The Core Assessment (Rod A. Martin; The Psychology of Humor and John Morreall; Comic Relief). SIX (6) page paper (not counting title and reference pages). Papers must include academic research and appropriate documentation.
The Core Assessment Paper must apply the ethical and psychological theories of humor learned in these books (Rod A. Martin; The Psychology of Humor and John Morreall; Comic Relief)in an analytical examination and interdisciplinary discussion of one or more examples of humor in the today's culture. The paper should synthesize perspectives from multiple disciplines and present an analytical viewpoint of the example(s) being used for the paper. Here are some ideas to get started.
- Identify interdisciplinary uses of humor in your professional life or future career goals, and formulate a plan for responsible and ethical applications of and responses to humor in your career setting.Consider writing about the ethical and responsible uses of humor in organizational settings. How does humor affect the workplace and power structure? How will you put the theories we have learned to use in your career? What theories of humor do you see in 'inside jokes' or cartoons in your professional journals?
- Do you work fulltime in an office? Analyze the type of humor most often observed in your workplace. What theories are evident in the jokes in your meetings or break rooms? What have we learned in Martin's book about the psychology of these behaviors? What plan do you have now for going forward?
- Do you work in a customer-contact setting, such as retail or sales? How does humor affect those interactions? Apply our theories to your experiences and discuss responsible ways to use humor in the future.
- Create and synthesize a concept for globally responsible values and attitudes toward humor in social media, Pop Culture (television and movies) or other venues that have diverse audience demographics.
- Bloom's Taxonomy in your own life?
- Aside from movies or television, where do you most often see humor used in your daily life? At work? In class? On Facebook? Share an example and identify how it violates one of Grice's Rules of Conversation
- Are there differences in the types of humor you see in one part of your daily life versus another (work compared to sports, for example)? What social elements seem to contribute to the contrasts in humor? How comfortable are the participants with each other?
- Pay attention to all the things that make you laugh in the next 24 hours. Share some examples and what theories those examples illustrate.
The Core Assessment is to be an academic paper demonstrating sophisticated, integrative and interdisciplinary learning about the theories, ethics and psychology of humor in real-world environments. Although the paper may briefly reference comedic cinema, humorous books, comedic television programs or other Pop Culture vehicles, the paper is not to be a 'movie review' or 'summary' of an entertainment vehicle.
How many references will I need to use?
- You will need at least FIVE (5)outside references, in addition to the required textbooks for this course(Rod A. Martin; The Psychology of Humor and John Morreall; Comic Relief).
- Do NOT use Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, or other non-academic sources.