The Sense of Humor Questionnaire: Conceptualization and rev iew of

This paper presents the background for developing the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ), including ideas that guided the ambition to design a tool for assessment of individual differences in sense of humor that was relatively neutral to variations in culture, content and technique. The test was first organized into three dimensions of items, based on face validity of content, with items oriented to openness to ambiguity, preference for humorous situations and emotional suggestibility. The first revision reduced items from twenty-seven to twenty-two. A second revision presented seven items on each of three dimensions that were theoretically founded on ideas of person-situation interactions. Research found that items on meta-message sensitivity (M-items) and liking of humorous situations (L-items) yielded fair alphas, whereas those on mirthful expression (E-items) did not. A review of research is presented based on scores from the M- and L-items of the SHQ. The SHQ-6 is a short form including three items from the M- and the L-dimensions, respectively. This scale has proven effective in research across a vide range of applications including the role of sense of humor in mood, coping, morbidity and mortality. An ultra-short version (SHQ-3) was included in a population health survey and provided descriptive evidence on the prevalence of sense of humor as well as the positive role for sense of humor in surviving into retirement. After age seventy this protective effect of sense of humor faded away.

extrav ersion-introv ersion according to the distinction proposed by Gustav Jung, and documented more laughter among the extrav erted students.
I n the 1940's, sev eral researchers proposed approaches to the assessment of indiv idual differences in sense of humor by asking people to assess the funniness of jokes (Andrew s, 1943;Cattell & Luborsky, 1947;Eysenck, 1942;Wolff, Smith & Murray, 1934).I n this w ay, Andrew s observ ed differences along six types of sense of humor (derision-superiority, reaction to debauchery, subtlety, play on w ords and ideas, sex, ridiculous-w ise-cracks).Eysenck reported support for the idea that extrav erted, aggressiv e and masculine personality traits w ere associated w ith a preference for emotional and sex-related jokes; w hereas social shyness (introv ersion) w as associated w ith a preference for cognitiv e and non-sex jokes.Cattell and Luborsky proposed thirteen dimensions along w hich indiv iduals differed in their appreciation of jokes.Wolff et al. presented jokes about Jew s to Jew s and non-Jew s and observ ed higher appreciation of such jokes among the latter as compared to the former.Thus, social identity and relations appeared to influence the appreciation of jokes abov e and beyond aspects of personality.
All these brav e pioneering approaches had sev eral limitations including the biase d focus upon appreciation of jokes, rather than being open-minded, like Kambouropoulou w as, in a neutral w ay to the w hole range of forms, techniques and contents of humorous cognitiv e processes and utterances.I t appeared risky to collect a sample of jokes from w ithin a particular cultural setting and present them as a reliable, objectiv e, and v alid test on sense of humor internationally.This concern prov oked a somew hat more neutral orientation to the assessment of indiv idual differences in sense of humor, in the hope that assessment might be less sensitiv e to local culture, social identity and techniques in the appreciation of humor.I t also appeared risky to focus upon indiv idual differences in frequency of laughter, giv en the fact that a subjectiv e state of mirth is not alw ays reflected in ov ert laughter.

An Exploratory Approach
Humor is a social phenomenon that had been extensiv ely explored throughout centuries, w hereas sense of humor is an aspect of personality that w as hardly explored and defined around 1970.Tentativ ely, and w ith a practical orientation to the need for operational assessment techniques, the first steps in the dev elopment of the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ) w ere taken in the preparation for a master´s thesis at the Univ ersity of Oslo in 1969(Sv ebak, 1969).Tw enty-sev en items w ere constructed w ithin each of three proposed broad components of sense of humor to Development and Applications of the SHQ 290 explore the possibility for empirical assessment of indiv idual differences.These three components w ere (1) openness to ambiguity), (2) liking of humorous situations and others and (3) emotional suggestibility/permissiv eness.Ninety-six univ ersity students completed the surv ey.
Biv ariate correlational findings rev ealed that the sum of scores in one group of items correlated significantly w ith the sum of scores in the tw o other groups of items (r = .74to .78,p < .001).I n this w ay, the three groups of items represented a broad conceptual approach to the assessment of potential aspects of sense of humor, rather than different orthogonal dimensions.Also, tw elv e items w ere better than the remaining fifteen at discriminating betw een indiv iduals w ith high v ersus medium and low total scores.Four of these w ere social attitude items, w hereas three w ere affectiv e items and fiv e w ere openness to ambiguous meta-communication items.
