Take the Humor Styles Questionnaire

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Hanan Parvez
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affiliative humor style

The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) was developed by psychologist Rod Martin, author of The Psychology of Humor. You can use this questionnaire to find out your dominant humor style- the type of humor that you like most and engage in most often.

Humor is the glue of relationships and studies show that people with a sense of humor are perceived to be more confident. Having a sense of humor simply means that you have the ability to ‘sense’ humor i.e. you find certain things funny that make you laugh. People who have a sense of humor are often funny themselves and have a particular combination of humor styles.

Specifically, four humor styles have been identified- Affiliative humor, Self-enhancing humor, Aggressive humor and Self-defeating humor. The first two are positive (healthy) styles and the last two are negative (unhealthy).

humor styles

This questionnaire will measure your score on each of the four humor style scales. Each of us is a combination of all four of these styles.

What’s interesting about this questionnaire is that it tells you whether your styles are predominantly healthy or unhealthy. If your scores are high on Affiliative and Self-enhancing humor, your humor style is predominantly healthy. If your scores are high on Aggressive and Self-defeating humor, your humor style is predominantly unhealthy.

Taking the Humor Styles Questionnaire

The test consists of 32 items and you have to answer each item on a 7-point scale ranging from ‘Totally disagree’ to ‘Totally agree’. Choose the option that best applies to you most of the time. The test takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Your personal information will not be taken and your scores will not be stored in our database.

Humor Styles Questionnaire

1. I use humor to cheer others up.

2. If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor.

3. If someone makes a mistake, I'll often tease them about it.

4. I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should.

5. I don't have to work very hard at making other people laugh- I seem to be a naturally humorous person.

6. Even when I'm by myself, I'm often amused by the absurdities of life.

7. People are never offended or hurt by my sense of humor.

8. I will often get carried away in putting myself down if it makes my family or friends laugh.

9. I rarely make other people laugh by telling funny stories about myself.

10. If I am feeling upset or unhappy I usually try to think of something funny about the situation to make myself feel better.

11. When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it.

12. I often try to make people like or accept me more by saying something funny about my own weaknesses, blunders or faults.

13. I laugh and joke a lot with my friends.

14. My humorous outlook on life keeps me from getting overly upset or depressed about things.

15. I do not like it when people use humor as a way of criticizing or putting someone down.

16. I don't often say funny things to put myself down.

17. I usually don't like to tell jokes or amuse people.

18. If I'm by myself and I'm feeling unhappy, I make an effort to think of something funny to cheer myself up.

19. Sometimes I think of something that is so funny that I can't stop myself from saying it, even if it is not appropriate for the situation.

20. I often go overboard in putting myself down when I am making jokes or trying to be funny.

21. I enjoy making people laugh.

22. If I am feeling sad or upset, I usually lose my sense of humor.

23. I never participate in laughing at others even if all my friends are doing it.

24. When I am with friends or family, I often seem to be the one that other people make fun of or joke about.

25. I don't often joke around with my friends.

26. It is my experience that thinking about some amusing aspect of a situation is often a very effective way of coping with problems.

27. If I don't like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down.

28. If I am having problems or feeling unhappy, I often cover it up by joking around, so that even my closest friends don't know how I really feel.

29. I usually can't think of witty things to say when I'm with other people.

30. I don't need to be with other people to feel amused- I can usually find things to laugh about even when I'm by myself.

31. Even if something is really funny to me, I will not laugh or joke about it if someone will be offended.

32. Letting others laugh at me is my way of keeping my friends and family in good spirits.

Reference

Martin, R.A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., and 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, 37, 48-75.