Csikszentmihalyi

1
Csikszentmihalyi Flow

• Freshmen Seminar Lecture
• Fall, 2004
• Robert Keefer

2
Origins

• Beyond Boredom Anxiety, 1975
• Title is a reaction to Beyond Freedom Dignity,
  B. F. Skinner, 1971
• Lays out basis for most of M. C.s work
• It is not so much what people do but how they
  perceive and interpret what they are doing that
  makes the activity enjoyable. (p. x)

3
Autotelic Activities

• From the Greek
• Auto self
• Telos goal, purpose
• Activities that require formal and extensive
  energy output from the actor, yet provide few if
  any conventional rewards

4
Autotelic Activities

• Chess
• Rock climbing
• Rock dancing
• Surgery
• Everyday life

5
Autotelic Activities Structure

• Friendship Relaxation
• Risk Chance
• Problem Solving
• Competition
• Creative

6
Elements of the Flow Experience

• Merging of action and awareness
• Centering of attention on a limited stimulus
  field (concentration)
• Loss of Ego , self-forgetfulness, fusion
  with the world
• Totally in control of actions and environment
• Coherent, non-contradictory demands for action
  clear, unambiguous feedback
• Autotelic no external goals or rewards

7
Illustration of theFlow Experience

• Balance of
• Action opportunities (challenges)
• Action capabilities (skills)

8
Autotelic (Flow Producing) Activities

• Chess
• Rock climbing
• Rock dancing
• Surgery
• Everyday life

9
Everyday activities Microflow

• Social
• Shopping, joking, eating, parties, sex
• Kinesthetic
• Walking, touching, rubbing, fiddling, sports
• Imagining
• Daydreaming, internal music, talking to self
• Attending
• People, TV, radio, books
• Oral
• Snacks, smoking, chewing
• Creative
• Art, playing music, working, writing a letter,
  doodling

10
The Effects of Flow Deprivation (?)

• Physical states
• Self-perception
• Cognitive performance
• Self-reported changes

11
The Politics of Enjoyment

• A reassessment of the dichotomy between work
  and play
• Rather than opposites, consider how one might
  restructured to be the other
• The function of playful behavior
• The purpose, importance and place of play brought
  into the domain of a normal, fulfilled life

12

• It is not so much what people do but how they
  perceive and interpret what they are doing that
  makes the activity enjoyable. (p. x)