If anyone is interested - the article about humour and alcoholics is called:
"Theory of mind, humour processing and executive functioning in alcoholism."
A short summary of the research is given at the above link.
Other information if you're interested in finding the entire report yourself:
Published in the following journal
Addiction
Volume 102 Issue 2 Page 232 - February 2007
J. Uekermann, S. Channon, K. Winkel, P. Schlebusch, I. Daum (2007) Theory of mind, humour processing and executive functioning in alcoholism Addiction 102 (2), 232–240. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01656.x
Showing posts with label German research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label German research. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Of Tantamount Importance Pt 2: THE JOKE
Okay, here's the sample joke from the German study:
It was Mother's Day. Anna and her brother had told their mother to stay in bed that morning. She read her book and looked forward to breakfast. After a long wait she finally went downstairs. Anna and her brother were both eating at the table.
Choice of 4 punchlines:
a) Anna said: "Hi mum, we didn't expect you to be awake so early."
b) Anna picked up an egg and smashed it on her brother's head.
c) Her brother said: "We have a new teacher at our school."
d) Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
Okay, that's IT!
Dumb joke, eh?
Anyhow - a measure of responses to similar jokes in the study showed that less than 68 percent of recovering substance abuse users couldn't determine the correct punchline for this joke. Ninety-Two of the participants considered 'healthy' actually 'got the joke' and answered "d."
Here's how the joke should really work:
It was Mother’s Day. Anna and her brother had told their mother to stay in bed that morning. She read her book and looked forward to breakfast. After a long wait she finally went downstairs. Anna and her brother were both eating at the table.
Punchline: d) Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
When I first saw this, it wasn't funny to me at all (still isn't!). I looked carefully at all of the punchlines, then walked away from the computer for a minute to think...
Actually - I walked away because NONE OF THE PUNCHLINES MADE ANY SENSE TO ME AT ALL!!
While away for about 2 minutes, I forgot that Anna was the sister, NOT the mother (memory glitch), and I CAME BACK TO CHECK THE TEXT AGAIN. actually - I must say that I feel pretty dumb explaining this, but I think I should 'cos it seems highly likely that others in recovery have similar problems. Maybe if I 'tell' on myself - that I have SUCH TROUBLE in this area - others who also have trouble will feel less 'alone.'
After I checked the text, I thought about 'b' - Anna smashing the egg on her brother's head. I took a moment to imagine this and actually though that THIS WAS FUNNY TO ME, some physical humour - and that some kids I know would find this hilarious - but I remembered that I have a pretty low 'maturity' level at times and that probably ONLY kids (or male teens lol) would find this funny. I had to reason that the joke was told to 'healthy' adults and recovering adult addicts and that this would not be the right punchline.
After all of THAT - I thought about Anna's brother's TEACHER and was INSTANTLY SIDETRACKED (again) wondering what the teacher would think of Anna smashing an egg on the head of her brother. I reasoned that the teacher would probably think Anna's brother, along with Anna - was from a WILD HOME where the mother let the kids smash eggs on each others' heads........then I thought (seriously!) "OMG Anna's MOTHER is who this joke is about!!" I made a mental note (seriously) that sometimes teachers 'ASSUME THINGS' about parents that aren't true of the parents - when the kids show up at school and talk about their siblings... I thought of all these things before turning my attention BACK TO THE SITUATION OF THE JOKE.
Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
About this statement, I thought it was totally 'un-funny,' but I thought that a kid (Anna) who would look after her little brother...then I got SIDETRACKED AGAIN, realizing that I only ASSUMED that Anna was the older sibling - without having been given any kind of information about the childrens' ages in the joke! Still, I resolved NOT TO LOOK AT THE TEXT again because the punchlines were only confusing me (really, I WAS confusing ME, according to this research! lol).
Next, I thought 'who cares about the kids' ages? and I went with Anna being old enough to cook breakfast, regardless of how old she and her brother were and I decided that some kids are old enough to cook breakfast. I remembered that the joke was about Mother's Day and that a lot of kids DO NICE THINGS for their mother on Mother's Day. This didn't seem like enough of a reason to pick punchline 'd' but I was completely fed up with the joke by this point and I selected punchline 'd'.........
