Sensation seeking and the situational humour response questionnaire (SHRQ): its relationship in American and German samples

Abstract

The present study examines the relationship between the trait of sensation seeking (SS) and the sense of humour construct as measured by the Situational Humour Response Questionnaire [SHRQ, Martin & Lefcourt (1984) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 145–155]. The SHRQ measures the frequency with which the individual smiles, laughs, or otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations. Since these situations can be very demanding and risky, it was hypothesized that high SSs will be better able to cope with them whereas the low SS will be less likely to experience positive emotions in such situations. The SSS (Sensation Seeking Scale) and the SHRQ were administered to samples from Indiana (N=206) and Germany (N=159). The results showed that in both samples all four SS subscales and the total scale correlated positively with the SHRQ with the thrill and adventure seeking scale correlating the highest. It is argued that the SHRQ measures characteristics of both SS and extraversion which probably will not overlap to a great extent with traditional humour stimuli.