The distribution of total scores met requirements for being a normal distribution.

Tow ard a Conceptual Basis for the SHQ
The first step in improv ing the unpublished SHQ from the master´s thesis focused on openness to ambiguity and emotional suggestibility.Conceptually they w ere oriented to the appreciation of ambiguity, socio-emotional suggestibility and expressiv eness as general aspects of personality.One apparent problem w ith these broad components w as reflected in the high and positiv e correlations betw een scores on the three dimensions (see abov e).Also, total items w ere reduced from tw enty-sev en to tw enty-tw o.These selected items presented the participant w ith statements that addressed more specifically the content that w as assumed to be of relev ance to differences in sense of humor.
A conceptual analysis guided the rev ision.A model w as proposed (Sv ebak, 1974a) for psychological components that might be of particular importance to describing indiv idual differences in humor appreciation, mirthfulness and related ov ert laughter.I t w as presented as a "theory of sense of humor," despite the fact that a theoretical analysis of the concept itself w as not the focus of this model.How ev er, I t proposed a cognitiv e process w here any social phenomenon (identity, action, person, status, prestige, pow er, social system, ideology) is in some w ay presented and then redefined to cause diminishment through meta-communication.I t took sev eral more years before a precise conceptual analysis of the cognitiv e structure in humorous experience w as published (see Apter, 1982).
The proposed model defined tw o complimentary sets of three v ariables that modulated the response output to any potentially humorous stimulus.One set addressed situational characteristics and included the explicitness of any humorous meta-message as a stimulus, w hereas the tw o other counted interpersonal likings and socio-emotional permissiv eness (e.g., being w ith friends in a playful context w ill increase likelihood of ov ert and shared laughter in response to an intended humorous remark from one of the inmates).Moreov er, the model proposed a related set of person-v ariables that w ould define the sense of humor of any particular indiv idual and, therefore, explain the range of indiv idual differences in response to any potentially humorous stimulus.The most important of these person v ariables w as proposed to be the habitual sensitiv ity to humorous meta-messages that giv e rise to the experience of mirth.Ov ert laughter w ill depend upon the strength of tw o more v ariables, one being habitual liking of comical situations and interactions, and the other being habitual ov ert laughter response permissiv eness.Thus, the latter three v ariables w ere proposed as dimensions of sense of humor related to their more or less activ ating situational equiv alents, respectiv ely.
Tests on humor appreciation, such as the Humor Appreciation Test (O´Connell, 1969) and the Mirth Response Test (Doris & Fierman, 1956), appeared to be ignoring contextual social characteristics.I n this w ay, the proposed model prov ided for a better understanding of indiv idual differences in ov ert mirthful behav iour than w as possible in approaches w here the potentially humorous material w as presented as a stimulus w ith no attention giv en to other situational and indiv idual v ariables that might modulate any cov ert or ov ert response.I tems w ere organised along the three proposed dimensions of conceptual content (Sv ebak, 1974b) based upon face v alidity to distinguish betw een (1) sensitiv ity to humorous content and meta-messages (M-items), (2) attitude tow ard humorous people and situations (L-items) and (3) openness to the expression of mirth (E -items).
Four-step scoring formats w ere giv en to all items.The first group of items is illustrated by: "When I go to the mov ies I prefer to know beforehand w hat kind of a story I am to see" (Total agreement = 1; Total disagreement = 4).I tems in the L-dimension are illustrated by: "Fun is alw ays aimed at hurting some body" (Total agreement = 1; Total disagreement = 4).The expressiv eness items are illustrated as follow s: "Do you at times laugh so much that it actually hurts?"(Very seldom = 1; Very often = 4).There w ere sev en M-items, six L-items and nine E-items.
