How strongly does humor (i.e., the construct-relevant content) in the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al., 2003) determine the responses to this measure (i.e., construct validity)? Also, ...how much does humor influence the relationships of the four HSQ scales, namely affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating, with personality traits and subjective well-being (i.e., criterion validity)? The present paper answers these two questions by experimentally manipulating the 32 items of the HSQ to only (or mostly) contain humor (i.e., construct-relevant content) or to substitute the humor content with non-humorous alternatives (i.e., only assessing construct-irrelevant context). Study 1 (
= 187) showed that the HSQ affiliative scale was mainly determined by humor, self-enhancing and aggressive were determined by both humor and non-humorous context, and self-defeating was primarily determined by the context. This suggests that humor is not the primary source of the variance in three of the HQS scales, thereby limiting their construct validity. Study 2 (
= 261) showed that the relationships of the HSQ scales to the Big Five personality traits and subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) were consistently reduced (personality) or vanished (subjective well-being) when the non-humorous contexts in the HSQ items were controlled for. For the HSQ self-defeating scale, the pattern of relationships to personality was also altered, supporting an positive rather than a negative view of the humor in this humor style. The present findings thus call for a reevaluation of the role that humor plays in the HSQ (construct validity) and in the relationships to personality and well-being (criterion validity).
The adaptation of own plans and behaviors to new circumstances seems to be a desirable personal quality in the modern world. it has been assumed that adaptability cannot be transferred to a single ...character strength.
The present research examines this assumption using typical and daily behaviors of three aspects of flexibility (predictability, adaptability and orderliness) and 24 character strengths across two studies (
283,
188).
Flexibility showed a consistent and large overlap with character strengths. Adaptability was positively related to most of the strengths. Predictability was positively related to humility and prudence, and orderliness to perseverance, prudence, and selfregulation.
These results support our initial assumption and build a strong basis for further examining the relationships and interplay between flexibility and character strengths. They also constitute an important first step toward integrative positive interventions that target relevant aspects of flexibility and character.
The present study introduces eight
(i.e., fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) and examines the validity of a set of 48 marker items for their assessment, the Comic Style ...Markers (CSM). These styles were originally developed to describe literary work and are used here to describe individual differences. Study 1 examines whether the eight styles can be distinguished empirically, in self- and other-reports, and in two languages. In different samples of altogether more than 1500 adult participants, the CSM was developed and evaluated with respect to internal consistency, homogeneity, test-retest reliability, factorial validity, and construct and criterion validity. Internal consistency was sufficiently high, and the median test-retest reliability over a period of 1-2 weeks was 0.86 (
= 148). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the eight styles could be distinguished in both English- (
= 303) and German-speaking samples (
= 1018 and 368). Comparing self- and other-reports (
= 210) supported both convergent and discriminant validity. The intercorrelations among the eight scales ranged from close to zero (between humor and sarcasm/cynicism) to large and positive (between sarcasm and cynicism). Consequently, second-order factor analyses revealed either two bipolar factors (based on ipsative data) or three unipolar factors (based on normative data). Study 2 related the CSM to instruments measuring personality (
= 999), intelligence (
= 214), and character strengths (
= 252), showing that (a) wit was the only style correlated with (verbal) intelligence, (b) fun was related to indicators of vitality and extraversion, (c) humor was related to character strengths of the heart, and (d) comic styles related to mock/ridicule (i.e., sarcasm, cynicism, but also irony) correlated negatively with character strengths of the virtues temperance, transcendence, and humanity. By contrast, satire had a moral goodness that was lacking in sarcasm and cynicism. Most importantly, the two studies revealed that humor might be related to a variety of character strengths depending on the comic style utilized, and that more styles may be distinguished than has been done in the past. The CSM is recommended for future explorations and refinements of comic styles.
