Who is Flexible and Adaptive in Everyday Life?
Three Facets of Flexibility and Development of the Flexibility Scale (FS-24)
Abstract
Abstract.Background: How flexible people react to changes, and adapt their behavior and plans, seems to be crucial in modern society. Nevertheless, no common conceptualization of flexibility exists in the psychological literature. Our work contributes to the scientific understanding of flexibility as a personality trait and offers a novel flexibility questionnaire. Methods and Results: An explorative study (N = 279) examined three individual-difference concepts of flexibility and their relations with the Big Five personality traits. The results suggested that flexibility consists of predictability, adaptability, and orderliness can be assessed with 24 items (FS-24) and is distinguishable from the Big Five. A confirmatory study (N = 188) replicated the three flexibility components and showed good test–retest reliability for the FS-24. Convergent and discriminant validity of the instruments need further scrutiny. Limitations: The present study is limited due to self-reports, and the specificity and size of the sample, which could be addressed in future studies. Conclusions: The FS-24 showed promising psychometric properties. The questionnaire has useful applications in personality research, organizational development, and counseling.
References
2009). 21st Century skills and competencies for new millennium learners in OECD countries. OECD Publishing. 10.1787/218525261154
(2014). Performance adaptation: A theoretical integration and review. Journal of Management, 40(1), 48–99. 10.1177/0149206313488210
(2005). Gradient projection algorithms and software for arbitrary rotation criteria in factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 65(5), 676–696. 10.1177/0013164404272507
(1992). Flexibilität des Handelns: Empirische Untersuchungen zu einem Persönlichkeitskonstrukt [
(Flexibility of action: Empirical study of a personality construct ]. Roderer.2013). The work-related acceptance and action questionnaire: Initial psychometric findings and their implications for measuring psychological flexibility in specific contexts. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86(3), 331–347. 10.1111/joop.12001
(2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 10(1), 1–9. 10.7275/jyj1-4868
(2019). Das Big Five Inventar 2: Validierung eines Persönlichkeitsinventars zur Erfassung von 5 Persönlichkeitsdomänen und 15 Facetten [The Big Five Inventory 2: Validation of a personality inventory to assess the five personality domains and 15 facets]. Diagnostica, 65(3), 121–132. 10.1026/0012-1924/a000218
(2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896. 10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
(2022). To reverse item orientation or not to reverse item orientation, that is the question. Assessment, 29(7), 1422–1440. 10.1177/10731911211017635
(2021). Using the international cognitive ability resource as an open source tool to explore individual differences in cognitive ability. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, Article
(109906 . 10.1016/j.paid.2020.1099062007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. 10.3758/BF03193146
(2018). Assessing the quality and appropriateness of factor solutions and factor score estimates in exploratory item factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 78(5), 762–780. 10.1177/0013164417719308
(2016). Effect size guidelines for individual differences researchers. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 74–78. 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.069
(2013). Individual and career adaptability: Comparing models and measures. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(2), 130–141. 10.1016/j.jvb.2013.03.006
(2006). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1–25. 10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006
(1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30(2), 179–185. 10.1007/BF02289447
(1998). Das Bochumer Inventar zur berufsbezogenen Persönlichkeitsbeschreibung (BIP)
([Business-Focused Inventory of Personality] . Hogrefe.2017). The ITC guidelines for translating and adapting tests (2nd ed.). https://www.intestcom.org/files/guideline_test_adaptation_2ed.pdf
(2012). Exploring the nature of cognitive flexibility. New Ideas in Psychology, 30(2), 190–200. 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.11.001
(1961). Theory of probability (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
(2003). Effect of the number of variables on measures of fit in structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 10(3), 333–351. 10.1207/S15328007SEM1003_1
(2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
(2019). At what sample size do latent variable correlations stabilize? Journal of Research in Personality, 80, 17–22. 10.1016/j.jrp.2019.03.007
(2020). A review of character strengths interventions in twenty-first-century schools: Their importance and how they can be fostered. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15(2), 573–596. 10.1007/s11482-018-9700-6
(2015). Harold Jeffreys’s default Bayes Factor hypothesis tests: Explanation, extension, and application in psychology. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 72, 19–32. 10.1016/j.jmp.2015.06.004
(2012). Adaptability: Conceptual and empirical perspectives on responses to change, novelty and uncertainty. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 22(1), 58–81. 10.1017/jgc.2012.8
(1995). A new measure of cognitive flexibility. Psychological Reports, 76(2), 623–626. 10.2466/pr0.1995.76.2.623
(2021). BayesFactor: Computation of Bayes factors for common designs (R package version 0.9.12-4.3). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=BayesFactor
(2010). Diary studies in organizational research: An introduction and some practical recommendations. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9(2), 79–93. 10.1027/1866-5888/a000009
(1988). Functional flexibility: A new conception of interpersonal flexibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 88–101. 10.1037/0022-3514.55.1.88
(2019, July 29–August 2). Wellbeing at work: From the study of individual differences to the analysis of intraindividual change. The role of personality [Conference presentation]. ISSID 2019, Florence, Italy.
