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What is Mental Flexibility?
What is Mental Flexibility?
June 26, 2001
"The essence of mental flexibility is the ability to handle different situations in different ways, especially to respond effectively to new, complex, and problematic situations. The mentally flexible person is able to:
-see things from several different perspectives
-tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty
-take risks willingly
-adapt to change
-learn from mistakes
-solve problems in new ways
-switch between practical and non-practical thinking.
To understand the value of these abilities, it's useful to look at the opposite of mental flexibility, mental rigidity. If a bear sets out to swim across a lake and there are no obstacles, it will continue in a straight line until it reaches the other side. But if on the way, the bear encounters a floating log or other large obstacle, it turns around and swims back to where it began. Many people operate like that. They do all right in familiar situations in which everything goes as planned, but in new situations, or old situations with surprises, they are distressed. Faced with something unfamiliar, either they overlook its newness and treat it as a version of something familiar, or they recognize its newness and treat it as threatening. Which ever response they make, they do not adapt themselves to the new situation, and do not take advantage of the opportunities it offers (Morreall, 1997, pp. 91-92)."
Reference: Morreall, J. (1997). Humor works. Amherst, MA: HRD Press.
Are you mentally flexible?
Humor Works is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center. A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/
Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2012-02-02
