ABSTRACT
The psychoanalytic theory relating lability of drives to wit was contrasted with other rationales encountered in research on humor. Patterns of drive discharge in fantasy were obtained by means of Thematic Apperception Test's (TAT’s) administered to 29 male high school students. In accordance with the ease-of-discharge criterion, the TAT productions were subjected to a coding scheme introduced by Pine. The finding that response to humor became modified when aggressive drive was aroused by the cartoon stimuli, suggested a comparison of subjects at the extremes of the humor variable with respect to their TAT drive status. A comparison of the Impulsive, Labile, and Constricted groups with regard to their ratings of hostile and neutral cartoons leads to some speculations concerning the study of anxiety and defense. It was found that Constricted subjects tended to make greater use of the Indifferent category when rating cartoons than did Impulsive and Labile subjects.