.............then dashed to the computer to re-read 'my final answer' whether it made sense or not.
It made enough sense - that the kids made 'their' breakfast instead of their Mother's breakfast on Mother's Day. So they were not being nice to Mom on Mother's Day in the way that Mom thought they would be.
Apparently - that is the end of the joke and that's what is funny about it - that there was a mis-communication and that the Mom was thinking like a Mom and the kids were thinking like 'kids' and the Mom didn't get any breakfast.
*shaking my head* Seriously - I worked on this joke for 5 minutes and now that I have explained, in all truth, how my 'recovery-affected' mind dealt with a very simple joke, I am going to once again take a walk and try to forget about the process that seemed to take forever!
I know I said I would post the remainder of the German study, etc., but it will have to wait for a bit.....I am going to go for a walk and try to think of a joke that is actually FUNNY.
It was Mother's Day. Anna and her brother had told their mother to stay in bed that morning. She read her book and looked forward to breakfast. After a long wait she finally went downstairs. Anna and her brother were both eating at the table.
Choice of 4 punchlines:
a) Anna said: "Hi mum, we didn't expect you to be awake so early."
b) Anna picked up an egg and smashed it on her brother's head.
c) Her brother said: "We have a new teacher at our school."
d) Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
Okay, that's IT!
Dumb joke, eh?
Anyhow - a measure of responses to similar jokes in the study showed that less than 68 percent of recovering substance abuse users couldn't determine the correct punchline for this joke. Ninety-Two of the participants considered 'healthy' actually 'got the joke' and answered "d."
Here's how the joke should really work:
It was Mother’s Day. Anna and her brother had told their mother to stay in bed that morning. She read her book and looked forward to breakfast. After a long wait she finally went downstairs. Anna and her brother were both eating at the table.
Punchline: d) Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
When I first saw this, it wasn't funny to me at all (still isn't!). I looked carefully at all of the punchlines, then walked away from the computer for a minute to think...
Actually - I walked away because NONE OF THE PUNCHLINES MADE ANY SENSE TO ME AT ALL!!
While away for about 2 minutes, I forgot that Anna was the sister, NOT the mother (memory glitch), and I CAME BACK TO CHECK THE TEXT AGAIN. actually - I must say that I feel pretty dumb explaining this, but I think I should 'cos it seems highly likely that others in recovery have similar problems. Maybe if I 'tell' on myself - that I have SUCH TROUBLE in this area - others who also have trouble will feel less 'alone.'
After I checked the text, I thought about 'b' - Anna smashing the egg on her brother's head. I took a moment to imagine this and actually though that THIS WAS FUNNY TO ME, some physical humour - and that some kids I know would find this hilarious - but I remembered that I have a pretty low 'maturity' level at times and that probably ONLY kids (or male teens lol) would find this funny. I had to reason that the joke was told to 'healthy' adults and recovering adult addicts and that this would not be the right punchline.
After all of THAT - I thought about Anna's brother's TEACHER and was INSTANTLY SIDETRACKED (again) wondering what the teacher would think of Anna smashing an egg on the head of her brother. I reasoned that the teacher would probably think Anna's brother, along with Anna - was from a WILD HOME where the mother let the kids smash eggs on each others' heads........then I thought (seriously!) "OMG Anna's MOTHER is who this joke is about!!" I made a mental note (seriously) that sometimes teachers 'ASSUME THINGS' about parents that aren't true of the parents - when the kids show up at school and talk about their siblings... I thought of all these things before turning my attention BACK TO THE SITUATION OF THE JOKE.
Anna said: "It's a surprise for Mother's Day. We cooked our own breakfast."
About this statement, I thought it was totally 'un-funny,' but I thought that a kid (Anna) who would look after her little brother...then I got SIDETRACKED AGAIN, realizing that I only ASSUMED that Anna was the older sibling - without having been given any kind of information about the childrens' ages in the joke! Still, I resolved NOT TO LOOK AT THE TEXT again because the punchlines were only confusing me (really, I WAS confusing ME, according to this research! lol).
