Incremental validity of life satisfaction over personality traits in prediction of styles of humor

Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to examine the nature of relationships between personality traits, life satisfaction, and humor styles. The survey was conducted on a sample of 180 students from the University of Novi Sad (98 women and 82 men; Mage = 27). Instruments that were employed were: the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ: Zuckerman et al., 1993), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS: Diener et al., 1985) and Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ: Martin et al., 2003). Relationships between the constructs were examined using four hierarchical regression analyses. The four HSQ subscales scores were criteria. Personality traits were added as predictors in the first step, whereas life satisfaction was entered in the second. Sociability was a significant predictor of Affiliative humor in both steps. Life satisfaction made a substantial contribution to the prediction of the Affiliative style. Regarding the Self-enhancing style, Aggressiveness- Hostility was registered as a significant predictor in both steps (negative direction). Also, in the second step, life satisfaction acted as a significant predictor of the Self-enhancing style whereas Impulsive Sensation Seeking had a marginal contribution. As predictors of the Aggressive style, the dimensions of Aggression-Hostility and Impulsive Sensation Seeking were registered. The dimensions of Neuroticism-Anxiety and Impulsive Sensation Seeking proved to be significant predictors of the Self-defeating style. Based on the results, we can assume that personality traits are good predictors of preferences for a particular style of humor. Also, we can conclude that life satisfaction is a predictor of Affiliative and Self-enchancing humor.