression analysis indicated that creativity was the best single significant predictor of wit. Personal adjustment, in combination with creativity, provided the next highest significant contribution. The results are discussed and suggestions for further research are posited.     

Retaliatory equity as a factor in humor appreciation

Squelches depicting a protagonist who is provoked and who then retaliates against his provoker were manipulated to effect a variation in the degree of retaliation achieved: extreme underretaliation, underretaliation, fair retaliation, overretaliation, and extreme overretaliation. It was proposed that retaliatory equity, i.e., a situation in which the negative consequences inflicted upon the provoker by the retaliator are of a similar magnitude to the negative consequences initially inflicted upon the retaliator, constitutes an optimal condition for mirth, and that both types of retaliatory inequity, under- and overretaliation, impair humor appreciation in proportion to the magnitude of the resultant inequity. The findings fully supported these propositions.     

Satanism as a response to abuse: the dynamics and treatment of satanic involvement in male youths.

Male youths from abusive family environments may be particularly vulnerable to recruitment into satanic cults. Families that are abusive, devalue or invalidate the abused child's feelings, blame the child for the family's problems, and view the world in rigidly moralistic terms create environments in which the youths are likely to identify with the aggressor and label themselves as evil. These youths, who may have poor social skills and feelings of anger, low self-esteem, self-blame, depression, powerlessness, and isolation as a result of the abuse, may use satanic involvement as a means of legitimizing their experience and differentiating from a negatively enmeshed and/or abusive family system. In this paper, the etiological factors and treatment approaches of ten hospitalized boys who had voluntarily involved themselves in repeated group satanic activities during their adolescence are described, and two case illustrations are given. Recommendations for understanding and treating such cases are provided.     

Identity and oppression: differential responses to an in-between status

Oppression operates at various levels, with varying degrees of negativity, and groups respond in markedly different ways. In this paper, the in-between status of the colored South African group is used to illustrate issues of identity and oppression under the Apartheid system—and differing ways in which oppression was experienced and used. The colored group had many social advantages over Blacks, but were also used to oppress that group. Habituation, accommodation, and relative advantage were identified as dynamics within the broader context of power and privilege that contributed to cultural and psychological marginality and status ambivalence of the coloreds. These processes must be understood within the historical, social, and political context of the community. What is evident from the data is that groups and individuals can take up various positions along a continuum of oppressor—oppressed, depending upon the contexts, time, and social and legal relationships involved in their interactions.     

Psychoanalysis as a science: a response to the new challenges

Few theoretical issues in psychoanalysis have been more constantly argued than the status of our discipline as a science. For long the attack has been from the logical positivists and the extensions of their argument by Karl Popper. Over recent decades the debate about the place of our metapsychology has intensified the concerns about our scientific status. In this paper I respond briefly to the logical positivist, the Popperian, and the information-processing systems theory arguments and then develop at greater length a response to the two current, most widespread philosophy-of-science assaults upon our credibility as science, that of the hermeneuticists (Ricoeur, Habermas, Gadamer, and others), and the newest, that of the philosopher, Adolf Grünbaum.     

Contextual connections to puns in fables: perceived humor

Adding material that provided an associative connection to a pun enhances perceived humor, as shown in a previous series of studies. Because those results had been based on one-sentence statements that may have relied, in part, on brevity for humor, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate reactions to context and puns (mostly spoonerisms) with more lengthy material to add generality to those findings. Three within-subject studies were conducted in which short fables were manipulated systematically such that the final sentence was or was not a pun and contextual information pertaining to both meanings of the pun was or was not present in the body of the stories. Results showed that the pun itself was a powerful contributor to perceived humor and cleverness and that contextual information amplified those perceptions. Arousal, surprise, and detection of appropriate incongruity are discussed.     

Intervening during crises of life transitions: Promoting a sense of humor as a stress moderator

The numerous crisis situations associated with life cycle transitions present the mental health professional with numerous intervention opportunities. Since a good sense of humor can assist in the mediation of stress, a crisis intervention technique designed to enrich a person's appreciation of humor during and after life cycle transitions has therapeutic merit. Toward this goal, the author has designed an imagery technique which permits the enhancement of a person's sense of humor. Guiding clients towards the generation of humor at the imagery level has been found to be therapeutically beneficial. Methods of intervention utilizing the factors of absurdity, incongruity and exaggeration are discussed in promoting an adaptive sense of humor.     

Family reconciliation as a response to adolescent crises

Concern for adolescents who act in dangerous, life-threatening ways has heightened dramatically in recent years. Many of these adolescents appear to come from nuclear families isolated from their kinship systems. Without the mediating effects of kin, the adolescent transition can become a major crisis. Kinship systems remain cohesive when members can reconcile their beliefs about essential aspects of family functioning with the demands for adaptation during major life transitions. Reconciliation is lost when members believe that kin can no longer be trusted to insure their well-being. Kinship fragmentation ensues as family members leave the field or are excluded. Isolated nuclear families then rapidly lose the resilience to respond to life transitions without resorting to extreme, maladaptive solutions. The Systemic Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) uses the opportunity of the crisis precipitated by the adolescent's life-threatening behavior to alter family myths that have led to network fragmentation. Crisis teams mobilize and meet with kin in four-hour gatherings to foster reconciliation and kinship system reintegration.     

Humor as aggression: effects of motivation on hostility expressed in humor appreciation

In 4 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that relative to primed autonomy motivation, primed control would increase enjoyment of hostile (compared with nonhostile) humor as assessed by self-reported enjoyment and aversiveness and by nonverbal behavior. Results confirmed the hypothesis. Furthermore, initial state hostility moderated the effect such that high-hostility participants who were primed with control motivation especially enjoyed hostile humor. The 2 final studies showed that the effect was mediated by implicit aggression such that the combination of high initial state hostility and control priming led to implicit aggression, which in turn resulted in hostile humor enjoyment. Results are interpreted in terms of the effects of autonomy versus control motivation on intrapersonal self-regulatory processes, which influence interpersonal functioning.     

Adaptive aspirations and contributions to a public good: Generic advertising as a response to decline

Generic advertising, the promotion of an entire product or service category, is a common form of inter-firm cooperation. Voluntary participation in such a campaign represents contribution to a public good. Based on the pattern of recent campaigns, we argue that this cooperation is dependent on adaptive aspirations and an increased willingness to consider alternative courses of action in light of declining sales within an industry. Three experiments are reported that tested these ideas. In each study, subjects assigned to four person groups chose how many resources to contribute to a generic advertising campaign the effectiveness of which depended on total funding levels. Each group member represented a different “store” in the same mall. The instructions framed the problem by presenting varying sales trends for the stores—Positive, Negative, or Neutral. The first two experiments were one-shot games with a dominant strategy of non-contribution and free riding. The results showed that subjects confronting the declining trend contributed significantly more than those in either of the other two conditions. A declining sales trend also positively influenced their expectations that others would contribute as well. The third experiment demonstrated that a decline-induced equilibrium persisted over trials of a finitely repeated game with a known stopping point. Contributions remained high even in the final round. Surprisingly, the specific identification of a competitor mall as the cause of the decline in sales actually resulted in lower levels of contribution. The implications for research and practice are discussed.