Relationship between psychological flexibility and personality: A gender perspective

Pages: 923-927
Isha Gulati (Department of Applied Psychology, Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences, Amity University, Lucknow Campus, Lucknow, Utter Pradesh)
Sneha Saha (Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences, Amity University, Lucknow Campus, Lucknow, Utter Pradesh)

Flexibility is a construct that has attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. How ever there is very little that is known regarding its relationship with personality. The current study is an attempt to elucidate the relationship between psychological flexibility and personality. Psychological Flexibility can be defined as an individual’s ability to consciously associate to the present moment and to make decisions based on deeply held values despite the presence of troublesome thoughts and conflicting emotions. Personality on the other hand can be defined as an individual’s unique pattern of feeling, thinking and behaving. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between Personality and Psychological Flexibility on the grounds of gender variance. The sample size of the study was 60 (30 males & 30 females), age range between 18-20 years. The tools used in the study were Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2 developed by Frank Bond and Myers Briggs Preference Questionnaire developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers for measuring Psychological Flexibility and Personality Types respectively among youth. The scores were analysed by computing Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the results revealed that there was significant relationship (-0.09) between the two variables. For males the correlation was found out to be negative (-0.374) while for females the correlation was found out to be positive (0.06). It may be concluded that there exists a relationship between Psychological Flexibility and Personality. Keeping this in mind the youth must be trained to become more and more psychologically flexible as it is the key to mental health and well-being.