Humour and antisocial behaviour on the internet are under-researched. Online spaces have opened a gateway for new ways to express unrestrained humour (e.g., dark humour) and ways to behave ...antisocially (e.g., online trolling). The tendencies and motivations of those engaging with such humour and behaviour are yet to be clearly established and understood. The present study aimed to fill this gap by exploring the interplay between dark humour, online trolling, and dark personality traits. Participants (N = 160) completed an online survey consisting of trait scales to assess the Dark Tetrad, dark humour, and online trolling, as well as two online trolling tasks (enjoyment and ability) and two dark humour meme tasks (enjoyment and ability). The results confirmed relationships between the Dark Tetrad and the dark humour trait, and several Dark Tetrad traits were related to the enjoyment of and ability to produce dark humour. Furthermore, dark humour and online trolling were closely related. The findings also revealed that online trolls did not enjoy being trolled but did enjoy trolling, and this ability to troll is underpinned by sadism. These findings illustrate the potential dark psychological motivations for using dark humour, demonstrate that online trolling is infused with darker forms of humour, and provide deeper insights into online trolls.
Background: How flexible people react to changes, and adapt their behavior and plans, seems to be crucial in modern society. Nevertheless, no common conceptualization of flexibility exists in the ...psychological literature. Our work contributes to the scientific understanding of flexibility as a personality trait and offers a novel flexibility questionnaire. Methods and Results: An explorative study ( N = 279) examined three individual-difference concepts of flexibility and their relations with the Big Five personality traits. The results suggested that flexibility consists of predictability, adaptability, and orderliness can be assessed with 24 items (FS-24) and is distinguishable from the Big Five. A confirmatory study ( N = 188) replicated the three flexibility components and showed good test–retest reliability for the FS-24. Convergent and discriminant validity of the instruments need further scrutiny. Limitations: The present study is limited due to self-reports, and the specificity and size of the sample, which could be addressed in future studies. Conclusions: The FS-24 showed promising psychometric properties. The questionnaire has useful applications in personality research, organizational development, and counseling.
The VIA Classification on character strengths and virtues suggests 24 character strengths clustered into six core virtues (wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and ...transcendence). Three recent studies employed different methods for testing the assignment of character strengths to virtues (e.g., expert and layperson ratings), and generally supported the VIA classification. However, the co-occurrence of character strengths and virtues within individuals has not been examined yet. Another untested assumption is that an individual's composition of character strengths is related to being considered of "good character." Thus, the present study addresses three research questions: (1) How do character strengths and measured virtues co-occur within individuals? (2.1) How does the number of character strengths an individual possesses within a virtue cluster relate to their level of the respective virtue? (2.2) How does the composition of an individual's character strengths relate to being considered of "good character"? We combined data from different studies to obtain a sample of
= 1,241 participants (
= 897 self-raters,
= 344 informant-raters, 70.1% female) aged 18 to 92 years (
= 30.64). All participants completed assessments of character strengths and virtues. Regarding (1), we found a high convergence of the correlations between strengths and virtues and the VIA Classification: 22 out of 24 character strengths correlated with the assigned virtue (exceptions were hope, which correlated highest with courage, and humor, which correlated highest with humanity). Also, 15 character strengths showed the numerically highest correlation with their assigned virtue. Regarding (2.1), overall, we found a linear trend between the number of strengths within one cluster and the virtue level. Regarding (2.2), we found higher levels of reported "good character" in those who possessed either (a) at least one character strength in each virtue cluster or (b) all character strengths in at least one virtue compared to those who did not. The present results contribute to the discussion regarding the structure of character: individuals' character strengths relate to differences in virtues, across different measures and data sources. Relationships were mostly as expected, and deviations were consistent with results obtained using other approaches.
Although psychological humor research has expanded in the last decades, the humor behaviors that people show in their everyday lives are still poorly understood. To fill this gap, this diary study ...explores the dimensionality of 45 daily humor behaviors and their relationships with the Big Five personality traits and subjective well-being. Furthermore, the humor behaviors were utilized to investigate the criterion validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. A hierarchical factor analysis of the humor behaviors (N=123) revealed seven dimensions: Cheerful, witty, deriding, amused, sarcastic, self-directed, and canned. These humor behavior dimensions correlated with emotional stability, extraversion, lower agreeableness, and culture/openness. Also cheerful, amused, and self-directed humor behaviors correlated positively with subjective well-being, even when personality and the humor styles were controlled for. The criterion correlations of the humor styles to their constituting humor behaviors were medium to large for affiliative and self-enhancing, and small to medium for aggressive and self-defeating. Overall, investigating humor behaviors seems a promising venue for future research and applications of individual differences in humor.