(2006). Individual Adaptability (I-ADAPT) Theory: Conceptualizing the antecedents, consequences, and measurement of individual differences in adaptability. In C. S. BurkeL. G. PierceE. Salas (Eds.), Advances in human performance and cognitive engineering research (Vol. 6, pp. 3–39). Elsevier. 10.1016/S1479-3601(05)06001-7
(2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org
(2020). psych: Procedures for psychological, psychometric, and personality research (R package version 2.0.8). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych
(2017). Web- and phone-based data collection using planned missing designs. In N. G. FieldingR. M. LeeG. Blank (Eds.), The Sage handbook of online research methods (pp. 578–594). Sage Publications Ltd. 10.4135/9781473957992.n33
(1979). Very Simple Structure: An alternative procedure for estimating the optimal number of interpretable factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 14(4), 403–414. 10.1207/s15327906mbr1404_2
(2012). lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–36. 10.18637/jss.v048.i02
(2010). Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS): Adaptation and validation of the German version and the development of a peer-rating form. Journal of Individual Differences, 31(3), 138–149. 10.1027/1614-0001/a000022
(1997). Career adaptability: An integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. The Career Development Quarterly, 45(3), 247–259. 10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00469.x
(2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods of Psychological Research Online, 8(2), 23–74.
(2014). Adapting to rapid changes at work: Definitions, measures, and research. In D. Chan (Ed.), Individual adaptability to changes at work (pp. 1–14). Routledge.
(2013). At what sample size do correlations stabilize? Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 609–612. 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.05.009
(1999). Proactive personality and career success. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(3), 416–427. 10.1037/0021-9010.84.3.416
(2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. 10.1037/pspp0000096
(2020). Scrutinizing the criteria for character strengths: Laypersons assert that every strength is positively morally valued, even in the absence of tangible outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article
(591028 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.5910282020). The Adaptability Scale. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 37(2), 123–134. 10.1027/1015-5759/a000591
(1976). Determining the number of components from the matrix of partial correlations. Psychometrika, 41(3), 321–327. 10.1007/BF02293557
(2023). Who is flexible and adaptive in everyday life? Three facets of flexibility and development of the Flexibility Scale (FS-24) [Open data]. https://osf.io/u43hp/
(2023). A meeting of positive behaviors: The relations of three aspects of flexibility with character strengths. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article
(1078764 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.10787642023). Convergence and psychometric properties of character strengths measures: The VIA-IS and the VIA-IS-R. Journal of Personality Assessment, 105(1), 14–21. 10.1080/00223891.2022.2044342
(2021). Adaptability and psychological flexibility: Overlapping constructs? Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 19, 72–78. 10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.01.002
(2012). Misresponse to reversed and negated items in surveys: A review. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), 737–747. 10.1509/jmr.11.0368
(2012). Model fit and model selection in structural equation modeling. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 209–231). Guilford.
(2011). Statistical evidence in experimental psychology: An empirical comparison using 855 t tests. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), 291–298. 10.1177/1745691611406923
(2020). dplyr: A grammar of data manipulation (R package version 1.0.0). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=dplyr
(2020). Integrating self-report and performance-based assessment of adaptability in a university context. Journal of Research in Personality, 88, Article
(103988 . 10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103988