A PHENOMENOLOGICAL CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF LAHORE

Abstract

Psychological flexibility is an emerging phenomenon worldwide. It has
been shown that an adequate level of psychological flexibility supports with
adjustment of an individual in a present situation. In European cultures,
psychological flexibility has been associated with successful outcomes and
adaptive behaviours for stress management. The phenomenology of a
variable differs in different populations; the scarcity of an indigenous
psychological flexibility scale for university students in Pakistani society
drew this research study towards an exploration of the variable among
Pakistani students. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the
perceptions of university students about psychological flexibility. The
experiences were collected in the form of written transcripts from 73
university students from two private universities in Lahore. Participants
were recruited through purposive sampling. A qualitative summative content
analysis approach was used to interpret the results of the data. A research
question was formulated for data collection and codes were found using an
operationalized definition from the literature review. The key findings that
were highlighted through the content analysis were discussed based on the
pre-determined codes in the operational definition of psychological flexibility. After data analysis, the results provided four major themes.
Themes derived through analysis are adaptive personality, assertive
communication, emotion regulation and stress management. The results
highlighted the concept of psychological flexibility in specific Pakistani
population cultural context. The study provides direction to future
researchers while working on the level of psychological flexibility in clinical
and non-clinical practices.