Next, I thought 'who cares about the kids' ages? and I went with Anna being old enough to cook breakfast, regardless of how old she and her brother were and I decided that some kids are old enough to cook breakfast. I remembered that the joke was about Mother's Day and that a lot of kids DO NICE THINGS for their mother on Mother's Day. This didn't seem like enough of a reason to pick punchline 'd' but I was completely fed up with the joke by this point and I selected punchline 'd'.........
.............then dashed to the computer to re-read 'my final answer' whether it made sense or not.
It made enough sense - that the kids made 'their' breakfast instead of their Mother's breakfast on Mother's Day. So they were not being nice to Mom on Mother's Day in the way that Mom thought they would be.
Apparently - that is the end of the joke and that's what is funny about it - that there was a mis-communication and that the Mom was thinking like a Mom and the kids were thinking like 'kids' and the Mom didn't get any breakfast.
*shaking my head* Seriously - I worked on this joke for 5 minutes and now that I have explained, in all truth, how my 'recovery-affected' mind dealt with a very simple joke, I am going to once again take a walk and try to forget about the process that seemed to take forever!
I know I said I would post the remainder of the German study, etc., but it will have to wait for a bit.....I am going to go for a walk and try to think of a joke that is actually FUNNY.
Of Tantamount Importance!! (you'll never guess) Pt 1
You might not guess what one of the most important things is, when considering 'cleaning up' and maintaining clean recovery...
Nope - it's not the sponsor. A sponsor is important...but what do you do when your sponsor is temporarily unavailable...?
Nope - it's not meetings. Meetings are important...but what do you do when you're in trouble during REAL LIFE SITUATIONS and you can't dash out from a 'business engagement,' school, a family situat, road trip, etc., and run off to a meeting...?
Nope - it's not "Do the work" or "Write it out like 'The Book' says or most OTHER 12-Step-driven suggestions. All of those are important, too...but what do you do if, while you're 'working through,' or 'writing it out,' you encounter SERIOUS emotional reactions (very likely to occur, but this will help you understand YOUR ADDICTION in order to combat it)...and you're taking into consideration what you learned at your last 12-step meeting, all your sponsor's suggestions, etc., and YOU STILL FEEL like you're in trouble...?
THE ANSWER:
Go ahead and go the scientific route!
And that will lead to HUMOUR!!
HUMOUR is TOTALLY USEFUL in recovery!
Seriously!! Humour is really, really really important in recovery.
But first - we need to understand about how substance abuse actually impairs 'humour' in recovering addicts.
A respected Journal simply called, 'Addiction' recently aired a the results of a recent German study that indicated that problem drinkers can't really take a joke as well as some people.
The research subjects were 29 patients in Bochum Germany known to be in recovery because they were - well....... they were in a west-German treatment facility. The control group by which the 'recovery group' was compared were 29 people considered healthy by the researchers' standards. The 29 addicts/alcoholics and the 29 healthy people were all given the same tests.
Part of the testing involved a section where all participants read JOKES! The addicts didn't get some of the jokes, even though some of the punchlines could be realized through logic if one so choose to be 'dead serious' rather than use their propensity for humour! Still - through tools of LOGIC PLUS HUMOUR, the addict group didn't see the humour where they should, as compared with the 29 healthy people. (So - SMARTS plus Humour were lower in addicts than they were in healthy people).
There was more involved in the research other than just measuring responses to jokes. The other things measured helped to uncover WHY addicts might not 'get the jokes.'
Mood was measured
Intellectual ability was measured
Memory abilities were measured
Psychomotor skills were measured
Mentalizing ability (perception and 'other-people-awareness') was measured - aptitude for predicting and understanding other peoples' behaviors.
And, of course, 'capacity to appreciate jokes' was measured.
(Interjection.....)
