TheoryOverlap: Three Major Sociological Theories in super-short table!

Why my Husky boy is the Best dog

Two of us living in the flat, two friends sharing everything.

Me and him (my little bear Baloo).

I called him Baloo because of a lovely bear from the Jungle book. 

As any owner, I love my dog with all my heart, and, of cause, I have some reasons to consider him the best dog! 

1. First of all, obviously, he is handsome! 

He is such a popular boy in the neighbourhood ;)

That's how he hits on girls: 

"Hey, baby, hey"

And, believe me, it works! ;) 

2. He loves me! 

I feel so connected to him and we really understand each other... 

Except some unpleasant moments like, let's say, spoiling 3 pairs of my shoes. 

Well, in the end, that are just little unimportant things in comparison to happiness he brings me, right! 

Damn, I really loved those shoes... 

Moving on... 

3. No morning cryies:

"Bringe me down for a walk"

Sleeping until 12 in the afternoon and still being lazy to leave the bed? 

Yup, that's my dog! 

Little bonus: manual from Baloo how to sleep comfortably

Or maybe it's manual how to dance buggy...

4. He is super curios! 

Wherever we go, whatever we do, this dog is just so curious about everything that is going on around! 

"Show me what you've got there?"

"Hmmm, let's check what's under this bed!"

"Look to the right, look to the left... 

Anything interesting going on here?"

5. He is a dog-trasformer;

He can transform from a dog to cyborg! 

6. He is cute! 

I mean, he really is impossibly cute! 

Especially, when he hides under the curtains: 

8. He is a smart boy and he loves trainings! 

Or maybe he just loves to get treats... 

9. To me, he is not just a dog, 

he is some kind of a superhero dog, who's mission is to bring laugh, love and happiness in my life!  

Id, Ego and super-ego: Freud's dynamic model of the mind.

The Id, Ego and Super-ego, according to Freud, are the three main elements of our mind system. They arouse our drives, motives and forces, however each and every of them arouse it's own ones, so the battles inside our mind go on constantly between different elements (or different levels of consciousness).

All of this three elements sometimes operates on both levels - not only on conscious, but on unconscious as well.  

Let's look a bit deeper into the nature of this 3 parts of our mind, fighting with each other for the right to be a leader in our daily life decisions. 

Id - the oldest part, which contains everything that is inherited, instinctive impulses.

It is a primitive or unconscious element of the psyche, an inaccessible area dealing only with our selfish needs. "I want it now" - that's our Id, our pleasure principle that ignores any rational, realistic reasons for "not getting it not, or not being able to get". 

Id can be seen to be very strong in Infants, whenever they are uncomfortable or want anything - they will scream until they get it. 

During the development of maturity children learn to suppress Id's desires, as from the nature Id is illogical, disorganized and completely amoral. 

Totally contrast to Id is Super-ego - our traditional inner grown-up, our sense of morals, wrong and right, pride and guilt. 

This part of our psycho is conscious and responding to social  rules: guide us to act in acceptable way for society, rather than for ourselves. 

Our behavior is "being watched"by Super-ego that puts taboo on and repress an "inappropriate" behavior. 

Super-ego has bossy nature, it always observe and direct the Ego, demanding the perfection. 

Ego, in it's turn, is the mediator between super-ego and Id. 

It deals with external reality and is a part of the psyche that person see as "Self". It is mostly always conscious part of your mind, but as I previously mentioned, it can operate from time to time on both levels. 

The Ego is practical, rational - it makes the decisions, create the ideas and the sense of reality. 

The ego is rather weak than strong in comparison to pushy Super-ego and demanding Id, but in the end of the day Ego is the one responsible for problem-solving, for maintaining the upper hand and for finding the compromise between Id and Super-ego.

Some people may have personality dissonance (when the person holds more than two different ideas, beliefs not matching with each other), according to Freud, it happens when Ego (The Self) are having difficulties to rationalize between Id and Super-ego and in the end makes the wrong decisions provoking the feeling of dissatisfaction, doubt, guilt, anger, embarrassment or even anxiety.

Fake it and you'll become it: Body language

I was always fascinated how our mind shapes the way we behave.

But once I've watched TED talk about how body language can change the way our mind thinks and the way we determine ourselves in the society I have discovered a new manner of approaching self-improvement. 

Well, the general idea is - we can FAKE it until we MAKE it and till we BECOME it! And it really opens your eyes on the fact that you CAN be who you WANT to be! . 

Oh yes, here is the link: http://youtu.be/Ks-_Mh1QhMc

What makes a joke funny?

Have you ever wonder, while laughing at just another joke, why you actually find it funny? 

There are several theories about why do we laugh at jokes, but the one we will be focusing on is "Superior Theory". 

The main idea of this theory is that jokes which we find the finniest have one common characteristic - they create the feeling of superior while we are reading or hearing them. 

How does in work? Well, we feel smart if we get a joke, we feel over the butt of the joke who appears to be stupid in it. 

Generally speaking, the more superior a joke makes us feel - the more we laugh. 

That is the reason why we enjoy making jokes about the authority, in real life it has power over us, while in the joke authority people look silly. 

Have you ever noticed how people from one country make jokes about people from another? British people laugh at Irish or Mexican at American, and the other way around. In this case one group of people make themselves feel better and smarter by making jokes about other group and laughing about how stupid they are. 

Lets use as an example one of the funniest universal jokes : 

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

We laugh at this joke because we feel smarter than the "stupid hunter" and we understand (unlike him) that "make sure" in this context means "to check".

So first of all this joke is superior. 

But there are two more important elements in this joke that makes it funny.

One of them is - "we laugh at things that make us feel anxious", according to Sigmund Freid.  

That is the reason why old people find jokes about getting older funny, or a student will laugh out loud at a joke about exams.

In our example the "anxious" element is the second hunter death, it provokes in us an anxious feeling, as we hear about the death. 

And the last element is "a surprise" in the joke  or a "pun joke" - we didn't expect the hunter to interpret the operator's words in such a way and to shout his friend. 

As well as, we like the jokes where we can play with different word's meanings and the jokes with unexpected ending. 

So now you know that the three elements - "surprise", "anxious feelings" and "superior" are the absolute recipe for a damn funny joke!  

Cheers and clean jokes to everyone!