Authenticity Is Correlated With Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Humanistic psychology has long been interested in authenticity. Carl Rogers proposed that authenticity leads to more fully functioning behavior. However, it is only in recent years that there has been empirical research into the correlates of authenticity. The aim was to test for association between authenticity and two individual difference factors of much contemporary interest—mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Participants were 197 adults recruited either through convenience sampling or an online survey. All completed the Authenticity Scale, the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding. Higher scores on authenticity were associated with higher scores on self-deceptive enhancement, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Regression analyses showed that authenticity, specifically the self-alienation subscale, was able to predict mindfulness, and the authentic living subscale was able to predict emotional intelligence, taking into account social desirability and self-deceptive effects. Further research is now needed into the association between authenticity and self-deception and the causal relationships of these variables with emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and other characteristics of the fully functioning person.