Sense of humor and dimensions of personality

Abstract

Previous researchers have demonstrated relationships between sense of humor and personality. Most have viewed sense of humor from the perspective of humor appreciation. Others have taken the approach that sense of humor has two factors: appreciation and creativity. Our approach has been to look at sense of humor as made up of creativity and several additional elements. The present study reports on the factor analysis of a Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale, as well as correlates of various elements of sense of humor with personality traits assessed by the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. Relationships by humor scale factors are reported, as are differences between those high and low in sense of humor within a sample of 426 individuals, 18 through 90 years of age.Humor's relationship to personality has been addressed by a number of researchers over the years. Various approaches have been taken t o provide insight into the humorous personality. Humor seems to be used in a number of ways that get people through both life's crises as well as life's petty annoyances.Freud ( 1916, 1928) wrote of the structure and functions of humor as well as the creation of humor and humor appreciation. Eysenck began to publish studies of humor appreciation in 1942, Luborsky and Cattell in 1947. Ruch and his colleagues (Ruch, 1981(Ruch, , 1988Ruch & Hehl, 1983;Ruch, McGhee, & Hehl, 1990) have written extensively on appreciation of humor. These and other authors acknowledge humor's particular potency in its various functions and relationships; it is something either innate or closely related to personality that makes life more enjoyable and worth living. Often thought of as a bipolar construct, appreciation of humor thus could be either high or low along a continuum. Differences between individuals can be seen easily; they are either high or low in personal sense of humor or somewhere in between. These differences contribute to the essence of personality. We seek to explore some of these differences and relationships in the present study.However, there have been a number of methodological difficulties in the measurement of sense of humor. Too many researchers have equated sense of humor with humor appreciation and humor appreciation with laughter. Much humor research has focused upon an individual's likelihood to laugh and has neglected more theoretically appropriate elements of personal sense of humor (Thorson, 1990). Differentiating a cognitive response, ("getting the joke") and an affective response (laughter) has further complicated research on humor. While some researchers have been scrupulous in the specificity of their research in the area of humor appreciation, too many have allowed concepts to become confused and have equated the affective response of laughter with an overall construct of personal sense of humor. Nias (1981) has observed the lack of interest in identifying factors that represent the elements of sense of humor and has pointed to the failures in various attempts to construct a test t o measure sense of ...

Humor as a Mental Fitness Indicator

“…The relationship of humor production to extraversion is also consistent with previous research (Köhler and Ruch, 1992;Thorson and Powell, 1993b). The current study showed that extraversion corresponds to facets of sociability (e.g., "have a lot to say", "feel comfortable around people"), dominance (e.g., "like to draw attention to myself"), and active sensation seeking (e.g., "am the life of the party").…”

“…This result is consistent with previous studies on sex differences in humor (Thorson and Powell, 1993b;Ziv, 1984) as well as Miller's sexual selection model that reproductive benefits for humorous displays would be greater for males than females (Miller, 2000c). Table 4 displays the bivariate correlations showing sex differences with regard to humor production.…”

Validation of the multidimensional sense of humor scale in people with chronic kidney disease

“…The reliability values were similar to the original version (α = 0.92), [12] US samples (α = 0.91), [13,14] Croatia (α = 0.88), [14] Australia (α = 0.92), [16] Spain (α = 0.89), [17] Portugal (α ranged from 0.63 to 0.93), [6,18] China (α = 0.88) [19] and Mexico (α = 0.91). [20] The α values obtained in this study are considered good.…”

“…The results differ from the original version that had four factors, [12] as well as, versions in US samples, [13] China [19] and Mexico. [20] Nevertheless, in a US [14] study performed on young and old people, six factors were found concerning the elderly sample.…”

“…The 24-item scale showed a Cronbach's α of 0.92, comprising the dimensions "Social production and use of humor", "Adaptive humor", "Appreciation of the humor" and "Attitude toward humor". [12] This scale has been validated in several languages and cultures, particularly in the following countries: United States of America (USA), [12][13][14] Croatia, [15] Australia, [16] Spain, [17] Portugal, [6,18] China [19] and Mexico. [20] Factor analysis has showed some differences in the first study; [12] in a sample of elderly from the USA six factors emerged, that were not present in young people (four factors); [14] in Croatia [15] the validation study resulted in a scale with five factors identical to the Portuguese version.…”