Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

From Amazon.com about the book:

First, the name is pronounced chick-sent-mih-high. And it is worth remembering because this is one book that will probably be around in 100 or 200 years. It is that important. Certainly, it is one of, if not the most important books in the positive psychology field. The author has spent his life researching the Flow state, and in the process, has inspired hundreds, if not thousands of other researchers to further pursue this profound, yet simple concept.

Flow is a state that artists experience when they are feeling in the groove, when time seems to just fly and the "work" seems to soar.

One key ingredient of flow is a challenge that can be reasonably responded to with existing resources. That tells us that it is important, if we are going to achieve Flow States, to challenge ourselves regularly.

The book walks the reader through some of the basic research and then, to conclusions about how this amazing concept affects us all, and how it affects people who insist on finding the flow in their lives.

Flow is one of my all time favorite books. Some of the quotes in the book:

 

• Every home is a museum.
• Inner conflict is the result of competing claims on attention 
• Every relationship requires a reorienting of attention and a repositioning of goals.
• Man was born to be tested on this earth.
• It is the very flexitbility of relationships that makes it possible to transform unplesent interactions in to tolerable or even exciting ones.

I will add more quotes later. If you have any comments about the book, now is a good time to post them, or more quotes from the book.

I think the concept of flow is important but since this book leaves, among others, neurobiological and neurological factors almost completely out of the picture (I don't recall it ever going into detail in these matters), it should be replaced with something that does.

IMHO, a book that explains what a flow state is chemically and hormonally and how-to guide for getting there, now that would be a killer.

a book that explains what a flow state is chemically and hormonally and how-to guide for getting there, now that would be a killer.

I wrote it. 25 pages of thesis and 300 pages of notes, without the references written and state of the art completed. Right now it is on the shelf, since it is theory and not backed up by clinical trials. Since I do not have a DO or a PHd and years from getting a degree unless I am "degreed by experience" my work goes unpublished and unfinshed. It could help alot of people I think, but right now I am trying to get enough income in per month to eat, feed myself and make rent by myself. If the US attorney general knew what I had to go through and witness, there would be mass inditements.

 

I think someone told me a US Department of Education degree is the only degree you will ever need. Would be nice if I had one. Could mean I could think about getting married and start a family.

 

I hope my work and research will pay off. Your right, Flow can be biologically triggered. Would be nice if Pysch Doctors knew what I knew. Might end some forms of illness, then again might not.

 

 

 

Talk about a shot from nowhere...

How does your work compare with this:

http://home.ramonsky.com/stuff/icmm/

It talks about running COMP and having an efficient stress-relaxation cycle as important, among other things.. start from here:

http://home.ramonsky.com/stuff/icmm/ch3.html

Hi everyone,Im new in this forum.I find this topic-flow  in psychology very interesting .Im doing final examination for university degree on this topic and I need some help.At this moment Im reading this book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience .I hope that someone can help me ,I cant find any test or questionnaire that measures state of flow.Can anybody help me, please?

Nobody don`t want to answer  me?

What exactly would you want to do with such a test? Test people?

I'm not aware of such a test and if there is one, I don't think it will be easy to find it - don't expect it to be in widespread use.

 

liky:

Hi everyone,Im new in this forum.I find this topic-flow  in psychology very interesting .Im doing final examination for university degree on this topic and I need some help.At this moment Im reading this book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience .I hope that someone can help me ,I cant find any test or questionnaire that measures state of flow.Can anybody help me, please?

 

I have been very busy and next month is going to be a killer month if everything works out well.

 

In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience the scientific measure of experience is the ESM. Experience Sampling Method. A very simple methology. 

At random times during day and night set off an alarm or beeper and then as the person if they are in Flow. on  a scale of  -5 to 5+. Simple to program, would be cool if someone programmed it into a palm. (I would love a free copy of it.)

 

 

 

+5 to -5. It doesn't differentiate between different types of flow experiences, for example?

If you read the flow book, it tells you. At random times you write down on a notepad your experience at the time the alarm or beeper goes off.

Flow is very basic and open ended.

Like many things in life, or life itself there is no single solution.

Here is a sample of how the ESM works:

 

Time   I    Rating  I  What  I am doing I Am I in Flow? (y/n)

5:55  PM       +3          Writing on BH         YES

6:22   AM       -1          Nothing to do           NO

 

Could be but hey, the book doesn't even have an index and it's been 5 years since I read it.

I still stand by the idea that because the "ESM" is no more sophisticated than that, one will have to do all the analysis and categorization by oneself. Not cool ; )

chimaster:

Could be but hey, the book doesn't even have an index and it's been 5 years since I read it.

I still stand by the idea that because the "ESM" is no more sophisticated than that, one will have to do all the analysis and categorization by oneself. Not cool ; )

 

Flow is great because it is simple. If you do not want to do the work, then you will never achieve flow. It is that simple. Flow is great because it forces you to do your own research, and doing your own research is key to scientific investigation of the flow process.

 

 

 

Afn:

Flow is great because it is simple. If you do not want to do the work, then you will never achieve flow. It is that simple. Flow is great because it forces you to do your own research, and doing your own research is key to scientific investigation of the flow process.

Umm... "work" probably meaning stressing the mind vs. relaxation; I agree in part. Although flow can be found in meditation as well, which is relaxing in a way.

I do not agree that it is, per say, necessary for me to reinvent the wheel in a area of study, whether that be flow or any other subject. Many people achieve flow when they use tools invented by other people.

A psychology student can make valid scientific research (and even stay in flow doing it) without having to make his own personality tests, intelligence tests, etc.

 Hi chimaster,I find myself into this,because I`m a student.Well,I have reliable information that there are instruments for flow such as Susan Jackson's Flow Questionnaire (has very good psychometric properties, but is very long),  or Folko Reinberg's Flow Short Questionnaire (it is less well tested, but widely used).The only (and BIGEST) problem is that I can`t find them on the Web,so far :(.So you see,I don`t need to reinvent anything,I just want to find what I`m looking for so that I could finish my work successfully.And,yes,I want to test people(for example:artists,sports,chess players,musicians etc.),who had experience of flow.I  want to prove is there(or is there not), a correlation or interaction between IQ, EQ and apperiance of flow.

What do you think,guys,is this going somewhere?

 

I want to finish this with something that Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said: “…From the point of view of the individual, it's a very positive experience because it does provide the most memorable, intense enjoyment in life,but  "flow" also seems to be a phenomenological state that is the same across cultures. What people do to get into that state varies enormously, but the experience itself is described in very similar ways.”

 

 

Liky, I'm surprised there are tests for it - shouldn't be too hard then to find the money to buy them (most tests cost money, you know). You should talk to your professors or study counselors to find out if you could get a discount on them or some other suitable arrangement just to get your paper done.