Understanding psychological flexibility: A multimethod exploration of pursuing valued goals despite the presence of distress.

Abstract

Psychological flexibility (PF), defined as the ability to pursue valued life aims despite the presence of distress, is a fundamental contributor to health (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Existing measures of PF have failed to consider the valued goals that give context for why people are willing to manage distress. Using 4 independent samples and 3 follow-up samples, we examined the role of PF in well-being, emotional experience and regulation, resilience, goal pursuit, and daily functioning. We describe the development and psychometric properties of the Personalized Psychological Flexibility Index (PPFI), which captures tendencies to avoid, accept, and harness discomfort during valued goal pursuit. Correlational, laboratory, and experience-sampling methods show that the PPFI measures a trait-like individual difference dimension that is related to a variety of well-being and healthy personality constructs. Unlike existing measures of PF, the PPFI was shown to be distinct from negative emotionality. Beyond trait measures, the PPFI is associated with effective daily goals and life strivings pursuit and adaptive emotional and regulatory responses to stressful life events. By adopting our measurement index, PF may be better integrated into mainstream theory and research on adaptive human functioning. Public Significance StatementPsychological flexibility is defined as the pursuit of valued life aims despite the presence of distress, but existing measures fail to account for the personalized nature of these aims. We created and validated the Personalized Psychological Flexibility Index to measure 3 ways of managing distress (avoiding, accepting, and harnessing) that arises during the pursuit of personally meaningful goals. Our scale offers an improvement in the measurement of psychological flexibility in basic research and clinical trials.

Psychological flexibility: What we know, what we do not know, and what we think we know

“…Preliminary evidence shows that the PPFI total and subscale scores (avoidance, acceptance, and harnessing) predict conscientiousness, grit, distress tolerance, subjective happiness, life satisfaction, purpose and meaning in life, psychological needs satisfaction, depression, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety (Kashdan et al, 2020).…”

“…Experiencesampling may be superior to trait measures because psychological flexibility is, by definition, dynamic (e.g., based on what a given situation affords, either persisting or changing in behaviors in the service of chosen values; Hayes et al, 2011aHayes et al, , 2011b. For example, research using the day reconstruction method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) suggests psychological flexibility is associated with a wider range of daily emotion regulation strategies and greater daily goal-related difficulty, progress, effort, joy, and meaning (Kashdan et al, 2020).…”

“…Attempting to address these gaps, we created the Personalized Psychological Flexibility Index (PPFI; Kashdan, Disabato, Goodman, Doorley, & McKnight, 2020). Rather than measuring distress itself or vague consequences of negative emotions (e.g., “ Emotions cause problems in my life ;” Bond et al, 2011), the PPFI asks respondents to think about a presently important goal and answer questions about how they respond to the distress that arises while pursuing this goal (cf.…”

“…Preliminary evidence shows that the PPFI total and subscale scores (avoidance, acceptance, and harnessing) predict conscientiousness, grit, distress tolerance, subjective happiness, life satisfaction, purpose and meaning in life, psychological needs satisfaction, depression, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety (Kashdan et al, 2020). Compared to the AAQ‐II and Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (BEAQ), the PPFI is a stronger predictor of outcomes central to psychological flexibility theory.…”

“…Second, multilevel models containing both the AAQ‐II and PPFI revealed only the AAQ‐II predicted unique variance in daily negative emotions. Third, an exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that the PPFI subscales load onto their own factor, separate from a second factor that contained negative emotionality (e.g., neuroticism, negative affect, and depression), the AAQ‐II, and the BEAQ (Kashdan et al, 2020).…”