Validation of the Arabic Humor Styles Questionnaire in a Community Sample of Lebanese in Lebanon

Abstract

The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) is a measure of two potentially beneficial (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two potentially detrimental (self-defeating and aggressive) humor styles. Validation of the Arabic translation of the HSQ in the Lebanese culture, in which the self is construed as interdependent and in-group relatedness is seen as the primary determinant of well-being, indicates that four humor styles exist in the Lebanese context but that aggressive humor is less clearly distinct in this case, that self-defeating humor may be less clearly maladaptive for the interdependent self of the Lebanese, and that the four humor styles are not as strong predictors of psychological and social well-being in the Lebanese context as they are in the West. The findings suggest conceptual rethinking of humor styles in cultural contexts in which the self is construed as interdependent.