Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ, Martin et al.)
Psychology: PersonalityReliability: alphas 0.77–0.81 across 4 styles4 sample items
About this scale
A 32-item measure of four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Two adaptive (affiliative, self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive, self-defeating).
Sample item(s)
“I enjoy making people laugh (affiliative)”
“Even when I'm by myself, I'm often amused by the absurdities of life (self-enhancing)”
“If someone makes a mistake, I will often tease them about it (aggressive)”
“I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should (self-defeating)”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alphas 0.77–0.81 across 4 styles. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Free for academic use.
Source & citation
Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (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, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 48–75.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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