Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS)

Abstract

The Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) is a psychometrics instrument designed to capture the multifaceted nature of an individual’s sense of humor. Developed by Thorson and Powell, the 24-item scale moves beyond simple self-ratings to assess humor across four distinct dimensions: creative expression, social utility, coping mechanisms, and general appreciation of humor. The MSHS is valuable in personality and health psychology research for understanding how dispositional humor relates to well-being and adaptation.

Keywords

Humor, sense of humor, personality, coping, psychometrics, psychological assessment, humor creativity, social humor, MSHS, Thorson and Powell.

Authors

J.A. Thorson, F.C. Powell.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the MSHS is to provide a comprehensive, multi-dimensional assessment tool for an individual’s sense of humor, differentiating between various critical functions such as social utility, cognitive creativity, and adaptive mechanisms. The scale was developed to improve upon earlier instruments that often treated humor as a unitary or unidimensional trait, thereby limiting its predictive power in clinical and personality studies.

By measuring specific facets of humor, the MSHS allows researchers to explore how different aspects of humor relate to psychological well-being, specific personality dimensions, and effectiveness in managing stressful situations.

Construct

The MSHS measures Sense of Humor, conceptualized not as a single trait but as a dispositional characteristic composed of four distinct, yet interconnected dimensions. This approach provides a nuanced understanding of how individuals engage with and utilize humor in their daily lives, encompassing both the ability to produce and appreciate humor, as well as its functional application.

The four core dimensions measured by the scale are:

• Humor creativity and uses of humor for social purposes: Reflects the ability to generate jokes or funny stories and use humor effectively to facilitate social interaction and influence group dynamics.
• Uses of coping humor: Measures the extent to which an individual employs humor as an adaptive mechanism to master or alleviate difficult and stressful situations, functioning as a form of emotional regulation.
• Appreciation of humorous people: Assesses the respondent’s positive regard for and enjoyment of individuals who are known to generate humor.
• Appreciation of humor: Measures general enjoyment and positive disposition toward jokes, comics, and humorous content in various media.

Validity

The MSHS has demonstrated strong evidence for construct validity, confirmed primarily through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, which consistently supports the proposed four-factor structure across diverse samples. This structure aligns well with theoretical models suggesting humor is a complex, multidimensional trait.

Further evidence of validity comes from correlations with established scales measuring broader personality dimensions, such as those related to extraversion and neuroticism, suggesting that the MSHS measures theoretically linked traits. Cross-cultural studies, such as those involving Portuguese samples (José et al., 2007), have also confirmed the structural integrity and applicability of the scale in different linguistic and cultural contexts.

Reliability

Internal consistency of the MSHS is reported as generally high. Initial development studies (Thorson & Powell, 1993) indicated acceptable to good reliability coefficients, typically showing Cronbach’s alpha values exceeding 0.80 for the total scale score, indicating strong homogeneity among the items.

The individual subscales also exhibit sufficient internal consistency, suggesting that the items within each of the four dimensions reliably measure their intended construct. Test-retest reliability over short intervals has been utilized to confirm the stability of the measure, demonstrating that scores remain consistent when administered repeatedly to the same individuals.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the MSHS was established using Factor analysis, which confirmed its multidimensional nature. The original studies by Thorson and Powell identified four primary, orthogonal factors underlying the 24 items, supporting the theoretical differentiation of humor functions into creation, social use, coping, and appreciation.

The results of the factor analysis ensured that the items loading on Factor 1 primarily related to social and creative humor, Factor 2 to adaptive coping, and Factors 3 and 4 to different aspects of appreciation. This empirical structure validates the scale’s claim to be a comprehensive, multidimensional measure.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Psychometric Scale

Format: 24 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = Strongly disagree; 4 = Strongly agree). Includes 8 reversed items.

Language Available: English (Original), Portuguese (Validated Sample).

Population Group: General population, primarily adults and college students.

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults (Typically 18+).

Population Details: Used extensively in non-clinical settings for research into personality traits, stress management, and psychological well-being; initial samples included college students and community adults.

Test Methodology: The scale is typically administered in a pencil-and-paper or digital format. Scoring requires summing the item scores, ensuring that the 8 designated reversed items (4, 8, 11, 13, 17, 20) are appropriately reverse-scored before calculating the total score or subscale scores for the four factors.

Keywords

Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale, MSHS, Thorson, Powell, humor assessment, psychological measurement, adaptive humor, social competence, validity, reliability.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified.

Correspondence Address: Not specified.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The MSHS was initially developed and validated in 1991 and 1993. The instrument is generally available for non-commercial academic research purposes, often found in published literature through the provided references. Specific permissions and fees for commercial use or large-scale administration should be sought directly from the authors or copyright holders, though detailed fee information is not specified in the source material.

Reference’s

• Thorson, J.A., & Powell, F.C. (1991). Measurement of sense of humor. Psychological Reports, 69, 691-701.
• Thorson, J. A., & Powell, F. C. (1993). Development and validation of a multidimensional sense of humor scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49(1), 13–23.
• Thorson, J. A., & Powell, F. C. (1993). Sense of humor and dimensions of personality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 4(6), 799–809.
• Kohler, G., & Ruch, W. (1996). Sources of variance in current sense of humor inventories. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 9, 363-397.
• Batten, Sandra. (2002). “A preliminary investigation of sense of humor and purpose in life” University of Nebraska at Omaha. Student Work. Paper 187.
• José, H., and Parreira, P., Thorson, J. A., & Allwardt, D. (2007). A Factor-Analytic Study of the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale with a Portuguese Sample. North American Journal of Psychology, 2007, Vol. 9, No. 3, 595-610.
• Thorson & Powell, (1991, 1993a, 1993b). multidimensional sense of humor scale. In: Simmons C. A., Lehmann P. (eds). Tools for strengths-based assessment and evaluation, New York, NY: Springer, pp. 211-213. (2013).

Further resources regarding the instrument can be found at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=68w8bbEAAAAJ&hl=en and http://humorstudies.org/ISHS%20Test%20Bank/TestCat_MSHS.htm.

Items of the Multidimensional sense of humor scale (MSHS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. Sometimes I think up jokes or funny stories
2. Uses of wit or humor help me ma‎ster difficult situations
3. I’m confident that I can make other people laugh
4. I dislike comics*
5. Other people tell me that I say funny things
6. I can use wit to help adapt to many situations
7. I can ease a tense situation by saying something funny
8. People who tell jokes are a pain in the neck*
9. I can often crack people up with the things I say
10. I like a good joke
11. Calling somebody a “comedian” is a real insult*
12. I can say things in such a way as to make people laugh
13. Humor is a lousy coping mechanism*
14. I appreciate those who generate humor
15. People look to me to say amusing things
16. Humor helps me cope
17. I’m uncomfortable when everyone is cracking jokes*
18. I’m regarded as something of a wit by my friends
19. Coping by using humor is an elegant way of adapting
20. Trying to ma‎ster situations through uses of humor is really dumb*
21. I can actually have some control over a gr‎oup ‎by using humor
22. Uses of humor help to put me at ease
23. I use humor to entertain my friends
24. My clever sayings amuse others

* reversed item

Scoring is based on a 5-point Likert scale:

• 0 = Strongly disagree
• 1 = Disagree
• 2 = Undecided
• 3 = Agree
• 4 = Strongly agree