The Psychology of Humor – Austin Fontaine
Reflecting on the events of the class throughout the semester, the one discussion that I remember the best was the one on the nature of humor. More importantly on why physical comedy is comedic at all. Some of the theories that were thrown out there were that it was made funny by way of sympathising, or possibly by years of social conditioning; another possibility is that it could be due to watching Looney Tunes too often as a child. The implications of this are very interesting, and what is implied relates directly to what origin of this humor you subscribe to. Does it show that we are inerently spiteful people who take pleasure in the pain of others? Does it show that we can be so easily trained to enjoy pain, therby baiting an entirely new discussion on the nature of military training, desensitization, and dehumanization during war times? Does it show media influences, or just a sociocultural shift? Is this any new discovery, or are there historical accounts of physical humor before electricity was invented and comedians were recorded? All of these questions are very interesting to me; I am not entirely sure why. It always seems strange how a seemingly trivial topic can be made philisophical if viewed differently. I believe that the psychology of humor is one thing that I may actaully revisit and do some research on at a later date.
Austin Fontaine on Self Diagnosis: Who Made You the Doctor?
6:31 am, 11.30.10
In the defense of the individuals, no doctor can ever know a patient as well as they can know themselves with some good, sane introspection. With that said, I completely agree; Pseudo- hypochondriasis has become a fad that everyone seems to think makes them seem more intelligent because it is something that doctors spend so long trainng to be able to do. Not only that, but they feel that they have a personal interest in figuring out what is wrong with them. Just as in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, all of us fat, spoiled americans have time to think about why our lives are not exactly perfect, but we don’t want to blame anything we have doen ourselves, so we look to our uncontrollable psychosis for a scapegoat. The soft sciences are an easy venue to BS your way through if you know a little jargon, some basic reasoning, and are talking to unqualified laymen.
Austin Fontaine on Kierkegaard
6:23 am, 11.30.10
I completely agree with that strain of thought. I admit that I do have a personal bias on the matter, but I feel like mainstream “orthodox” Christianity has become fake and, quite frankly, insulting. When you worship as you please and do what you believe you are supposed to, it cannot be said that you are not doing what God wants you to, because who are they to dictate your spiritual life or know what you should do. fear of social stigma is a restricting force. It keeps people married, prevents crimes, compels individuals towards employment, makes kids move out of their parents’ homes, and many more things. It can easily play iether a productive or harmful role. Religion is a realm in which it is more often harmful than not. Therefore individual religious experiences, such as those sugguested by existentialists, are the best in my opinion.
Austin Fontaine on Free Will and Unconscious
6:14 am, 11.30.10
Well that is fair, but you rely on it being a choice as to how we view those figures. It all depends on which qualities of the individual you were exposed to and how those were presented to you. Hitler: evil genocidal authoritarian who took advantage of a weak country to further his own means OR Hitler: concerned German citizen who sought to purge the unworthy filth from the streets of the country that the Jewish filth had tried to destroy. The same information can be shown in multiple lights, however traditionally delusional those may seem, and the way information is framed has a great impact on the way it is recieved. I do not believe that there is any actual will involved in how we interpret information. There is only the prior information we have recieved, and the basic personality foundation we have had from birth (confrontational, skeptic, accepting, ect.)
Austin Fontaine on Language and Thought
3:27 pm, 10.25.10
I completely agree with Woodsworth’s critique, but as you pointed out you cannot be too critical on an age old debate. That is a big problem with most of the theories that are studied today, they cannot be debated with the actual designer fo the theory. Any loopholes that we find will just have to go undefended even though the creator might have very well had a prethought rebutle. That is the downside of history sir, but the alternative is to not have history at all and reset with each generation… i like history better.
Austin Fontaine on Advertising: Who is in control
3:23 pm, 10.25.10
My comment would be simply this, even if you associate bing sounds with coke, that does not maek you like coke. However, if you do already like coke, then there is a good probability that it will have an effect of making you want to buy coke. This however would most likely be caught and outrage thosands of individuals who woudl then feel manipulated and would boycot coke and the company woudl loose millions of dollars. That is an inherent safeguard against such a thing, but I believe it should be fair game if they care to try. No guts no glory, but those with too much guts often end up with some on the floor.
Austin Fontaine on Who Cares
3:18 pm, 10.25.10
I do nto believe that there is any inherent problem with tests such as the one with Littel Albert iether, but that is under certain conditions, such as any resulting psychological issues must be resolved or compensated for by the institution conducting the experiment. For example, any induced phobias must be reversed. However, many would argue that all the mental capacities of a child being devoted to learning and unlearning a phobia would be much better spent exploring and developing other areas, and while they do have a point, it mus be asked that how much better off would a child be who’s parents woudl volunteer them for such a study in the first place. After all, it is the primary care giver who will be raising the child and who would have to authorize their participation in such a study.
Austin Fontaine on Reinforcement and social learning
3:40 pm, 10.11.10
Another way to look at the existence of a reinforcement woudl be that the exposure to a new stimuli or situation is confusing, uncomfortabel or even outright distressing. The reinforcement of mimicry then, is that there is no longer a responsibility placed on you persoanlly to do the right thing. Social learning is actually a defense mechanism against unknows in order to relieve a percieved strain.
Austin Fontaine on Perceptual Gestalten
3:36 pm, 10.11.10
You already stated that you overanylize things when you look at them; just think about how much analysis would be necessary to go into looking at a piece fo rope tangled on the ground without the law of god continuation. You woudl percieve each and every section fo the rope as an individual strand up until an overlap occured. Then think of how you would have to justifu each piece iether growing or shrinking as you shifted the angle you were lookign at the rope from. The cognitive overload would have your head reeling before you could even figure out you were better off ignorign the stupid rope alltogether.
Austin Fontaine on Bad Habits
3:22 pm, 10.11.10
Well, the first step to recovery is admittance, so behavioral shifts are no tthe abslute first priority. However, as far as James’ theory simply being common sense, you have to realize that something such as an addiction is blinding. This blinding effect requires an outside party to bring to light many things that had simply been going unnoticed, or had purposefully been ignored. These common sense steps work wonders for an initial revelatory bost that jumpstarts progress and removes the defensive stance that many might otherwise take toward treatment.
Austin Fontaine on The Metaphysical Questions Raised by Phineas Gage
1:55 pm, 10.04.10
I coudl be wrong about this, but I believe they have actually found the portion of the brain that controls religiosity and religion based drives, and without that protion of the brain functioning, people stop seeking a higher purpose. That raises an entirely new dillema.