It soon became ev ident by face v alidity that the content of some items w ithin one dimension could be seen as fitting w ell also into another dimension.One example Development and Applications of the SHQ 292 from the M-dimension is the item "Do you easily laugh?" that might fit better w ithin the E-dimension despite the initial idea that laughter often is the consequence of experiencing a cognitiv e meta-message.Likew ise, in the L-dimension, the item "I prefer to w ork according to fixed rules and arrangements" might better be seen as an ideal item for the E-dimension due to the inherent orientation to a lifestyle opposite to impulsiv ity and non-planning, despite the initial intention that people w ho agree to this item w ould likely av oid impulsiv e social interactions that prov oke laughter.Or it could equally w ell fit in w ith the M -items because of its orientation to the av oidance of ambiguity.And, finally, the E-item "I hav e noticed that those w ho tell the jokes laugh the most themselv es" might better fit w ithin the L-dimension, despite the initial intention that agreement might reflect habitual need for socioexpressiv e inhibition.Alternativ ely, it might be seen as an item fitting w ithin the Mdimension due to agreement reflecting poor understanding of humorous metacommunication in general.
The obv ious dimensionality problems w ith the first published v ersion of the SHQ came on top of the complicating fact that there w ere still unev en numbers of items in the three sections of the SHQ.I n light of these problems, scores predicted surprisingly w ell the amount of laughter in a laboratory experiment w ith exposure to v ideo presentations of some of the most hilarious candid camera sequences from Norw egian TV in the early 1970ies (Sv ebak, 1974b).Ninety-six univ ersity students completed the 22-item SHQ and thirty w ere inv ited to take part in the laboratory experiment.They w ere recruited from across the w hole range of high to low total SHQ-scores, w ith ten from the highest, middle and low est one third of the distribution, respectiv ely, and they w ere balanced for gender.For the initial sample of ninety-six students, scores on the three dimensions correlated moderately positiv ely w ith each other (r´s from .29 to .38).
L-scores positiv ely predicted amount of laughter among the males (<.05), w hereas the E-scores positiv ely predicted laughter for the females (p<.01).From a theoretical point of v iew , these findings w ere interesting for tw o reasons.First, they supported the assumption in the theoretical model (Sv ebak, 1974a) that occurrence of laughter is strongly dependent upon the laughter inhibiting tendencies of an indiv idual (the Land E-components), and less dependent upon the M -component, w hich giv es rise to the subjectiv e experience of mirth ev en w hen mirthfulness is not displayed to others.Secondly, the structure of the findings could be taken as confirmation of the contemporary sex role stereotypes, w ith males being relativ ely more strongly committed to the social context as opposed to females being more directly sensitiv e to the emotional consequence in their ov ert responses to humor.
The lack of predictions for the M -item scores, how ever, may not hav e reflected a structural relationship w ith the L-and E-components of the sense of humor concept.
At a more triv ial lev el, it may hav e been due to a too broad orientation for the items included in this dimension, as items on general serious-mindedness w ere also employed here (e. g. item 7:"We liv e in a w orld filled w ith so many serious problems and challenges that w e ought to spend less time on triv ial amusements" (Sv ebak, 1974b).

Rev ision of the SHQ
The next rev ised SHQ (Sv ebak, 1974c) presented sev en items on each sub -scale and kept the four-step scoring format from the initial SHQ.An example from the dimension of sensitiv ity to humorous messages (M -items) is item M-1: "Do you easily recognize a hint like a tw inkle or slight change in emphasis as a mark of humorous intent?"Another example is item M -4: "Would you say that you hav e much cause for amusement during an ordinary day?" Whereas the first item may t ap into perceptual sensitiv ity, the second example may be more oriented to assessing the degree of a playful humorous attitude to ev eryday life.
The habitual liking of comical situations and humorous others dimension (L-items), is illustrated by item L-3: "Persons w ho are alw ays out to be funny are really irresponsible types not to be relied upon," and by item L-7: "I t is my impression that those w ho try to be funny really do it to hide their lack of self-confidence".Notice the negativ e orientation to the L-items that is due to the fact that a w ider distribution of scores w as obtained w ith this orientation than w ith a positiv e one.
