The development of the Humor Structure Appreciation Scale and its relation to Sensation Seeking Inventory and Need for Closure Scale

Abstract

Three related studies are presented with the aim of investigating the individual differences in humour appreciation, sensation seeking and need for closure. In order to accomplish this, the construction and initial validation of a new instrument will be presented. The Humour Structure Appreciation Scale (HSAS) distinguishes between incongruity-resolution (INC-RES), and nonsense (NON) humour. The first study analyses the content validity of a broad item pool. The second study focused on the metric properties of the selected items. In the third study, the remaining jokes were given to a quota sample from Macedonia, along with measures of sensation seeking (Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking) and need for closure (Need for Closure Scale). Psychometric properties of the scales were investigated and showed to be satisfactory. Intercorrelations among the scales provide evidence for the construct validity of the HSAS.