I read a sample joke from the Addiction Journal article - which was used in the research. I had to read the joke TWICE...and my opinion forever is that it is a really BAD JOKE! I will offer it near the end, after I give you all of the information about the study - PLUS - it's such a total groaner that I don't want to lose readers...I definitely had to USE LOGIC instead of real 'haha-ability' in order to get the right answer, believe it or not.
My 'opinion,' believe it or not - actually SUPPORTS the findings of this study. I'm kinda P-O-ed about this, because I consider myself to have a really broad and open sense of humour! After reading the full article about the study, however, I feel kind of fortunate to have been able to get the right answer...because now I know, from a certain scientific standpoint - that there is a definite 'block' to my funny-bone, so-to-speak, and that I should work harder on seeing things differently. I know now that I may have to use logic along with open-ness to 'humour' - for the rest of my life - in order to understand jokes (humour, intricate uses of language, subtle variations of word-play, and determination of OTHER PEOPLES' behavior etc...) that come easily to healthier people.
(End of interjection...)
Back to the study...
92 percent of the 'healthier' people but LESS THAN 68 percent of the addict group were able to select the correct punchline. As I said before - the joke will follow closer to the end - if I type it in now, you'll GROAN SO BAD - if you're a recovering addict - that you may not even finish reading. Apparently, if you're a 'healthy' person, you'll appreciate and 'get' the joke but I'm worried that you will laugh so hysterically, enjoying the joke - that you'll fall over and not finish reading about the study.
*LOL* ??
The recovery/addict group also fared worse in the mood, intellect, memory, psychomotor skill and 'mentalizing' parts of the testing.
The fact that recovering addicts didn't do so well, especially in the 'mentalizing' parts of the testing, is a pretty clear reinforcement of what is known about an addict's lessened ability to 'socialize' well like more healthy people do.
Jokes occur primarily in social settings. Naturally, there are other ways to put jokes forth, such as through comics, books, forwarded emails, etc., which leave the 'reader' alone with the joke - to interpret the joke in whatever way necessary - however this research concentrated largely on the form of jokes that would occur in a social situation (where the 'receiver' of the joke might gain information from SOMEONE ELSE about how to properly receive the joke).
Because addicts did poorly in other areas tested, we can make a general assumption that addicts really DO HAVE A PROBLEM in the 'HUMOUR' area!
Okay - this post is too long already...and contains some information that recovering addicts might not like at all (I Don't Like It! I can 'appreciate it' but I am still pretty ticked off to find out that I AM ONE WHO DOES NOT INTERPRET JOKES WELL, when before, I thought I ROCKED in the 'getting jokes' area). Actually, I am going for a walk to cool off before I post the BAD JOKE - I am having a 'Drama Queen attack of Can't-Stand-It-itis' over all this! I'll include the *cough*(hiding the 'j' word) , final comments about the German study, and how this all relates to why HUMOUR IS OF TANTAMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO RECOVERING ADDICTS in the next post!
Nope - it's not the sponsor. A sponsor is important...but what do you do when your sponsor is temporarily unavailable...?
Nope - it's not meetings. Meetings are important...but what do you do when you're in trouble during REAL LIFE SITUATIONS and you can't dash out from a 'business engagement,' school, a family situat, road trip, etc., and run off to a meeting...?
Nope - it's not "Do the work" or "Write it out like 'The Book' says or most OTHER 12-Step-driven suggestions. All of those are important, too...but what do you do if, while you're 'working through,' or 'writing it out,' you encounter SERIOUS emotional reactions (very likely to occur, but this will help you understand YOUR ADDICTION in order to combat it)...and you're taking into consideration what you learned at your last 12-step meeting, all your sponsor's suggestions, etc., and YOU STILL FEEL like you're in trouble...?
THE ANSWER:
Go ahead and go the scientific route!
And that will lead to HUMOUR!!
HUMOUR is TOTALLY USEFUL in recovery!
Seriously!! Humour is really, really really important in recovery.
But first - we need to understand about how substance abuse actually impairs 'humour' in recovering addicts.
A respected Journal simply called, 'Addiction' recently aired a the results of a recent German study that indicated that problem drinkers can't really take a joke as well as some people.
