Autotelic personality through a five-factor lens: Individual differences in flow-propensity

Abstract

Autotelic personality represents an individual difference factor believed to have an increased propensity to experience flow. In 316 young adults, we administered the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2; Jackson & Eklund, 2002) targeted to general life activities to capture cross-situational consistency in the propensity to experience flow, and a well-established measure of the Five Factor Model of personality (i.e., the NEO Personality Inventory Revised; NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992). NEO-PI-R domains of Neuroticism (−), Extraversion (+), Agreeableness (−), and Conscientiousness (+) predicted global flow propensity, accounting for 38% of the measured variance. Canonical correlation analysis highlighted these domains in relation to DFS-2 components of flow with the first canonical correlation (R=.73) accounting for 53.4% of the shared variance between NEO domains and DFS-2 subscales. Individually, DFS-2 subscales were variously predicted by NEO domains (e.g., Time Transformation at 4%; Clear Goals at 44%). NEO Openness was notably lacking in predicting flow components. These findings emphasize the strong and substantial relationship of FFM personality traits to flow-propensity.