Models of optimal experience (flow)

Flow is a state of profound task-absorption, involvement, and intrinsic enjoyment that makes the person feel one with the activity. Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory states that flow is more likely to occur in situations in which the person feels that the activity is very challenging and s/he possesses high skills in facing those challenges. Flow has been studied by two techniques, the Flow Questionnaire (FQ) and the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The FQ proposes definitions of flow and asks respondents to recognize and describe them. The ESM gathers repeated self-reports in response to electronic signals randomly generated by pagers that respondents wear for a week. Studies utilizing these techniques have concurred in showing that the frequency and intensity by which flow is experienced predicts talent development and creative achievement.

Giovanni Moneta's work, in collaboration with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, models daily measures of subjective experience in relation to the concomitant levels of perceived challenges and skills in activities. By using different parameterizations of the construct of balance between challenge and skill, and estimating these parameterizations by multilevel statistical techniques that control for within-subjects correlation of responses, individual differences in scaling, and autocorrelation, they gathered confirmatory evidence in favor of flow theory. In particular, the balance of challenges and skills was found to be positively related to several facets of daily experience (e.g., concentration, wish to do the activity, involvement, and happiness) in various contexts of activity (e.g., being in school or work, with relatives, with friends, and in solitude).

More recently, Giovanni Moneta, in collaboration with colleagues in the U.S., Japan, China, and Italy, has begun an investigation of the similarities and differences of flow models across different cultures. The preliminary evidence suggests that the basic structure of the flow model holds in all cultures. Nevertheless, there seem to be important cultural differences as to whether flow occurs most often in high-challenge/high-skill situations, as predicted by the original flow model, or in low-challenge/high-skill situations, as it appears to be, for example, among Hong Kong Chinese college students. It remains to be seen if these cross-cultural differences consists of (a) differences in the conditions within which the same state is experienced, and/or (b) differences between two states, wherein the first state would be the originally defined flow, and the second would be a state of elated relaxation akin to those states that can be achieved through meditation practices. The answer to this question has potentially relevant implications to the organization of school and work environments, particularly in multicultural societies.