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Flexibility (personality)


Flexibility is a personality trait — the extent to which a person can cope with changes in circumstances and think about problems and tasks in novel, creative ways. This trait is used when stressors or unexpected events occur, requiring a person to change their stance, outlook, or commitment. Flexible personality should not be confused with cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to switch between two concepts, as well as simultaneously think about multiple concepts. Researchers of cognitive flexibility describe cognitive flexibility as the ability to switch one’s thinking and attention between tasks. Flexibility, or psychological flexibility as it is sometimes referred to, is the ability to adapt to situational demands, balance life demands, and commit to behaviors.

Due to the different facets of the definition of psychological flexibility, many problems exist in measuring it. There are multiple questionnaires that attempt to do so.

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ) was developed in order to measure experiential avoidance. This test found that higher levels of avoidance were linked to higher levels of general psychopathology, depression, anxiety, fears, and a lower quality of life. It also measured avoidant coping and self-deceptive positivity. It was later decided that the AAQ actually measured psychological flexibility, not experiential avoidance. It was used until the AAQ-II was created. An example of the AAQ can be seen in Figure 1.

The AAQ-II was developed in order to improve upon the faults of the AAQ. The original AAQ had faults in scale brevity, item wording, and item selection procedures that caused insufficient alpha levels to be obtained in measurements. The AAQ-II scores were found to predict many outcomes, including mental health and work absence rates. The AAQ-II also was found to be more psychometrically consistent than the original AAQ.

Laboratory measures of flexibility are consistent with how flexible people are in their actual lives. Flexibility measured in laboratory settings even predicted how flexible people will be in real life.

Research has shown that the relationship between parent and child distress may be influenced by parenting psychological flexibility. When parents are psychologically inflexible they cause more stress in their families. A similar study looked at the longitudinal relationship between perceived parenting style and psychological flexibility among students over six years (7th-12th Grade). Results showed that psychological flexibility decreased with age, illustrating that as children grow older they become more set in their thoughts and habits, being less likely to change them due to circumstances. Results also indicated that authoritarian parenting styles predicted low psychological flexibility in children. This demonstrates that parents who over-control their children tend to restrict how well their children cope with stressors in life. Lastly, results showed that children with psychological flexibility in 9th grade were more likely to have decreases in authoritarian and increases in authoritative parenting style later on.Authoritative parenting styles seem to be associated with psychological flexibility in children. Authoritative parents tend to be more warm, fair, and encouraging than other parenting styles which may be why children raised by this style have more psychological flexibility. The children are encouraged to be independent and are supported, so they are able to adjust to situations that do not go as predicted.


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