Abstract
This paper examines the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) – that is, whether scores on the scale adequately reflect adaptive or maladaptive humor use which is causally related to psychosocial well-being, and considers how research on distinct groups of people defined in terms of their style profiles can clarify the nature of the styles. A number of concerns about scale content are raised, including that coverage of relevant issues and wording of some scale items are problematic; rating scales used to assess humor use require revision; the extent of influence of non-humor components of the items is unclear; and the items associated with any style do not accurately indicate its motivation. Findings concerning style profiles indicate the same style can perform different functions for different people (relationship/stimulation seeking, or self-defense) and also differ from those typically observed in studies of HSQ convergent, divergent, and criterion validity. Further research should take into account the methodological issues discussed and focus on the style profiles and humor content and structure preferences of humor users and their audiences. Reasons to view the styles as predictive of but not causally related to psychosocial well-being are also provided.
About the author
Graeme Galloway is a graduate in psychology from the University of Sydney, Australia (BA Hons 1; PhD). He has held teaching positions in psychology at various Australian universities – most notably University of Sydney (1977–1986) and La Trobe University (1990–2014), and since 2014 he has been an independent researcher in private practice. He has published on a variety of topics including: personality predictors of tourist behaviour; humor and advertising; humor and mental health; humor’s relationship to creativity and intelligence; socially desirable responding regarding attitudes to the environment; perceptual illusions and remembering; and the Humor Styles Questionnaire.
References
Anastasi, Anne & Susana Urbina. 1997. Psychological testing, 7th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Simon & Schuster.Search in Google Scholar
Andrews, Gavin, Michelle Singh & Michael Bond. 1993. The defense style questionnaire. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 181(4). 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-199304000-00006.Search in Google Scholar
Apter, Michael. 1984. Reversal theory and personality: A review. Journal of Research in Personality 18(3). 265–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(84)90013-8.Search in Google Scholar
Arnett, Jeffrey. 1994. Sensation seeking: A new conceptualization and a new scale. Personality and Individual Differences 16(2). 289–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(94)90165-1.Search in Google Scholar
Baron, Reuben & David Kenny. 1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51(6). 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173.Search in Google Scholar
Bowins, Brad. 2004. Psychological defense mechanisms: A new perspective. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 64(1). 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:tajp.0000017989.72521.26.10.1023/B:TAJP.0000017989.72521.26Search in Google Scholar
Brown, Robyn, Bruce Findlay & Jay Brinker. 2019. Individual differences in the way observers perceive humour styles. European Journal of Humour Research 7(2). 116–136. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2019.7.2.brown.Search in Google Scholar
Cann, Arnie, Heather Davis & Christine Zapata. 2011. Humor styles and relationship satisfaction in dating couples: Perceived versus self-reported humor styles as predictors of satisfaction. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 24(1). 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2011.001.Search in Google Scholar
Cappelleri, Joseph, J. Jason Lundy & Ron Hays. 2014. Overview of classical test theory and Item Response Theory for the quantitative assessment of items in developing patient-reported outcomes measures. Clinical Therapeutics 36(5). 648–662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2014.04.006.Search in Google Scholar
Cheng, Patricia. 1997. From covariation to causation: A causal power theory. Psychological Review 104(2). 367–405. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.104.2.367.Search in Google Scholar
Cramer, Phebe. 2000. Defense mechanisms in psychology today. American Psychologist 55(6). 637–646. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.55.6.637.Search in Google Scholar
Crowne, Douglas & David Marlowe. 1960. A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology 24. 349–354. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047358.Search in Google Scholar
Digman, John. 1990. Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology 41. 417–440. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.41.020190.002221.Search in Google Scholar