The third set of items are oriented to the habitual tendency of an indiv idual to permit or suppress emotional impulses of mirthfulness and joy in general (E-items).These items are illustrated by E-2: "I appreciate people w ho tolerate all kinds of emotional outlets?" and E-4: "Do you sometimes find yourself laughing in situations w here laughter is quite out of place?"This rev ised SHQ w as administered in an exploratory manner to sev enty-one univ ersity students in physical sciences and ninety-one in social sciences, balanced for gender.Results show ed that the three sets of items contributed in a balanced w ay to the total score.Only item E-5 presented a skew ed distribution w ith low scores ("I f you had an unrestrained fit of laughing, w ould you later suffer from misgiv ings in case others think you w ere a bit of an exhibitionist?").Scores on the M -items correlated moderately w ith the scores on the L-and E-items (r = .34and .27,respectiv ely); w hereas scores on the E-items w ere unrelated to those on the L-items.This pattern of relations supported the point that ov ert laughter is a poor indicator of sense of humor, as there are many sources of laughter beyond humorous cognitiv e processes (see e.g.Giles & Oxford, 1970).I n retrospect, there w ere also obv ious content v alidity problems w ith some E-items that w ere carried ov er from the prev ious versions, such as E-7: "Do you consider yourself to be of an impulsiv e nature?"Despite these problems w ith the E-items, findings from the L-and E-items w ere consistent w ith social stereotypes that flourished in the 1970's for gender and recruitment of psychologically somew hat different types of students into physical and social sciences.
A more extensiv e series of v alidating studies of the rev ised SHQ came from Rod Martin and his collaborators and are presented in the book based upon his Ph.D. (Lefcourt & Martin, 1986).Generally, the intern al consistency of the M -and L-items w ere acceptable (alphas in the .60'sand .70's),w hereas it w as poor for the E-items.
Due to lack of internal consistency for the E-subscale, only the M-and L-items w ere included in their further research.Scores on these tw o subscales correlated significantly w ith scores on the Humor Coping Scale (HCS); w hereas only M -item scores correlated significantly w ith the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ).Also, the M-and L-scores correlated w ith peer ratings on sense of humor (responsiv eness to humor), w ith slightly higher coefficients for the L-than for the Mitems.Humor production, how ev er, yielded a significant correlation only w ith the Litems.From a theoretical point of v iew , high sensitiv ity to humorous meta-messages should be expected in people w ho score high on the M -items and high or low on humor production.For the rev ised SHQ, sev eral other studies hav e tested corr elations of scores w ith other measures of sense of humor.The M -and L-items hav e consistently come out w ith the highest coefficients (see Ruch, 1998).SHQ, Gender, Self-esteem and Personality Deaner and McConatha (1993) studied the association of sense of humor w ith depression and personality in thirty-eight male and ninety-one female college students.They all completed three questionnaires for the assessment of sense of humor, including the SHQ (Sv ebak, 1974c), one depression scale and the Eysenck Personality I nv entory.Results indicated that students scoring high on all humor scales also tended to score high on the extrav ersion and emotional stability scales, and low er on the depression scale.Gender w as of no significance to these associations.Franzini (1996) measured sense of humor w ith the SHQ (Sv ebak, 1974c) and a selfrated sense of humor estimate among 175 females w ho also completed femininity and attitudes tow ard w omen scales.The purpose w as to ev aluate the assumption that feminist w omen lack a sense of humor.Her results stated that scores on the SHQ w ere positiv ely correlated w ith scores on self-rated sense of humor as w ell as an item on how often others laugh at their humorous remarks.I n this w ay, there w as v alidating support to the SHQ, w hereas no support w as found for the idea that feminist w omen hav e a low sense of humor.
Tw o years earlier, Franzini and Haggerty (1994) compared sense of humor across mixed gender groups of program managers (N=34), humor seminar students (N=29) and undergraduates (N=26).Results from one-w ay analyses of v ariance indicated that females scored higher than males on the L-items of the SHQ (1974c), suggesting that females, on av erage, tended to enjoy humorous interaction more than males.
The greater salience of the social component of sense of humor among females appears to be a robust finding that has also been supported in studies of children, w ith a preference for hostile humor relativ ely more prev alent among boys (Bergen, 2009).Franzini and Haggerty reported no other gender difference.For participant groups, humor seminar students scored higher than the other tw o groups on the Mitems and on the total SHQ, suggesting that the humor seminar students w ere particularly sensitiv e to potential sources of humor in ev eryday life.Kuiper and Martin (1993) inv estigated the association of sense of humor w ith selfesteem in undergraduate students in London, Ontario.These participants completed four scales on sense of humor including the M -and L-item sub-scales of the SHQ.
They also completed a series of sixty self-descriptiv e adjectiv es on actual v ersus ideal self.Results indicated that students scoring high on the humor scales also scored low on discrepancy betw een ideal and real self.And those scoring high on the humor scales w ere less likely to reflect unrealistic, dysfunctional and perfectionist standards of self-image.
