Humor

1 The Changing Concerns of Psychology.- My Personal Odyssey.- Turning Psychology to the Study of Positive Assets.- The Introduction of Humor into Research on Resilience.- 2 Experiencing Humor in Everyday Life.- An Intuitive Approach to Understanding Humor.- Can We Truly Understand the Roots of Humor?.- Conclusion.- 3 Early Conceptions of Humor in Religion, Medicine, Philosophy, and Psychology.- Conclusion.- 4 The Pervasiveness of Humor.- Is Humor Universal in the Human Species ?.- Are Humans Alone in the Use of Humor and Joking?.- Are There Universals in the Form and Content of Humor?.- Conclusion.- 5 The Many Faces of Humor: Variations in the Types and Definitions of Humor.- Freud's Contributions to the Literature on Humor.- Other Dimensions of Humor.- Cruel and Hostile Humor.- Humor.- 6 The Development of Humor: Accounting for Individual Differences.- Research with Normative Samples.- Sources of Individual Differences in Humor.- Humor as a Coping Tool among Professional Comedians.- 7 The Effects of Stress on Emotion and Health.- Illness and Stress: The Physiological Connections.- Is There a Way out of the Vicious Circle of Arousal and Deterioration?.- Humor as a Moderator of Stress.- What May We Conclude from These Data?.- 8 Humor as a Coping Strategy.- Humor as a Moderator of Stressful Experiences: An Update.- 9 Humor as a Means of Retaining Social Cohesion and Support.- Membership in Social Groups.- Social Support as a Moderator of Stressful Life Experiences.- Humor as an Enhancer of Social Belonging.- 10 Sense of Humor and Physiological Stress Responses.- Humor and Autonomic Nervous System Activity.- Humor and Immune System Activity.- Conclusions.- 11 Sex and Humor: Interactive Predictors of Health?.- Possible Sources of Sex Differences in Humor Usage.-Conclusion.- 12 Summing Up.- Appendixes.- A. The Coping Humor Scale (CHS).- Guide for Scoring of the CHS.- B. The Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ).- C. Bibliography of Research with CHS and SHRQ.- References.- Author Index.