Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a Questionnaire of Occupational Humorous Coping (QOHC), partly based on the model of emotion regulation by Gross (Current Directions in Psychological Science 10: 214–219, 2001). Items intended to measure antecedent-focused, response-focused, and affiliative and aggressive-manipulative humorous coping methods were generated. Preliminary studies led to improvements in the questionnaire and to the removal of items controlling for acquiescence bias. Principal axis factoring with oblique rotation on a large sample yielded four stable and reliable factors: an antecedent-focused, a response-focused, an aggressive-manipulative and an affiliative instrumental humorous coping factor. Convergent and discriminant validity with existing humorous coping and other sense of humor measures (the CHS, the MSHS and the HSQ) was satisfactory, but not always in the expected direction. Antecedent-focused and generic humorous coping (CHS) were weakly associated with job-related positive affect and well-being; for the self-enhancing humor style these associations were moderate. Aggressive-manipulative, response-focused and generic humorous coping (CHS) showed weak associations with negative job-related affect. The findings are explained in terms of assessment issues and possible moderating effects of humorous coping.