The idea of an association of sense of humor w ith mental health, on av erage, has been moderately supported in empirical research.Kuiper and Martin (1988) compared results from fiv e student samples to see how w ell sense of humor and dispositional optimism related to subjectiv e w ellbeing.The humor scales included the Humor Coping Scale, Situational Humor Response Questionnaire and the M -and Lsub-scales of the SHQ.The findings rev ealed that scores on the humor scales w ere only moderately associated w ith optimism (r = .18and .17for the L-and M-items, respectiv ely); and that they w ere only moderately associated w ith a number of indicators of w ellbeing, including self-acceptance, positiv e relations w ith others, mastery, autonomy and goals in life, in most of the samples (ov erall r = .28and .39 for the L-and M-scores, respectiv ely).I n one sample (79 females, 57 males; mean age 19.7), scores on the L-and M-items correlated negativ ely w ith scores on a measure of social av oidance and distress (r = -34 and -.44, respectiv ely), and so did scores on the Coping Humor Scale and the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire.
Optimism turned out to be more strongly associated w ith these indicators of psychological w ellbeing than w ere measures of sense of humor (see Kuiper & Martin, 1998).

SHQ and Moderation of Stress
The first stress-moderating study using the SHQ, w as presented by Lefcourt and Martin (1986), and this study focused upon moods (Profile of Mood States: McNair, Lorr & Droppelman, 1971) ov er the last month in fifty -six univ ersity students w ho also completed the SHRQ, CHS, SHQ and the Life Ev ents of College Students scale (Sandler & lakey, 1982).Results confirmed a significant stress-moderating role for the L-items upon negativ e mood, due to the interaction of L-scores w ith negativ e life ev ent scores.Negativ e mood w as less likely reported in students w ith high negativ e life ev ents, prov ided they also scored high on the L-items.Similar moderating effects w ere seen for scores on the SHRQ and CHS, but not for the M -items of the SHQ.
A few years later, Martin and Dobbin (1988) reported similar moderating effects of sense of humor upon consequences of daily hassles and their effects upon saliv ary immunoglobulin A (I g-A) in thirty participants w ho also completed the SHRQ, CHS and SHQ.Results confirmed the moderating effect of sense of humor w hen assessed by the SHRQ, CHS and, most significantly (p<.01), for the M-scores of the SHQ.

The SHQ and Negativ e Moods
Sense of humour is not a synonym for positiv e mood but, rather, an aspect of personality that may protect against dramatizing interpretations of ev eryday frustrations and mishaps that might otherw ise facilitate negativ e moods.I n this w ay, sense of humor has long been acknow ledged as a form of defence mechanism that helps people cope w ith negativ e life ev ents.This perspectiv e on sense of humor has gained support in sev eral studies, and some of them included the SHQ.As one illustration, Kuiper, Martin and Dance (1992) tested the association of sense of humor w ith quality of life using a set of humor questionnaires (CHS, SHRQ, SHQ) and measures of positiv e and negativ e life ev ents.Results confirmed a stress-buffering role for sense of humor.Significant interactions w ere found betw een stressful negativ e life events and sense of humor in predicting positiv e affect.Under stressful negativ e life ev ents, those indiv iduals scoring high on sense of humor reported more positiv e affect than those scoring low on sense of humor.Of particular interest, this buffering role w as most ev ident for scores on the M -items of the SHQ.
The SHQ and Subjectiv e Health Sense of humor might reduce the risk of ill health in a number of potential w ays.
These w ere outlined in detail by Martin (2007) and include potential beneficial effects of laughter, as w ell as more indirect effects of sense of humor such as the often defusing cognitiv e coping style in sense of humor, the interpersonal mechanisms that might prov ide increased social support in humorous indiv iduals, and promotion of a healthy lifestyle that may be associated w ith high sense of humor.
