Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology

Upswings in Cheerful Mood and Disease Activity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…Interest in the study of these variables is growing, in view of current attention to the concept of Bpositive psychology^ [6], which focuses on adaptive strengths such as optimism, faith, courage, and humor. Positive psychology has flourished in the last 10 years, with an empirically validated classification of character strengths and virtues, important cross-cultural findings about the positive impact of these variables on health, and proposals of structured psychological interventions to increase individual happiness [7].…”

“…However, no data are available about the many variables from "positive psychology," whose relationship with health is being explored. In this area of study, it is worth highlighting the efforts aimed at clarifying the impact of individuals' sense of humor and variables directly related to it on their physical and psychological health [7].…”

5 Positive change in clinical settings: flow experience in psychodynamic therapies

“…Indeed, positive psychologists, while developing their own models of interpretation for psychological experience, have begun to wonder how these could be used in applied psychology as well as in educational and clinical intervention (Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura, 2011;Ryff, 1989Ryff, , 2013Ryff & Singer, 2008;Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In 2006 Csikszentmihalyi and most of the other main representatives of positive psychology published a book entitled "A life worth living: contribution to Positive Psychology" (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 2006). In this work they expose in a critical way the main theories, research and contributions from positive psychology that may justify a perceived positive quality of life in various life areas, even in stressing or uneasy situations.…”

Evaluating the Impact of Highly Immersive Technologies and Natural Interaction on Player Engagement and Flow Experience in Games

“…There are multiple factors contributing to the overall game engagement [15,7,1]; flow and social interaction are two of them. Flow has been defined by Csikszentmihalyi as a state of mind in which a person is completely involved and immersed in an activity [4,2]. The concept of flow is central to game evaluation [12,16,7,1].…”