Do Others Judge My Humor Style as I Do? Self-Other Agreement and Construct Validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire

<jats:p> Abstract. Humor research has intensified in psychology over the last two decades, with the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) being the most prevalent measure. Still, the construct validity of its four scales (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) has not received unequivocal support. The present study uses a multitrait-multimethod approach to test the self-other agreement of the four HSQ scales with 202 targets and two knowledgeable informants per target. Employing a multilevel multiple-indicator correlated trait-correlated (method-1) (ML-CT-C[M-1]) model informed on the construct validity of the HSQ. Discriminant validities were sufficient for all scales. Convergent validity was supported for three of the four HSQ scales, except for the self-defeating scale. Similarly, the overlaps of the self- and other-reported HSQ scales with maladaptive personality as external criteria converged for all HSQ scales except for the self-defeating scale. Taken together, the present findings suggest that the self-defeating scale does not measure the maladaptive humor style it is supposed to measure. </jats:p>