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Humor: Benefits
Need something to cheer you up or serve as a study break? This guide will give you a laugh! It's also good for any research you're doing that involves humor.
This article from Current Directions in Psychological Science examines research evidence for the popular idea that humor and laughter have beneficial effects on physical health. Overall, the evidence for health benefits of humor and laughter is less conclusive than commonly believed.
This essay from Mental Health, Religion & Culture explores the relationship between humour, religion, and wellbeing. It surveys some historical and contemporary psychological approaches to humour, and examines the empirical findings on the relationship between humour and health. Finally, it argues that aspects of both humour and religion are associated with transcendence, and that this maybe a helpful a conceptual bridge linking the two.
from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Proponents of laughter-based therapies cite research demonstrating the medical value of mirth, although more sober-minded investigators warn that such claims may be exaggerated. Still, these programs confer benefits that, though less tangible, may be just as real.
This article from Rehabilitation Nursing describes a study of patients in a rehabilitation hospital regarding their perception of laughter and its effect on their mood, their opinion of nurses who laugh with patients, and the appropriateness of laughter in this setting. The results of this survey support laughter as a therapeutic intervention that nurses can use in helping patients and families through the process of rehabilitation.