Generally, results from empirical studies offer v ery little direct support for any of these hypotheses.How ev er, the findings obtained from sev enty-one univ ersity students in a 1993 study by Sv ebak supported a moderating role for sense of humor in prev alence of bodily complaints, w hen exposed to enduring stressful life ev ents.Participants completed the SHQ, the Tension and Effort Stress I nv entory (TESI : see Svebak, 1993) and the Ursin Health I nv entory (UHI : Ursin, Endresen & Ursin, 1988).Findings supported a stress-moderating effect of sense of humor upon musculoskeletal complaints (p<.03), upper as w ell as low er gastrointestinal complaints (p<.0001) and immunerelated complaints (p<.0006), w ith low er complaint scores under stress in participants w ith high scores than in those w ith low scores on the L-items of the SHQ.The stressmoderating effect of sense of humor (L-scores) accounted for a 7 % increase in the predicted v ariance for musculoskeletal complaints, more than a 20 % increase in the v ariance for gastrointestinal complaints, and a 19 % increase in the v ariance for immune-related complaints.
The role of sense of humor in subjectiv e health w as also addressed in a sample of one hundred and thirty-tw o undergraduates w ho completed scales on sense of humor, including the M -and L-items of the SHQ, and a broad range of questions on physical symptoms, health-related lifestyle, and fear of death and disease (Kuiper & Nicoll, 2004).Results indicated a moderately reduced fear of death and disease among those scoring high on the M -and L-items of the SHQ.These indiv iduals w ere also less preoccupied about bodily functions and states than w ere those scoring low on these items, and scores on the L-items w ere high among students reporting reduced concern about pain and general w orry about their health.
From SHQ to SHQ-6 Sev eral concerns prov oked a third rev ision of the SHQ from the master´s thesis.One w as the need for a shorter scale.The ultimate goal of item reduction w as to increase the possibility for inclusion of a short measure of sense of humor in a surv ey w ithout reducing the motiv ation to comply or the percentage of participation.A second concern w as the poor internal consistency of the E-items.The high number of different causes of laughter, beyond that of mirthful laughter due to experience of humor, meant that achiev ement of a culturally neutral sub-scale on humor causations of laughter might be difficult to achiev e.I n light of these tw o major concerns, the third rev ision aimed at dev eloping a shorter scale w ith only items from the M-and L-subscales included.
This third rev ision w as based on scores from more than one thousand high school students w ho completed the 21-item v ersion of the SHQ (Sv ebak, 1996).Although this cohort w as not a representativ e sample of the population, the completion rate w as very high (abov e 90 %).The initial factor solution in this sample yielded a first factor w ith nine items loading abov e .65.There w ere three M -items, four L-items and tw o E-items in this factor.A second factor had three M -items w ith loadings abov e .62.I n short, the pattern of findings supported a preference for one main factor composed of three M -items and three L-items, based upon particularly high factor loadings.These six items w here then pooled together and subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis, w ith a resulting Cronbach alpha of .85(N=995).Gender had no effect on this internal consistency measure (males:  = .83;females:  = .87).
All six items presented unrotated factor scores abov e .69,w ith the rotated factor loadings clearly reflecting the distinction betw een M-and L-items.Scores w ere summed across the six items and tested for correlations w ith the original SHQsubscale scores.As expected, high coefficients w ere obtained for the SHQ-6 w ith the M-and L-scores (.74 and .80,respectiv ely), w hereas the E-subscale coefficient w as low er (.59).Also, high scores on the SHQ-6 w ere seen among students scoring low on depression (-.42) and high on life regard (meaningful frames in life: .24;goal fulfilment: .24).
Ov erall, it w as concluded that the SHQ-6 emerged w ith good internal consistency and some indication of specificity.Most of all, the short list of items promised high efficacy for the assessment of sense of humor in surv ey studies w here high numbers of total items reduce motiv ation and compliance among participants.Further support for the reliability and v alidity of the SHQ-6 has come from many studies including the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray & Weir, 2003).Scores on the SHQ-6 correlated significantly w ith scores on the affiliativ e (r = .54)and self-enhanching (r = .45)sub-scales, but not w ith scores on the tw o hostile sub-scales (aggressiv e: r = .12;self-defeating: r = .16).As such, the SHQ-6 generally appears to be oriented tow ard measuring a friendly humor style.
The SHQ-6 in Adolescent Health Three studies hav e been published using the SHQ-6 in a sample of more than one thousand high school students in Norw ay.A surv ey measure w as distributed to 1,162 students and scored by 1,069 students in class (response rate of 92 %).They w ere split betw een 698 students in an urban setting and 372 in a rural setting; and represented a total of 524 girls and 545 boys balanced across the tw o settings.
