Researchers interested in optimal experiences and emphasizing positive experiences, especially in places such as schools and the business world, also began studying the theory of flow at this time. Flow research became prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s, with Csikszentmihályi and his colleagues in Italy still at the forefront. The theory of flow came about when Csikszentmihályi tried to understand the phenomenon experienced by these artists. Artists, especially painters, got so immersed in their work that they would disregard their need for food, water and even sleep. Mihaly Csikszentmihályi and others began researching flow after Csikszentmihályi became fascinated by artists who would essentially get lost in their work.
Just as with the conditions listed above, these conditions can be independent of one another.įlow is so named because, during Csíkszentmihályi's 1975 interviews, several people described their "flow" experiences using the metaphor of a water current carrying them along: "'It was like floating,' 'I was carried on by the flow.'" History Feeling so engrossed in the experience, that other needs become negligible.Additionally, psychology writer Kendra Cherry has mentioned three other components that Csíkszentmihályi lists as being a part of the flow experience: Those aspects can appear independently of each other, but only in combination do they constitute a so-called flow experience. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience.A distortion of temporal experience, as one's subjective experience of time is altered.A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.A loss of reflective self-consciousness.Intense and focused concentration on the present moment.
Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow:
CHANGING STATE FLOWSTATE FULL
In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Concentrating on a task, one aspect of flow