7. Trending: Flow for Well-being Flashcards
Flow is essentially a complete absorption in
what we are doing
Flow involves
autotelic activities
The name flow was given because people who described what it felt like to engage in autotelic activity referred to feelings of
floating on water
Further description of flow includes
Intense and focussed concentration in the moment;
Action and awareness merged;
The loss of self-consciousness;
A feeling of control and confidence in what you are doing, and what you are about to do;
A distortion of time (speeding up or slowing down); and
The end result is insignificant to the activity itself, much like Ithaca to Odysseus.
The above feelings and characteristics of flow have been summarised by Bakker (2008) into three key dimensions
complete absorption, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation
Another way of looking at flow is to consider it as
dynamic equilibrium
dynamic equilibrium is
the exact synergy between the demands of a task and our ability to complete it.
Research has shown that people experience flow much more often at work than
during leisure
key work outcomes of flow:
With flow, activities are rewarding and engaging for the individual, and enables the full application of ability and talent (a gain for organisations)
Flow is related to increased positive affect
Flow is related to personal development
certain conditions and circumstances in which flow is more likely to occur:
Opportunities for growth and work autonomy enable flow;
High self-efficacy beliefs, which reciprocally contribute to flow;
Social support at work;
Innovation policies
Clear work goals.
some individual factors mean that some people experience flow more than others. That is, there are autotelic personalities that afford meta-skills, such as
curiosity, low self-centeredness, interest in life, persistence, and resilience to deal with difficult situations.
Bakker (2008) has developed a scale to measure how frequently people experience
flow at work and looked at how flow relates to job demands and performance
Bakker (2008) developed
the Work-Related Flow Inventory (WOLF)