The research subjects were 29 patients in Bochum Germany known to be in recovery because they were - well....... they were in a west-German treatment facility. The control group by which the 'recovery group' was compared were 29 people considered healthy by the researchers' standards. The 29 addicts/alcoholics and the 29 healthy people were all given the same tests.
Part of the testing involved a section where all participants read JOKES! The addicts didn't get some of the jokes, even though some of the punchlines could be realized through logic if one so choose to be 'dead serious' rather than use their propensity for humour! Still - through tools of LOGIC PLUS HUMOUR, the addict group didn't see the humour where they should, as compared with the 29 healthy people. (So - SMARTS plus Humour were lower in addicts than they were in healthy people).
There was more involved in the research other than just measuring responses to jokes. The other things measured helped to uncover WHY addicts might not 'get the jokes.'
Mood was measured
Intellectual ability was measured
Memory abilities were measured
Psychomotor skills were measured
Mentalizing ability (perception and 'other-people-awareness') was measured - aptitude for predicting and understanding other peoples' behaviors.
And, of course, 'capacity to appreciate jokes' was measured.
(Interjection.....)
I read a sample joke from the Addiction Journal article - which was used in the research. I had to read the joke TWICE...and my opinion forever is that it is a really BAD JOKE! I will offer it near the end, after I give you all of the information about the study - PLUS - it's such a total groaner that I don't want to lose readers...I definitely had to USE LOGIC instead of real 'haha-ability' in order to get the right answer, believe it or not.
My 'opinion,' believe it or not - actually SUPPORTS the findings of this study. I'm kinda P-O-ed about this, because I consider myself to have a really broad and open sense of humour! After reading the full article about the study, however, I feel kind of fortunate to have been able to get the right answer...because now I know, from a certain scientific standpoint - that there is a definite 'block' to my funny-bone, so-to-speak, and that I should work harder on seeing things differently. I know now that I may have to use logic along with open-ness to 'humour' - for the rest of my life - in order to understand jokes (humour, intricate uses of language, subtle variations of word-play, and determination of OTHER PEOPLES' behavior etc...) that come easily to healthier people.
(End of interjection...)
Back to the study...
92 percent of the 'healthier' people but LESS THAN 68 percent of the addict group were able to select the correct punchline. As I said before - the joke will follow closer to the end - if I type it in now, you'll GROAN SO BAD - if you're a recovering addict - that you may not even finish reading. Apparently, if you're a 'healthy' person, you'll appreciate and 'get' the joke but I'm worried that you will laugh so hysterically, enjoying the joke - that you'll fall over and not finish reading about the study.
*LOL* ??
The recovery/addict group also fared worse in the mood, intellect, memory, psychomotor skill and 'mentalizing' parts of the testing.
The fact that recovering addicts didn't do so well, especially in the 'mentalizing' parts of the testing, is a pretty clear reinforcement of what is known about an addict's lessened ability to 'socialize' well like more healthy people do.
Jokes occur primarily in social settings. Naturally, there are other ways to put jokes forth, such as through comics, books, forwarded emails, etc., which leave the 'reader' alone with the joke - to interpret the joke in whatever way necessary - however this research concentrated largely on the form of jokes that would occur in a social situation (where the 'receiver' of the joke might gain information from SOMEONE ELSE about how to properly receive the joke).
Because addicts did poorly in other areas tested, we can make a general assumption that addicts really DO HAVE A PROBLEM in the 'HUMOUR' area!
Okay - this post is too long already...and contains some information that recovering addicts might not like at all (I Don't Like It! I can 'appreciate it' but I am still pretty ticked off to find out that I AM ONE WHO DOES NOT INTERPRET JOKES WELL, when before, I thought I ROCKED in the 'getting jokes' area). Actually, I am going for a walk to cool off before I post the BAD JOKE - I am having a 'Drama Queen attack of Can't-Stand-It-itis' over all this! I'll include the *cough*(hiding the 'j' word) , final comments about the German study, and how this all relates to why HUMOUR IS OF TANTAMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO RECOVERING ADDICTS in the next post!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
