Inspiration and Knowledge regarding the Current and Further Re- Search and Program Development in the Field of Creativity

While a veritable flood of general books on creativity have been released in the past few years (e., it's rare that a text is released that focuses in depth on one particular manifestation of creativity. The Psychology of Humor by Rod A. Martin is such a book, focusing (obviously) on humor. Although not a particularly funny read—though it has its moments—it is a very well-written, well-organized, comprehensive reference guide to the psychology of humor. The Introductory chapter provides a nice overview of the rest of the book. Here Martin defines what is meant by the broad term humor, discusses the many forms and functions of humor, and provides a concise, informative history of thinking about humor. Martin then includes two chapters that address five theoretical approaches: psychoanalytic, superiority/disparagement, arousal, incongruity, and reversal theory. The second part of the book is organized into different psychological subtopics, which makes it very easy to navigate. This part includes sections on the cognitive, social, psychobiological, personality, and developmental approaches to the study of humor. The book concludes with chapters on the link between humor and both mental and physical health, and presents research on the application of humor in psychotherapy , education, and the workplace. As the chapter headings suggest, this book is comprehensive in scope. The reference list alone is a gold mine, eclipsing the previous record holder, Roeckelein (2002). Each section of the book has a good mix of sources, including empirical studies, theoretical perspectives, and historical analyses. Furthermore, Martin does a good job of describing the methodologies of many studies, including their limitations, as well as identifying specific areas of research that have yielded inconsistent results or that would benefit from further research. The summary sections of the chapters are informative and give a good sense of the big (or at least medium-sized) picture. Also, the inclusion of many illustrative verbal jokes within the text was a nice touch. We each found ourselves laughing a good bit, albeit probably inappropriately. Martin must also be commended for his remarkably evenhanded and nonpartisan treatment of many research areas. Probably not coincidentally, his own research seems to cover a broader cross-section of humor topics than anyone else's, but this is not a liability. If anything, it further validates the authoritativeness of the text—Martin is a highly prolific humor researcher and is clearly the right person to have written such a book. Even with so …