Erdogan, Goksen, Bahadir Genis, Tulay Bingol, Nermin Gurhan & Mohammed Aksu. 2022. The effect of vaginoplasty on coping with stress, self-esteem, and sexual satisfaction in Turkish women: A cross-sectional controlled study. European Journal of Plastic Surgery 45(6). 951–957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-022-01945-2.Search in Google Scholar
Ewert, Alan & Graeme Galloway. 2009. Socially desirable responding in an environmental context: Development of a domain specific scale. Environmental Education Research 15(1). 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620802613504.Search in Google Scholar
Findlay, Bruce & Chris Jones. 2005. I think I’ve got a sense of humour, but do others think so? Australian Journal of Psychology 57. 204.Search in Google Scholar
Galloway, Graeme. 2009. Humor and ad liking: Evidence that sensation seeking moderates the effects of incongruity-resolution humor. Psychology and Marketing 26(9). 779–792. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20299.Search in Google Scholar
Galloway, Graeme. 2010. Individual differences in personal humor styles: Identification of prominent patterns and their associates. Personality and Individual Differences 48. 563–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.12.007.Search in Google Scholar
Galloway, Graeme. 2020. Personal humor styles and advertising. Researchgate. https://doi.org/10.131401RG.2.2.33545.67689.Search in Google Scholar
Hehl, Franz Josef & Willibald Ruch. 1985. The location of sense of humor within comprehensive personality spaces: An exploratory study. Personality and Individual Differences 6(6). 703–715. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(85)90081-9.Search in Google Scholar
Heintz, Sonja. 2019. Do others judge my humor style as I do? Self-other agreement and construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment 35. 625–632. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000440.Search in Google Scholar
Heintz, Sonja & Willibald Ruch. 2015. An examination of the convergence between the conceptualization and the measurement of humor styles: A study of the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 28(4). 611–633. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0095.Search in Google Scholar
Heintz, Sonja & Willibald Ruch. 2016. Reply to Martin (2015): Why our conclusions hold. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 29(1). 125–129. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0132.Search in Google Scholar
Heintz, Sonja & Willibald Ruch. 2019. From four to nine styles: An update on individual differences in humor. Personality and Individual Differences 141(15). 7–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.12.008.Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod. 2015. On the challenges of measuring humor styles: Response to Heintz and Ruch. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 28. 635–639. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0096.Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod & Herb Lefcourt. 1983. Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45. 1313–1324. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.6.1313.Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod., Patricia Puhlik-Doris, Gwen Larsen, Jeanette Gray & Weir Kelly. 2003. Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality 37. 48–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201272002.Search in Google Scholar
McGhee, Paul. 1999. The laughter remedy: Health, healing and the amuse system. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.Search in Google Scholar
Mendiburo-Sequel, Andres, Dario Paez & Francisco Martinez-Sanchez. 2015. Humor styles and personality: A meta-analysis of the relation between humor styles and the Big Five personality traits. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 56(3). 335–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12209.Search in Google Scholar
Meyer, Neil, Ashley Helle, Raymond Tucker, Gregory Lengel, Hilary DeShong, LaRicka Wingate & Stephanie Mullins-Sweatt. 2017. Humor styles moderate borderline personality traits and suicide ideation. Psychiatry Research 249. 337–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.038.Search in Google Scholar
Nezlek, John, Derks Peter & John Simanski. 2020. Relationships between everyday use of humor and daily experience. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 34(1). 21–39.https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2020-0073.Search in Google Scholar
Paulhus, Delroy. 1991. Measurement and control of response bias. In John Robinson, Phillip Shaver & Lawrence Wrightsman (eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes, 17–59. New York: Academic Press.10.1016/B978-0-12-590241-0.50006-XSearch in Google Scholar
Plessen, Constantin, Fabian Franken, Christoph Ster, Rebecca Schmid, Christoph Wolfmayr, Anna-Maria Mayer, Marc Sobisch, Maximilian Kathofer, Katrin Rattner, Elona Kotlyar, Rory Maierweiser & Ulrich Tran. 2020. Humor styles and personality: A systematic review and meta-analysis on the relations between humor styles and the Big Five personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences 154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109676.Search in Google Scholar