•Finds seven underlying dimensions in a diverse set of 45 daily humor behaviors•The humor behavior dimensions correlated with 4 of the Big Five personality traits.•Several humor behavior dimensions positively correlated with subjective well-being.•This effect was stable even when personality and humor styles were controlled for.•Criterion validity in terms of humor was supported for two of the four humor styles.
The aim of the present study is to locate eight comic styles in basic and broad concepts of humor, namely the temperamental basis of the sense of humor, humor appreciation, and humor creation. The ...comic styles represent individual differences in how people display humor, differentiating between fun, (benevolent) humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism. Two samples of 234 and 223 German-speaking adults completed the Comic Style Markers, the standard self-report measure to assess the eight comic styles, as well as self-reports of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood (Sample 1) or behavior tests of humor appreciation (funniness and aversiveness of incongruity-resolution, nonsense, and sexual humor) and humor creation quantity and quality (Sample 2). The results showed that the comic styles could be uniquely and meaningfully located in these basic and broad humor concepts. Specifically, the comic styles spanned the affective component of the temperamental basis of the sense of humor, from cheerfulness to bad mood. Furthermore, the findings supported the convergent validity of the nonsense and wit scales of the Comic Style Markers, as they related to behavior tests of the appreciation of nonsense humor and the quantity and quality of humor creation, respectively. This study thus contributes to the growing field of the psychology of humor by extending the nomological network of the comic styles to the general tendency to enjoy and engage in humor and by providing a behavioral validation of the Comic Style Markers.
The central goal of palliative care is to optimize the quality of life of patients suffering from life-limiting illnesses, which includes psychosocial and spiritual wellbeing. Research has ...demonstrated positive correlations between humor and laughter with life satisfaction and other aspects of wellbeing, and physiological symptoms can be improved by humorous stimuli.
The aim of this review is to evaluate humor interventions and assessments that have been applied in palliative care and to derive implications for future research.
A systematic review of four databases identified 13 included studies. Criteria for inclusion were peer-reviewed English-language studies on humor interventions or assessments in a palliative care context.
Two studies on humor interventions and 11 studies on humor assessment were included in the systematic review. Most of these studies were about the patients' perspective on humor in palliative care. Findings showed that humor had a positive effect on patients, their relatives, and professional caregivers. Humor was widely perceived as appropriate and seen as beneficial to care in all studies.
Even though humor interventions seem to be potentially useful in palliative care, descriptions evaluating their use are scarce. Overall, research on humor assessment and interventions in palliative care has remained limited in terms of quantity and quality. More research activities are needed to build a solid empirical foundation for implementing humor and laughter as part of regular palliative care activities.
Investigating individual differences in humor has become a popular topic for personality research. Three approaches to humor-related styles were proposed in the literature, namely Craik, Lampert, and ...Nelson's (1996) five bipolar styles of humorous conduct, Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, and Weir's (2003) four humor styles, and Ruch, Heintz, Platt, Wagner, and Proyer (2018) eight comic styles. The present study aims to determine how many styles can be empirically distinguished by comparing the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin et al., 2003) and the Comic Style Markers (Ruch, Heintz et al., 2018) in a sample of 570 German-speaking adults. The findings showed redundancies among three scales, namely the affiliative, self-enhancing, and aggressive humor styles and the comic styles fun, benevolent humor, and sarcasm. One humor style (self-defeating) and five comic styles (nonsense, wit, irony, satire, and cynicism) were distinguishable between the two measures. Thus, these findings suggest that at least nine styles should be distinguished. Eventually, developing a comprehensive model and valid measures of individual differences in humor in cumulative research programs is needed to understand how humor unfolds in our everyday lives and how it can be applied effectively in interventions.
•Investigates the relationships between 4 humor styles and 8 comic styles•Results in a list of nine distinguishable humor-related styles•Redundancies among affiliative/fun, self-enhancing/benevolent, aggressive/sarcasm•Guides future research (e.g., models) and applications (e.g., trainings) of humor
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