Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1975

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Villemez, Wayne J.

Abstract

This essay develops a conceptual framework accounting for the potential of humor to enhance social cohesion. A typology of humor is advanced and the constructed types are successively related to the respective types of solidarity deriving from the incidence of humor and the cognitive mechanisms responsible for the emergent fellow-feeling . Beyond explicating the confederating influence of humor. this essay explores the effects of three structural attributes of joking relations upon the nature of the emergent solidarity; these are, the social status of the wit, the nature of the vocalized humor, and, the orientation of the auditors towards their group. The influence of these structural variables upon the cohering potential of humor is considered. In the process of formulating a conceptual scheme explicating the confederating impact of humor as well as assessing the influence of extraneous elements upon this potential the findings of previous humor research are appraised in the light of the advanced argument.

Extent

138 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1975.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT13756

Format

pdf

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