Proyer, Rene. 2012. Development and initial assessment of a short measure for adult playfulness: The SMAP. Personality and Individual Differences 53. 989–994. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.07.018.Search in Google Scholar
Radloff, Lenore. 1977. The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1. 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306.Search in Google Scholar
Reff, Robert. 2006. Developing the Humor Styles questionnaire-revised: A review of the current literature and a revised measure (Doctoral dissertation). Pullman, WA: Washington State University Dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Morris. 1965. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400876136Search in Google Scholar
Ruch, Willibald (ed.). 1998 The sense of humor: Explorations of a personality characteristic. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Ruch, Willibald & Sonja Heintz. 2013. Humor styles, personality and psychological well-being: What’s humor got to do with it? European Journal of Humor Research 1(4). 1–24. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2013.1.4.ruch.Search in Google Scholar
Ruch, Willibald & Sonja Heintz. 2017. Experimentally manipulating items informs on the (limited) construct and criterion validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology 8. 616.10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00616Search in Google Scholar
Ryff, Carol. 1989. Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57. 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069.Search in Google Scholar
Schermer, Julie, Rod Martin, Nicholas Martin, Michael Lynskey & Philip Vernon. 2013. The general factor of personality and humor styles. Personality and Individual Differences 54(8). 890–893. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.026.Search in Google Scholar
Silvia, Paul & Rebekah Rodriguez. 2020. Time to renovate the Humor Styles Questionnaire? An item response theory analysis of the HSQ. Behavioral Sciences 10(11). 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10110173.Search in Google Scholar
Sirigatti, Saulo, Ilaria Penzo, Enrichetta Giannetti, Silvia Casale & Cristina Stephanile. 2016. Relationships between humorism profiles and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences 90. 219–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.011.Search in Google Scholar
Sowislo, Julia & Ulrich Orth. 2013. Does low self-esteem predict depression and anxiety? A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin 139(1). 213–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028931.Search in Google Scholar
Spielberger, Charles, Richard Gorsuch & Robert Lushene. 1969. State-trait anxiety inventory: Preliminary test manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Search in Google Scholar
Thygesen, Kylie, Drapeau Martin, Rutger Trijsburg, Serge Lecours & Yves de Roten. 2008. Assessing defense styles: Factor structure and psychometric properties of the New Defense Style Questionnaire 60 (DSQ-60). International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy 8(2). 171–181.Search in Google Scholar
Tsai, Meng-Ning, Yung-Chieh Cheng & Hsueh-Chih Chen. 2023. Humor styles and marital satisfaction: Cluster analysis of the relationship. Psychological Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221149151.Search in Google Scholar
Tsukawaki, Ryota, Tomoya Imura & Makoto Hirakawa. 2022. Causal relationship between the two dimensions of self-directed humor and depression, anxiety, and subjective well-being: A longitudinal study. Personality and Individual Differences 196. 111729.10.1016/j.paid.2022.111729Search in Google Scholar
Urbina, Susana. 2004. Essentials of psychological testing. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Search in Google Scholar
Veselka, Livia, Julie Schermer, Rod Martin & Philip Vernon. 2010. Relations between humor styles and the Dark Triad traits of personality. Personality and Individual Differences 48. 772–774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.017.Search in Google Scholar
White, Peter. 1990. Ideas about causation in philosophy and psychology. Psychological Bulletin 108(1). 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.1.3.Search in Google Scholar
Zeigler-Hill, Virgil, Avi Besser & Stephanie Jett. 2013. Laughing at the looking glass: Does humor style serve as an interpersonal signal? Evolutionary Psychology 11(1). 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491301100118.Search in Google Scholar
Zeigler-Hill, Virgil, Gillian McCabe & Jennifer Vrabel. 2016. The dark side of humor: DSM-5 pathological personality traits and humor styles. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 12(3). 363–376. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1109.Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
