Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Optimal experience : psychological studies of flow in consciousness

Part I. A Theoretical Model of Optimal Experience: 1. Introduction Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 2. The flow experience and its significance for human psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 3. Sociological implications of the flow experience Richard G. Mitchell Jr 4. Flow and biocultural evolution fausto massimini Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Antonella Delle Fave Part II. Varieties of the Flow Experience: 5. Introduction to Part II Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi and Isabella Csikszentmihalyi 6. Bozozoku: flow in Japanese motorcycle gang Ikuya Sato 7. Women, work, and flow Maria T. Allison and Margaret C. Duncan 8. The relationship between life satisfaction and flow in elderly Korean immigrants Seongyeul Han 9. Flow and writing Reed Larson 10. Flow and solitary ordeals Richard Logan Part III. Flow as a Way of Life: 11. Introduction to Part III Isabella Csikszentmihalyi and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 12. Modernisation and the changing context of flow in work and leisure Antonella Delle Fave and Fausto Massimini 13. Ocean cruising Jim MacBeth 14. Flow in a historical context: the case of the Jesuits Isabella Csikszentmihalyi Part IV. The Measurement of Flow in Everyday Life: 15. Introduction to Part IV Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Isabella Csikszentmihalyi 16. The systematic assessment of flow in daily experience Massimo Carli and Fausto Massimini 17. The quality of experience in the flow channels: comparison of Italian and US students Massimo Carli, Antonella Delle Fave and Fausto Massimini 18. Flow and the quality of experience during work and leisure Judith Le Fevre 19. Optimal experience and the uses of talent Jeanne Nakamura 20. Self-esteem and optimal experience Anne J. Wells 21. Optimal experience and the family context Kevin Rathunde 22. The future of flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Optimal experience in work and leisure

Followed 78 adult workers for 1 week with the experience sampling method. (This method randomly samples self-reports throughout the day.) The main question was whether the quality of experience was more influenced by whether a person was at work or at leisure or more influenced by whether a person was in flow (i.e., in a condition of high challenges and skills). Results showed that all the variables measuring the quality of experience, except for relaxation and motivation, are more affected by flow than by whether the respondent is working or in leisure. Moreover, the great majority of flow experiences are reported when working, not when in leisure. Regardless of the quality of experience, however, respondents are more motivated in leisure than in work. But individuals more motivated in flow than in apathy reported more positive experiences in work. Results suggest implications for improving the quality of everyday life.

Society, Culture, and Person: A Systems View of Creativity

It is customary to date the renewal of interest in creativity among psychologists to Guillord’s presidential address to the APA more than 30 years ago (Guilford 1950). Ever since that date, an increasing tide of publications on the subject has been appearing in our journals. Many of these books and articles have tried to answer what has been thought to be the most fundamental question: What is creativity? But no one has raised the simple question that should precede attempts at defining, measuring, or enhancing, namely: Where is creativity?

The Concept of Flow

What constitutes a good life? Few questions are of more fundamental importance to a positive psychology. Flow research has yielded one answer, providing an understanding of experiences during which individuals are fully involved in the present moment. Viewed through the experiential lens of flow, a good life is one that is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. In this chapter, we describe the flow model of optimal experience and optimal development, explain how flow and related constructs have been measured, discuss recent work in this area, and identify some promising directions for future research.

The Experience Sampling Method

The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is a research procedure for studying what people do, feel, and think during their daily lives, It consists in asking individuals to provide systematic self-reports at random occasions during the waking hours of a normal week. Sets of these self-reports from a sample of individuals create an archival file of daily experience.

Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory

We present a conceptualization of student engagement based on the culmination of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (i.e., flow). Using a longitudinal sample of 526 high school students across the U.S., we investigated how adolescents spent their time in high school and the conditions under which they reported being engaged. Participants experienced increased engagement when the perceived challenge of the task and their own skills were high and in balance, the instruction was relevant, and the learning environment was under their control. Participants were also more engaged in individual and group work versus listening to lectures, watching videos, or taking exams. Suggestions to increase engagement, such as focusing on learning activities that support students’ autonomy and provide an appropriate level of challenge for students’ skills, conclude the article.

Play and Intrinsic Rewards

An analysis of the reported experiences of people involved in various play-forms (i.e., rock-climbing, chess, dance, basketball, music composition) suggests that the qualities which make these activities enjoyable are the following: (a) a person is able to concentrate on a limited stimulus field, (b) in which he or she can use his or her skills to meet clear demands, (c) thereby forgetting his or her own problems, and (d) his or her own separate identity, (e) at the same time obtaining a feeling of control over the environment, (f) which may result in a transcendence of ego-boundaries and consequent psychic integration with metapersonal systems. A formal analysis is carried out to establish what are the characteristics that an activitiy must have to provide such intrinsically rewarding experiences. The implications of intrinsic rewards for the understanding of human motivation are briefly discussed.

Experience sampling method

Experience sampling method , Experience sampling method , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

The Costs and Benefits of Consuming

Consuming is defined as behavior whereby entropy is increased in exchange for existential or experiential rewards. Existential rewards are well known for example, the satisfaction of Maslowian needs. But experiential rewards are perhaps just as important: these refer to the temporary improvement in positive mood people experience when they are acting in goal-directed, purposeful ways. Consuming is one way for obtaining such experiences. It is suggested that in order to evaluate the impact of consuming it is necessary to measure the entropy costs of the behavior balanced against the psychic benefits it provides. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.

Creativity and development

1. Emergence in Creativity and Development 2. Creativity in the Making: Vygotskys Contemporary Contribution to the Dialectic of Development and Creativity 3. The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process 4. The Creation of Multiple-Intelligences Theory: A Study in High-Level Thinking 5. Creativity in Later Life 6. Key Issues in Creativity and Development