6 - The Concept of Flow

fMRI studies of musicians improving jazz while in the scanner - Wernicke's and Broca's area

Wernicke's - language Broca's - speaking both activated musicians invoking language areas of the brain even though they're not speaking

what happens when challenges > skills

anxiety

quadrant: high challenge, low skill

anxiety i.e. too difficult schoolwork -lowest enjoyment -lowest wish to be doing activity

"calling"

associated with higher life and work satisfaction and frequent experiences of flow during the work day

flow questionnaire

describes flow -asks "if ever," "when," and "how often"

autotelic behavior

intrinsically motivated -accomplished in itself -worth doing for its own sake -rewarding in and of itself

fMRI studies of musicians improving jazz while in the scanner - angular gyrus

involved in semantics activity decreases during the back and forth i.e. the amount of energy spent deriving meaning from words drops off sharply

optimal experiences occur...

-when mind and body are stretched to their limits to accomplish something meaningful or worthwhile -in both favorable and difficult external conditions

hektner & akasawa - quadrants two aversive states

-anxiety: overwhelmed by environmental demands -boredom: passive lack of purpose

hektner & akasawa - quadrants two kinds of intrinsically rewarding states

-flow: expansive seeking of opportunity -relaxation: conservation of energy

characteristics of flow

-interactional model -balance between perceived action capabilities (internal) and perceived action opportunities (external) -importance of knowing strengths

a wandering mind is an unhappy mind - killingsworth & gilbert

-people's mind wandered frequently -people were less happy when their minds were wandering than when not during ALL activities (even unenjoyable ones) -what people were thinking better predicted happiness than what they were doing -mind wandering explained more variance than activities

8 elements of flow

1. clear goals 2. immediate feedback 3. balance between opportunity and capacity 4. concentration deepens 5. present is what matters 6. sense of control 7. sense of time is altered 8. loss of ego

two types of flow intervention

1. those seeking to shape activity structure and environments so they foster flow 2. those attempting to assist individuals in finding flow

quadrant: low challenge, low skill

boredom i.e. chores -lowest concentration -lowest importance to future goals -lowest self esteem

quadrant: high challenge, high skill

flow i.e. structured leisure, schoolwork, work -highest concentration -highest importance to future goals -highest self esteem

fMRI studies of musicians improving jazz while in the scanner - dorsolateral cortex

related to inhibition turns "off" creative playing linked to a combination of self-expression with absence of conscious self-monitoring

what happens when skills > challenges

relaxation boredom (if both low)

quadrant: low challenge, high skill

relaxation i.e. conversations, eating -highest enjoyment -highest wish to be doing activity

history of flow - getzels & csikszentmihalyi

research on the creative process for painters -when painting's going well, artist persist single-mindedly -disregard for hunger, fatigue, discomfort

fMRI studies of musicians improving jazz while in the scanner - medial prefrontal cortex

semi-autobiographical area that's linked to processes like self-expression turns "on"

flow

the state experienced when a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity

experience sampling method (ESM) - larson & csikszentmihalyi

uses pagers to randomly sample everyday experience -pagers prompt individual to complete survey