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 inhumour appreciation, sensation seeking and need for closure. In order to accomplish this, theconstruction and initial validation of a new instrument will be presented. The HumourStructure Appreciation Scale (HSAS) distinguishes between incongruity-resolution (INC-RES), and nonsense (NON) humour. The first study analyses the content validity of a broaditem pool. The second study focused on the metric properties of the selected items. In thethird study, the remaining jokes were given to a quota sample from Macedonia, along withmeasures of sensation seeking (Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking) and need for closure(Need for Closure Scale). Psychometric properties of the scales were investigated andshowed to be satisfactory. Intercorrelations among the scales provide evidence for theconstruct validity of the HSAS.