Flow
lecture 8
Department of Psychology
AWKUM
What Is Flow?
• Flow is a state of mind in which a person becomes fully
immersed in an activity. Positive psychologist Mihály
Csíkszentmihályi describes flow as a state of complete
immersion in an activity. Being immersed can be defined as a
state of focus in which a person is completely absorbed and
engrossed in their work.
• While in this mental flow state, people are highly involved
and focused on what they are doing.
• Flow experiences can occur in different ways for different
people. It often occurs when you are doing something that
you enjoy and in which you are quite skilled.
• This state is often associated with the creative arts such as
painting, drawing, or writing. However, it can also occur
while engaging in a sport, such as skiing, tennis, soccer,
dancing, or running.
The Benefits of a Flow State
In addition to making activities more enjoyable, flow also has a
number of other advantages, such as:
• Better emotional regulation: With increased flow, people
also experience more growth toward emotional complexity.
This can help people develop skills that allow them to
regulate their emotions more effectively.
• Greater enjoyment and fulfillment: People in a flow state
enjoy what they are doing more. Because the task becomes
more enjoyable, people are also more likely to find it
rewarding and fulfilling.
• Greater happiness: Research also suggests that flow states
may be linked to increased levels of happiness, satisfaction,
and self-actualization.
• Greater intrinsic motivation: Because flow is a positive
mental state, it can help increase enjoyment and motivation.
Intrinsic motivation involves doing things for internal
rewards.
• Increased engagement: People in a flow state feel fully
involved in the task at hand.
• Improved performance: Researchers have found that flow
can enhance performance in a wide variety of areas including
teaching, learning, athletics, and artistic creativity.
• Learning and skill development: Because the act of
achieving flow indicates a substantial mastery of a certain
skill, people have to keep seeking new challenges and
information in order to maintain this state.
• More creativity: Flow states often take place during creative
tasks, which can help inspire greater creative and artistic
pursuits.
Characteristics of Flow
• According to Csíkszentmihályi, there are ten factors that
accompany the experience of flow. While many of these
components may be present, it is not necessary to experience
all of them for flow to occur:
• The activity is intrinsically rewarding.
• There are clear goals that, while challenging, are still
attainable.
• There is a complete focus on the activity itself.
• People experience feelings of personal control over the
situation and the outcome.
• People have feelings of peacefulness and a loss of self-
consciousness.
• There is immediate feedback.
• People know that the task is feasible and there is a balance
between skill level and the challenge presented.
• People experience a lack of awareness of their physical needs.
• There is strong concentration and focused attention.
• People experience timelessness, or a distorted sense of time, that
involves feeling so focused on the present that you lose track of
time passing.
Examples of a Flow State
• Flow in the Workplace
• Flow can also occur when workers are engaged in tasks
where they are able to focus entirely on the project at hand.
For example, a writer might experience this while working on
a novel or a graphic designer might achieve flow while
working on a website illustration.
How to Achieve Flow
• so what can you do to increase your chances of achieving
flow? Try the following:
• Set clear goals: In his book, Csíkszentmihályi explains that
flow is likely to occur when an individual is faced with a task
that has clear goals that require specific responses. A game of
chess is a good example of when a flow state might occur.
For the duration of a competition, the player has very specific
goals and responses, allowing attention to be focused entirely
on the game during the period of play.
• Eliminate distractions: It's more difficult to experience flow
if there are things in your environment competing for your
attention. Try reducing distracting things in your environment
so you can fully focus on the task at hand.
• Choose something you enjoy: You aren't likely to achieve
flow if you are doing something you truly dislike. Focus on
trying to achieve flow while working on something you love.
• Add an element of challenge: "Flow also happens when a
person's skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge
that is just about manageable, so it acts as a magnet for
learning new skills and increasing challenges,"
Csíkszentmihályi explains. "If challenges are too low, one
gets back to flow by increasing them. If challenges are too
great, one can return to the flow state by learning new skills."
