Article Version of Record

The German version of the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and overlap with other styles of humor

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Ruch, Willibald
Heintz, Sonja

Abstract / Description

The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al., 2003) is one of the most frequently used questionnaires in humor research and has been adapted to several languages. The HSQ measures four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating), which should be adaptive or potentially maladaptive to psychosocial well-being. The present study analyzes the internal consistency, factorial validity, and factorial invariance of the HSQ on the basis of several German-speaking samples combined (total N = 1,101). Separate analyses were conducted for gender (male/female), age groups (16–24, 25–35, >36 years old), and countries (Germany/Switzerland). Internal consistencies were good for the overall sample and the demographic subgroups (.80–.89), with lower values obtained for the aggressive scale (.66–.73). Principal components and confirmatory factor analyses mostly supported the four-factor structure of the HSQ. Weak factorial invariance was found across gender and age groups, while strong factorial invariance was supported across countries. Two subsamples also provided self-ratings on ten styles of humorous conduct (n = 344) and of eight comic styles (n = 285). The four HSQ scales showed small to large correlations to the styles of humorous conduct (-.54 to .65) and small to medium correlations to the comic styles (-.27 to .42). The HSQ shared on average 27.5–35.0% of the variance with the styles of humorous conduct and 13.0–15.0% of the variance with the comic styles. Thus–despite similar labels–these styles of humorous conduct and comic styles differed from the HSQ humor styles.

Keyword(s)

Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) German adaptation reliability factorial validity factorial invariance styles of humorous conduct comic styles

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2016-08-19

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

12

Issue

3

Page numbers

434–455

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Ruch, W., & Heintz, S. (2016). The German version of the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and overlap with other styles of humor. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 434–455. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1116
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ruch, Willibald
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Heintz, Sonja
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T09:59:46Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T09:59:46Z
  • Date of first publication
    2016-08-19
  • Abstract / Description
    The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al., 2003) is one of the most frequently used questionnaires in humor research and has been adapted to several languages. The HSQ measures four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating), which should be adaptive or potentially maladaptive to psychosocial well-being. The present study analyzes the internal consistency, factorial validity, and factorial invariance of the HSQ on the basis of several German-speaking samples combined (total N = 1,101). Separate analyses were conducted for gender (male/female), age groups (16–24, 25–35, >36 years old), and countries (Germany/Switzerland). Internal consistencies were good for the overall sample and the demographic subgroups (.80–.89), with lower values obtained for the aggressive scale (.66–.73). Principal components and confirmatory factor analyses mostly supported the four-factor structure of the HSQ. Weak factorial invariance was found across gender and age groups, while strong factorial invariance was supported across countries. Two subsamples also provided self-ratings on ten styles of humorous conduct (n = 344) and of eight comic styles (n = 285). The four HSQ scales showed small to large correlations to the styles of humorous conduct (-.54 to .65) and small to medium correlations to the comic styles (-.27 to .42). The HSQ shared on average 27.5–35.0% of the variance with the styles of humorous conduct and 13.0–15.0% of the variance with the comic styles. Thus–despite similar labels–these styles of humorous conduct and comic styles differed from the HSQ humor styles.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Ruch, W., & Heintz, S. (2016). The German version of the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and overlap with other styles of humor. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 434–455. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1116
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1014
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1206
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1116
  • Keyword(s)
    Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ)
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    German adaptation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    reliability
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    factorial validity
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    factorial invariance
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    styles of humorous conduct
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    comic styles
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    The German version of the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and overlap with other styles of humor
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    3
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    434–455
  • Volume
    12
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record