
As this happens, we formulate emotions and thoughts that eventually lead to action or inaction by our bodies. This experience includes the awareness of one’s feelings and emotions and the awareness of, and perceived control over, one’s thoughts and behaviors.”įor those familiar with Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking Fast and Slow, we can call this System 2 processing. “…the subjective experience of oneself and one’s environment. He believes that we need to control our consciousness which in psychology is defined as: To better understand Flow Theory, we need to know Csikszentmihalyi’s perspective regarding consciousness. The point is, not all flow situations are inherently good. Obviously, the risk is greater in a gambling situation versus getting into flow while creating a piece of art, music, code, or writing. At some point, the gambler will fall out of flow and likely lose. He’ll get “into the zone” watching the cards and interpreting his opponents’ behavior accurately, but flow states don’t last forever. For example, a gambler can get into a state of flow for a period of time. Positive and potentially negative behavior can lead to flow. It also can strengthen how we define who we are (Cziksentmihalyi, 2009). Flow can lead to experiencing life more fully and intensely. Flow experiences are active, while pleasurable experiences are typically passive and fleeting.įlow is neither good nor bad. Examples of enjoyable activities are sports, recreational adventure, writing, art, and more. The former are activities like sex, eating, watching TV, and sleeping. Notice that he says, “enjoyable.” Cziksentmihalyi makes a distinction between what is pleasurable versus enjoyable. “A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” Our definition comes directly from Cziksentmihalyi’s book, ‘ Flow: The psychology of optimal experience’ (2008). Here’s how he explains flow and his research.
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This type of tracking is called the Experience Sampling Method in which participants answer a series of questions about their experience at the moment the pager beeps. The initial study involved teenagers and while many reported unhappiness, Csikszentmihalyi noticed that when the teens were engaged in a challenging activity, their answers were more positive. He and his fellow researchers asked participants in their study to use pagers to communicate their thoughts and feelings at various times throughout their day.

The task seems easy and things just “come together.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high), the researcher who coined the term ‘flow’ discovered that people who experience flow tend to describe it similarly.
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How to Apply Flow Theory in the Classroom.
