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Need for Humor Scale: validation with French children
Delphine Picard1, Nathalie Blanc
1Aix Marseille Université & Institut Universitaire de France, Centre PsyCLE, 29 Av. Schuman, 13621 Aix-en-Provence, France. delphine.picard@univ-amu.fr
Psychological Reports
|July 10, 2013
Summary
The French Need for Humor (NFH) Scale is a reliable tool for measuring humor tendencies in children and adults. High NFH scores in children correlate with positive responses to humorous advertisements.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Personality Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
Background:
- The Need for Humor (NFH) Scale assesses an individual's tendency to produce and seek humor.
- Humor processing and recall are influenced by this personality trait.
- Transcultural adaptation is crucial for applying psychological measures across different populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To adapt and validate the Need for Humor (NFH) Scale for French-speaking populations.
- To confirm the psychometric properties of the French NFH Scale in both university students and school-aged children.
- To investigate the relationship between NFH and responses to humorous advertisements in children.
Main Methods:
- The study involved two main samples: 100 university students and 160 school-aged children in France.
- Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to determine the scale's structure.
- Reliability was assessed using internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest measures.
- A preference task involving humorous and non-humorous print advertisements was conducted with children.
Main Results:
- The French NFH Scale demonstrated a robust bi-dimensional structure with satisfactory factor loadings.
- Adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas = .79 and .68) and test-retest reliability (rs = .87 and .82) were confirmed.
- Children with higher NFH scores showed a greater preference for humorous advertisements compared to non-humorous ones.
Conclusions:
- The French version of the Need for Humor (NFH) Scale is a valid and reliable instrument.
- The scale can be effectively used to assess the need for humor in French children and adults.
- Findings suggest that a higher need for humor influences children's engagement with humorous advertising content.
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