Investigation of the relationship between authenticity levels and personality traits of university students, evaluation of the possible mediating role of cognitive flexibility

The present study examined the relationship between levels of authenticity and personality traits of university students, aimed to evaluate the role of cognitive flexibility of the intermediary role in relationship. The research group consists of 247 students studying at Istanbul Gelişim University in the 2020-2021 academic year. The data were evaluated using the "Sociodemographic Data Form", "Authenticity Scale", "Adjectives Based Personality Inventory" and "Cognitive Flexibility Inventory". In the study, the relational scanning model and the analysis of the data; Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient test, Structural Equation Model, Student's t-test and one-factor analysis of variance were used. The p value was taken as 0.5 in the evaluations. As a result of the research; a statistically significant and inverse relationship was found between the cognitive flexibility level and the levels of self-alienation and acceptance of external influence, which are the sub-dimensions of authenticity. It was seen that there is a significant relationship between the cognitive flexibility level and the authentic life, which is the sub-dimension of authenticity. When the relationship between the cognitive flexibility level and the sub-dimensions of the personality test based on adjectives is examined; it was found that there was a statistically significant correlation in the same direction between cognitive flexibility level and extraversion, openness to experience, and responsibility sub-dimensions, and a reverse significant relationship between cognitive flexibility and emotional instability. No significant difference was found between agreeableness and cognitive flexibility. When the relationship between the authenticity scale and the personality inventory scores based on adjectives is examined; as the level of self-alienation and acceptance of external influence, which are sub-dimensions of authenticity, increased, the emotional imbalance increased; it was observed that extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and responsibility characteristics decreased. Looking at the authentic life, which is the other sub-dimension of authenticity; it was observed that as the authentic life level increased, the level of mildness and responsibility increased, and the level of emotional instability decreased. According to our findings; Extraversion and openness to experience levels predicted self-alienation, which is the sub-dimension of authenticity, and it was concluded that cognitive flexibility was partially affected. It has been observed that emotional instability and responsibility levels directly affect the level of self-alienation, and there is no mediation of cognitive flexibility. It was seen that the level of emotional imbalance affects the acceptance of the external effect, which is the sub-dimension of authenticity, and the model of partial mediation of cognitive flexibility in this relationship is better explained. It was found that emotional imbalance did not directly affect authentic life, and that there was a significant change in authentic life score through the mediation of cognitive flexibility. In addition, it has been seen that the responsibility feature affects authentic life and cognitive flexibility has a partial mediator effect. Keywords: Authenticity, Personality, Cognitive Flexibility