IPPA WC 2023 The Impact of Flow Proneness on Relatedness in Daily Life (#74)
Background
Experiences of flow are associated with a loss of self-consciousness, temporarily diminishing one’s sense of self (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2021), and such experiences may be associated with hypo-egoic, other-oriented phenomena (Crocker & Canevello, 2016; Harter, 2016). Although flow has previously been conceptually linked to feelings of connection with elements beyond the self (e.g., the world as a whole or a particular domain; Elf et al., 2022; Nakamura & Roberts, 2016), it is currently not known whether flow is directly associated with a sense of relatedness in daily life.
Aims
To fill this gap in research, I inspected whether those more prone to experiencing flow perceive a greater sense of relatedness in daily life and whether this effect differs based on the domain in which one experiences flow.
Method
I conducted a seven-day diary study on MTurk, recruiting participants from a wide age range across the adult life span (Mage=40.93, SD=13.29, range: 19-75) during the initial phase of the pandemic in April 2020. Participants reported the extent to which they felt caring, cooperative, and connected with others each day and were administered the Swedish Flow Proneness Questionnaire (SFPQ; Ullén et al., 2012) via a one-time survey at the end of the study week.
Results
After accounting for the effect of several factors such as whether one lives alone or not and participants’ baseline relatedness over the past week, findings from multilevel modeling suggest that those who frequently experience flow in their lives report significantly greater relatedness, indicated by the extent to which participants felt caring, cooperative, and connected with others on a given day. Specifically, a tendency to experience flow in work and leisure, but not maintenance activities was significantly associated with greater relatedness.
Conclusion
The present study’s findings raise the possibility that repeated flow experiences may have implications beyond the self, over and above its contribution to an individual’s optimal quality of experience and performance.
- Crocker, J., & Canevello, A. (2016). Egosystem and ecosystem: Motivational orientations of the self in relation to others. In K. W. Brown & M. R. Leary (Eds.), Oxford handbook of hypo-egoic phenomena (pp. 271–283). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328079.013.18
- Elf, P., Isham, A., & Jackson, T. (2022). Self-transcendent experiences and sustainable prosperity: CUSP working paper no. 32. Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, Guilford. https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/34656
- Harter, S. (2016). Developmental and prosocial dimensions of hypo-egoic phenomena. In K. W. Brown & M. R. Leary (Eds.), Oxford handbook of hypo-egoic phenomena (pp. 79–94). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328079.013.6
- Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2021). The experience of flow: Theory and research. In S. J. Lopez, L. M. Edwards, & S. C. Marques (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology (3rd ed., pp. 279–296). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199396511.013.16
- Nakamura, J., & Roberts, S. (2016). The hypo-egoic component of flow. In K. W. Brown & M. R. Leary (Eds.), Oxford handbook of hypo-egoic phenomena (pp. 133–146). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328079.013.9
- Ullén, F., de Manzano, Ö., Almeida, R., Magnusson, P. K., Pedersen, N. L., Nakamura, J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Madison, G. (2012). Proneness for psychological flow in everyday life: Associations with personality and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 167–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.003
- Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Flow