Herbert M. Lefcourt

In his earlier work the author has studied stress and the personality characteristics that protect us from its effects on health and well-being. In this new book he places humor firmly within the literatures of coping processes, the moderation of stressful experiences, and health by showing how humor can help create and encourage feelings of community, closeness, and control. Lefcourt blends empirical research with anecdotal reports in this thoughtful volume.

This monograph reflects a culmination of influences. Over a decade ago, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Carl Sordoni, had worked with one of the present authors (H.L.) to develope a dissertation concerned with humor. At that time, the literature on humor was scanty. There was much that had been written by philosophers and scholars in literature. But in psychology, especially empirical research in psychology, there was not an overwhelming literature to give substance to the belief that humor was an important element in human affairs. Memories of that dissertation are fond. The findings were disappoint­ ing, but the execution of the research provided us with much hilarity. Though the dissertation research did not pan out as we had hoped, we had begun to look for the influence of humor in other investigations that we were conducting. Two published studies from that era are described in this book, one of which grew as an off-shoot of a dissertation by Dr. Paul Antrobus. In these studies not only did we find evidence that humor could be predicted and understood within particular contexts, but again we found enjoyment in doing the studies.

In his earlier work the author has studied stress and the personality characteristics that protect us from its effects on health and well-being. In this new book he places humor firmly within the literatures of coping processes, the moderation of stressful experiences, and health by showing how humor can help create and encourage feelings of community, closeness, and control. Lefcourt blends empirical research with anecdotal reports in this thoughtful volume.