The state-trait model of cheerfulness and social desirability

An investigation on psychometric properties and links with well-being

Bibliographic Data

ID12196785
AuthorsChloé Lau (0000-0001-6579-8832, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), Catherine Li (0000-0002-8114-0843, Department of Psychology , University of Western Ontario , London , ON , Canada, corresponding author), Lena C Quilty (0000-0003-0934-4363, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), Donald H Saklofske (0000-0001-8350-1924, Department of Psychology , University of Western Ontario , London , ON , Canada), Francesco Bruno (0000-0003-1377-4489, Department of Primary Care , Regional Neurogenetic Centre (CRN) , ASP Catanzaro , Lamezia Terme , Italy), Francesca Chiesi (0000-0002-6861-9219, University of Florence)
Year2023
Volume36
Issue2
Pages263-280
Publication date2023-03-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumor - International Journal of Humor Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0933-1719 • E-ISSN: 1613-3722
PublisherDe Gruyter Mouton (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/humor-2023-0022
OpenAlexW4327573891
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited61

Ruch and colleagues (Ruch, Willibald, Gabriele Köhler & Christoph Van Thriel. 1996. Assessing the “humorous temperament”: Construction of the facet and standard trait forms of the state-trait-cheerfulness-inventory — STCI. Humor 9(3–4). 303–340) postulated high cheerfulness, low seriousness, and low bad mood contribute to exhilaration and enjoyment of humor. Although robust findings have corroborated that cheerfulness is associated with well-being and greatly enhances one’s social desirability, no studies have investigated the effects of social desirability on the assessment of cheerfulness. For this study, 997 undergraduate students completed the State-Trait Cheerfulness Inventory (STCI) and validity measures. Exploratory factor analyses that controlled for social desirability suggest several items on the STCI cheerfulness subscale loaded on social desirability, whereas seriousness subscale items showed few positive loadings on social desirability and bad mood subscale items loaded negatively on social desirability. Despite associations with social desirability, items overall showed strong loadings onto their respective factors. Factor loadings free of social desirability ranged from 0.39 to 0.84 in cheerfulness, 0.49 to 0.76 in seriousness, and 0.50 to 0.81 in bad mood. Cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood subscale scores demonstrated partial correlations in the expected directions with well-being when controlling for social desirability, albeit smaller in size but not significantly different. The STCI scores demonstrated strong psychometric properties with good reliability, structural validity, and criterion validity when controlling for social desirability

Developmental psychology · Exploratory factor analysis · Mood · Psychometrics · Seriousness · Social desirability · Social desirability bias · Trait · Clinical Psychology · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Humor Studies and Applications · Psychology · Social Psychology

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