Can Balance be Boring? A Critique of the “Challenges Should Match Skills” Hypotheses in Flow Theory

Løvoll, Helga Synnevåg; Vittersø, Joar

doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0211-9

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Flow is characterized by enjoyment and the theory postulates that a precondition for experiencing flow is a match between challenges and skill. The FWA, in contrast, postulates that there is a slight imbalance between experienced challenge and skills (tipping toward more challenging) which is ideal for skill development ( Løvoll and Vittersø, 2014 ). Such an imbalance will lead to growth-oriented action guided by emotions like interest and engagement, not enjoyment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skiing and Thinking About It: Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Analysis of Emotions in an Extreme Sport

et al. 2018

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Happiness is typically reported as an important reason for participating in challenging activities like extreme sport. While in the middle of the activity, however, participants do not seem particularly happy. So where does the happiness come from? The article proposes some answers from a study of facially expressed emotions measured moment-by-moment during a backcountry skiing event. Self-reported emotions were also assessed immediately after the skiing. Participants expressed lower levels of happiness while skiing, compared to when stopping for a break. Moment-to-moment and self-reported measures of emotions were largely unrelated. These findings are explained with reference to the Functional Wellbeing Approach (Vittersø, 2013), which argues that some moment-to-moment feelings are non-evaluative in the sense of being generated directly by the difficulty of an activity. By contrast, retrospective emotional feelings are more complex as they include an evaluation of the overall goals and values associated with the activity as a whole.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skiing and Thinking About It: Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Analysis of Emotions in an Extreme Sport

et al. 2018

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“…It adds four transitional channels to the initial Four Channel Model: activation, control, boredom, and preoccupation, which represent subtle changes concerning the quality of subjective daily experience. Although some authors have criticized this type of flow conceptualization (Løvoll & Vittersø, 2014), the four or eight-channel model have been extensively used in flow research.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow experience, attentional control, and emotion regulation: contributions for a positive development in adolescents

Tavares

Freire

2016

PSICOLOGIA

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A investigaÃ§Ã£o tem demonstrado que as experiÃªncias Ã³timas promovem o desenvolvimento positivo. Sendo a adolescÃªncia marcada pela experimentaÃ§Ã£o e definiÃ§Ã£o de interesses, Ã© tambÃ©m um perÃodo crucial para a ocorrÃªncia de experiÃªncias Ã³timas na vida diÃ¡ria, concretamente, a experiÃªncia de Flow. Os adolescentes estÃ£o mais propensos a procurar desafios e desenvolver novas competÃªncias nos vÃ¡rios contextos, emergindo assim a possibilidade de experienciarem Flow e desenvolverem vidas bem-sucedidas. O presente artigo apresenta uma revisÃ£o dos principais resultados da investigaÃ§Ã£o acerca dos fatores individuais e contextuais associados Ã experiÃªncia de Flow e do impacto desta na vida dos adolescentes. Especificamente, o artigo discute as possÃveis relaÃ§Ãµes entre o Controlo Atencional, a RegulaÃ§Ã£o Emocional e a experiÃªncia de Flow, e a importÃ¢ncia destes para o desenvolvimento positivo dos adolescentes. Adotando uma perspetiva social e ecolÃ³gica, o artigo apresenta conclusÃµes e sugere novas linhas de investigaÃ§Ã£o futura acerca dos preditores da experiÃªncia de Flow.

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“…In addition, many flow activities have opportunities for action-varying levels of difficulty and engagement. Some researchers have suggested that the need for a perceived balance of challenge and skill may be dependent on other conditions, if necessary at all (Løvoll and Vittersø, 2014). For example, in one study measuring flow for people using computers in the workplace, perceived control was more important for individuals with high task-scope jobs-jobs with high variety, identity, autonomy, and feedback-whereas challenge played a greater role for low task-scope individuals (Ghani and Deshpande, 1994).…”

Section: Perceived Balance Of Challenge and Skillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing group flow: A framework

Duncan¹,

West²

2018

Educ. Res. Rev.

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This literature review discusses the similarities in main themes between Csikszentmihályi theory of individual flow and Sawyer theory of group flow, and compares Sawyer's theory with existing concepts in the literature on group work both in education and business. Because much creativity and innovation occurs within groups, understanding group collaboration characteristics, including group flow, is critical to designing, leading, and sustaining effectively creative groups. Sawyer's theory, being the first to describe flow within groups, can be difficult to conceptualize because of the high number of included constructs. By synthesizing the ideas, we propose a simpler model for conceptualizing group flow consisting of the principles of vision, ownership and contribution, and effective communication. We propose that using this condensed version of Sawyer's leading principles might enable more research on this important topic, as well as improved practice in developing and leading innovative groups.

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Can Balance be Boring? A Critique of the “Challenges Should Match Skills” Hypotheses in Flow Theory

Cited by 39 publications

References 25 publications

Skiing and Thinking About It: Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Analysis of Emotions in an Extreme Sport

Skiing and Thinking About It: Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Analysis of Emotions in an Extreme Sport

Flow experience, attentional control, and emotion regulation: contributions for a positive development in adolescents

Conceptualizing group flow: A framework

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