FLOW: The psychology of optimal experience* (sounds nice!)

Prompted by two things coincidentally coming together at the same time last week (some II practice related research that I and my placement student Gemma Denby are currently writing up, and a posting on the 'II Coordinators' Facebook page), I will set out my understanding on the particular psychological state that is called 'Flow' (helped by some of Gemma's kind work). 

So, 'Flow' is viewed as the psychological state where an individual is operating at their optimal potential level within any given task i.e. when they are fully immersed and engaged in a task (sometimes referred to as being ‘in the zone’) - and this is something that I think I experience when I am fully engaged in a really good episode of Intensive Interaction. This psychological state was first conceptualised by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described experiencing the state of ‘flow’ as being ‘so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter’ (1991). Yes, that is the state that I have often experienced!

Now, in order to experience a state of flow, the content of the experience must be realistic to that individual i.e. an individual must be able to fully engage with, understand and attend to the task in order to become fully immersed in it. Once in a state of flow, an individual gains the ability to perform this task at the highest level, with effortlessness and ease, and quite often experiences a transformation of time, i.e. where time seems to speed up as we reach a peak of attention, engagement and enjoyment.

Below are some quotes taken from Csikszentmihalyi's book that I think might be of interest to us Intensive Interactors: 

 ‘the best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times ... the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile - optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.’ (p.3)  

  'optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery- or perhaps better, a sense of participation in determining the content of life.’ (p.4)

‘the flow experience is typically described as involving a sense of control - or, more precisely as lacking the sense of worry about losing control that is typical in many situations of normal life.’ (p.59)

During an optimal experience ‘self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted. An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it…’ (p.71)

‘We need not change ourselves to be with friends; they reinforce our sense of self instead of trying to transform it ... friendship usually involves common goals and common activities, it is “naturally” enjoyable.’ (p.185 &186)

To develop this idea of 'flow' a bit further, beyond the individualistic state described by Csikszentmihalyi, it seems to me that to construct an optimal social state of ‘flow' (i.e. one shared by two socially 'attuned' people), we need to look at intrinsically motivating sociable interactivity that sits somewhere between one of externally imposed challenge (and potential loss of control), and a state that creates too little of interest to claim the attention of the person, potentially creating a state of boredom, disengagement and/or sustained isolation. 

Therefore to create such a socially shared state of 'Flow' (via Intensive Interaction) there needs to be sufficient mutual familiarity generated through the repetition of the basic patterns of any prior social interactivity, but with sufficient carefully calibrated offers of variation (either natural, intuitive or contrived) to create the potential for a steady upward spiral of interactive communication (in content and levels of sophistication). But we need to get that balance right so that we don't ever go too far in advance of the skills and capabilities of the learner i.e. acting very much within or at the boundary of a person's current social understanding (for students of such things - their Vygotskian 'Zone of Proximal Development'). Hmm, interesting!

* Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1991) 'Flow: the psychology of optimal experience', Harper, NY.