Relation of Sense of Humor to Intelligence and Personality
Abstract
CHAPTER IINTRODUCTIONHumor and its consequent, laughter, are universal; indeed, man may be descriptively defined as "the risible animal." There is little agreement as to the precise nature of humor, for various definitions have been offered, most of which stress its intellectual aspects.Webster's Dietionary (25) defined humor as "a keen perception of the incongruous"; psychologically, it may be termed (24) "a complex situation which combines an element of the comic and a sympathetic appeal," For William James (10), humor was highly correlated with insight; for Allport (1) humor means practically the same thing as insight, A more elaborate explanation of humor appears in the work of Schopenhauer (18) who states that humor is caused by the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real object which has been thought through in some relation. In view of the above, it is not surprising that the relations existing between intelligence and humor if there are such, in one form or another should interest psychologists.
Subject Area
Personality psychology|Psychology
Recommended Citation
Cunningham, Anne P, "Relation of Sense of Humor to Intelligence and Personality" (1958). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28673340.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28673340
