Humor: Benefits and Effects on Reproduction

Ideally this paper will describe a novel study proposal and its relevant background literature. A literature review on one of our 20 questions can be acceptable if it showcases a novel idea of your own related to the question.

The Laughing Animal Psych 490—Seminar Series Spring 2021 Papers: Anytime you present your research or research ideas, the general outline will be very similar. Your papers should follow this same structure. First, present the general research question(s); Second, discuss the background literature relevant to that question; Third describe the hypotheses/predictions; Fourth describe the study; Fifth, describe the implications of the idea and study to broader questions in the field and if relevant to the real world. Thus the focus of the paper should move in an hour-glass function from broad to specific to broad again. Your papers should be at least 10 pages long, excluding the title page, abstract (120 words), and reference page (with at least 5 sources). They should be written in APA- style. An APA-style handout is included in the resource folder on Canvass. I find templates invaluable, and a much needed supplement to a page full of stylistic rules, so also in the resource folder is an example paper, written about the paper, in the proper format called “psychapa example paper.” This is not a methods class, so format is not the key thing I am looking for in these papers. Content and creativity are most important. The purpose of this assignment is to get you examining a unique idea related to or informed by laughter and humor. What you choose to write about should be related to something you found particularly compelling in this section of class. Hopefully your thought paper can help make this is clear. You may have found a social issue that you want to address more closely. Or, you may have found a gap in the literature on a particular topic that needs addressing. You may merge two different fields of study. You may read a published paper that left more 2 questions than answers, in which case any of those questions are appropriate opportunities for a paper topic to be found. Not ideal would be writing your paper on an idea that simply replicates another study with only a slight variation. Less than ideal is an idea that has already been tested in the published work (you need to search PsychInfo/Google Scholar to be sure your topic has not already been done!). Whether your idea has been studied should become evident as you search for references related to your interests. Don’t go crazy over this. It should be relatively obvious if the subject has been addressed before. If it has, don’t fret. Read through what others have done, and you will invariably dig up even more ideas and the effort will sharpen your focus. Note searching PsychInfo or Google Scholar is a great way to generate ideas and get your bearing in the research question. You may borrow methodology from others, and even the structuring of your some of your thoughts, so long the overarching idea is uniquely yours. This paper is an opportunity to be creative and propose your idea, and offer a way of testing it. Ironically, humor has much to reveal to us about how to provoke and produce creative ideas. Your thought papers will be chalk full of great thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses (even fleshed out study ideas). Dig back through them for ideas if you are struggling to come up with something. Also, remember that I am a resource outside of class too. If you are struggling, please get in touch with me, and I can help you generate a topic by asking directed questions. You will find that the hardest part of this process is generating a topic. Once that is done, the paper should unfold fairly smoothly. Also, don’t hesitate to meet with me, even if you are not struggling to come up with an idea. I absolutely love to discuss ideas and brainstorm ways to translate them into testable question