ABSTRACT
In a field which is as ramifying and expansive as that of laughter and humour, it is not a little disconcerting to discover that there have been few attempts to integrate the various research topics chosen by psychologists within this area. Recently, however, a theoretical structure has been formulated by Rothbart (1973, see Chapter 2) primarily concerned with children’s laughter, which at last attempts to describe the humorous situation in toto. She suggests that when a young child is stimulated intensely and suddenly by another person, or receives information that is discrepant from his expectations, this is liable to arouse the child’s fear. However, should such stimulation be seen by him to be harmless at that time, then the relief from tension thus experienced would find expression in laughter. It is claimed that this ‘arousal–safety’ model may be useful in understanding adults’ laughter at jokes. For this, Rothbart relies upon notions of incongruity by suggesting that a joke involves the presentation of two seemingly unrelated ideas, the novel congruence of which has to be solved before the humour can be appreciated. And so, ‘when a joke is understood but the resolution is a “silly” one, that is, it does not lead to any instrumental activity, the tension from the effort of solving the joke, and probably also the positive excitement at having solved the joke, result in laughter’ (Rothbart, 1973).