The first study w as purely descriptiv e and uncov ered a surprisingly strong difference in SHQ-6 scores betw een students liv ing in urban v ersus rural env ironments (Naper Jensen, Sv ebak & Götestam, 2004).The urban students scored, on av erage, around 19.This w as opposed to the urban students w ho scored, on av erage, around 15 w ith no significant difference betw een males and females.The urban v ersus rural env ironments also show ed highly significant differences in depression (Zung selfrating depression scale), dysphoric moods (Eysenck Neuroticism scale), meaningfulness in life (Life Regard I ndex w ith sub-scales for Goals in life and Achiev ement of goals) and bodily complaints (more complaints among urban adolescents w ith highest scores among these females).Highly significant correlations emerged for scores on depression w ith sense of humor (-.42, p<.00004) and ov erall meaningfulness (-.43, p<.00004).The ov erall pattern in these results clearly fav oured the rural setting for adolescence.Differences suggested better mental as w ell as bodily health and greater coherence in ev eryday life as compared w ith the urban setting that appeared to offer inferior conditions for the facilitation of meaningfulness and sense of humor.
A second publication from this sample of adolescents focused upon bodily complaints and their relationships w ith the psychological v ariables of perceiv ed stress, related efforts to cope, meaningfulness and sense of humor (Sv ebak, Götestam & Naper Jensen, 2004).Confirmatory factor analyses of the tw o subscales of the Life Regard I ndex suggested low internal consistencies ( = .62and 63).A procedure of stepw ise item deletion w as therefore performed until the internal consistency of the remaining items reached the recommended criterion of .70.One subscale w as named Meaning ( = .73)and the other w as named I mportance ( = .76).The Meaning scale reflected an ov erriding perspectiv e on life, w hereas the I mportance scale reflected degree of importance attributed to activ ities of ev eryday life.
Due to the higher complaint scores among females, effect of gender ( p<.0004) w as eliminated in hierarchical regression analyses.Lev el of perceiv ed stress w as highly significant among adolescents scoring high on complaints (p<.0004).A direct effect of sense of humor upon bodily complaints w as not confirmed.How ev er, high scores on Meaning w ere associated w ith low complaint scores (p<.009).Furthermore, the scores on I mportance interacted significantly w ith sense of humor to explain significant amounts of v ariance in bodily complaints (p<.001).High complaint scores w ere seen among adolescents scoring high on I mportance and low on sense of humor or low on I mportance and high on sense of humor.There is no prev ious published research on these relationships for this age cohort.We therefore speculated that the buffering role for sense of humor upon bodily complaints among adolescents is moderated by the lev el of importance attributed to activ ities of ev eryday life.With low sense of humor low importance is to be preferred, and w ith high sense of humor high importance is to be preferred to reduce risk of bodily complaints.I n this w ay, results confirmed prev ious findings from adult samples w ere complex relations hav e been reported for sense of humor w ith bodily complaints.

SHQ-6 and Personality
Recently, Randler (2008) reported from a surv ey of one hundred and ninety sev en students w ho completed a scale on morningness-ev eningness, the short Big Fiv e personality inv entory and the SHQ-6.Results supported a significant association of ev ening orientation w ith high sense of humor scores, and this association w as significant after controlling for the personality dimensions.How ev er, this association w as significant only among the w omen and for the L-items.Again, this association prov ides support to a gender difference w here females appear to appreciate humorous social interaction more than males, and the females w ith an ev ening orientation may hav e found the best opportunities for such social interaction in the ev enings.
Recruitment of employees often inv olv es personality assessment to reduce turnov er.
Lange and Houran (2009) inv estigated the importance of personality traits among one hundred and eight managers and human resource professionals w ho rated the Europe's Journal of Psychology 301 perceived importance of thirty-one performance traits for line, middle and senior employees.Strong consensus w as found, and the importance of traits differed across the three groups of employees.Non-social skills, ethical aw areness, self-motiv ation, verbal ability, problem solv ing and creativ ity w ere rated as more important for higher lev el employees, w hereas service orientation, communication style, agreeableness, sensitiv ity to div ersity and sense of humor w ere rated as more important for low er lev el employees.Age and gender of the respondents w ere not related to these findings.Beermann and Ruch (2009) compared scores on tw elve survey measures of sense of humor to determine how humor may be related to v irtues and v ices.Sixty female and sixteen male univ ersity students in psychology took part in the first study, w ith results show ing a pattern for all six SHQ-items to be attributed to the positiv e v icev irtue end of the scale.I n contrast, a scale on jokes and tricks had items w here all fell in the negativ e end of the v ice-v irtue dimension.Six male and elev en female students in philosophy and theology participated in the second study w here items w ere assessed across all the six classical v irtues (w isdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence).Results show ed that most items did not load any particular v irtue, and that some items loaded slightly or moderately on w isdom, courage, humanity or transcendence.I n conclusion, these results supported the position that items in current sense of humor scales reflect, to v arying degrees, a sense of humor that is v ice and v irtuous; and that the SHQ-6 items are in the v icev irtuous end of the distribution.This finding is in accord w ith the positiv e correlation of SHQ-6 scores w ith scores on affiliativ e humor styles (see abov e).

SHQ-6 in Coping w ith Life Stress and Bodily Complaints
The SHQ-6 w as included in a controlled field study that tested effects of implementing school nursing in urban Norw egian high schools (Sv ebak, Naper Jensen & Götestam, 2008).This report appears to be the first controlled study to test such effects and also included surv ey measures on perceiv ed stress, efforts inv ested to cope, positiv e and negativ e moods, and health complaints.The surv ey w as administered in class, at both baseline and one year later.One sample of students w as offered school nursing and students in other classes w ere not (total N=104 balanced for gender).At baseline, there w as no association betw een being or not being offered the school nursing serv ice and sense of humor.Surprisingly, after one year, those w ithout school nursing had significantly raised their sense of humor scores w ith no change in the experimental group.One might speculate that school nursing may take some of the burden of coping w ith adolescence off the students and that Development and Applications of the SHQ 302 those w ith no such serv ice had to inv est more efforts in dev eloping their ow n intrinsic coping skills, including sense of humor.This pioneering study calls upon replication on a larger scale and in a div ersity of cultural settings.
Helv ik, Jacobsen, Sv ebak and Hallberg (2007) studied the importance of sense of humour in coping w ith hearing impairments.Consecutiv e patients (N=343) ov er one year at an outpatient hearing impairment clinic completed the SHQ-6, the Communication Strategies Scale (CSS), w ith subscales for maladaptiv e behav iour as w ell as v erbal and non-v erbal strategies.The findings show ed that high scores on sense of humor w ere associated w ith being female and a younger age.Also, frequent use of maladaptiv e behav iour w as related to younger age, long duration of hearing impairment and low sense of humor.Furthermore, maladaptiv e behav iour, expressed as negativ e reactions to stressful ev ents in communication, w as negativ ely associated w ith sense of humour.These results tentativ ely suggested a role for sense of humor in the choice of communication strategies among people coping w ith hearing impairment.When corrected for age, degree of hearing impairment and duration of impairment, sense of humor still significantly explained the presence of adaptiv e behav ioural coping strategies.
One study tested the association of pain from gallbladder stones w ith scores on sense of humor (SHQ-6) and measures of positiv e coping resources (Life Regard I ndex, Sense of Coherence Scale), as w ell as negativ e coping resources (EPQ-Neuroticism, Tension and Effort Stress I nv entory: Sv ebak, Søndenaa, Hausken, Søreide, Hammar & Berstad, 2000).Tw enty-eight patients w ith recent acute cholecystitis w ere recruited consecutiv ely into the study at the Haukeland Univ ersity Hospital.Ultrasonography defined number and size of stones as w ell as degree of damage to the gallbladder w all.All patients completed a pain index of four items related to pain in the upper right abdominal quadrant.Surprisingly, scores on the pain index w ere uncorrelated w ith objectiv e indicators from ultrasonography on the sev erity of the gallbladder condition.I nstead, multiple regression analyses of explained v ariance in the pain index show ed that the positiv e coping resource model w ith Life Regard I ndex and SHQ-6 (the three L-items in particular) accounted for 40 % of the v ariance in pain.The higher these scores, the low er the reported pain, and both v ariables accounted for their equal share of the v ariance.Conv ersely, the negativ e coping resource model w ith EPQ-N (dysphoric nerv ousness) and negativ e moods in general, accounted for 45 % of the v ariance in pain, most of this latter v ariance being accounted for by the EPQ-N v ariable.These results clearly indicated a role for psychological coping resources in ev eryday life for these patients , and sense of humor appeared to play a significant role.