The effects of open vs. specific goals on flow and clutch states in a cognitive task

A Review of Scientific Progress in Flow in Sport and Exercise: Normal Science, Crisis, and a Progressive Shift

“…There are many different types of goals (e.g., process, performance, outcome -Hardy, Jones & Gould, 1996; specific, "do your best" -Locke & Latham, 2013; emergent goals -Csikszentmihalyi, 1978) but it is not stated whether these are all relevant for flow, and if so, whether they are all equally relevant. An experimental study (Schweickle, Groves, Vella, & Swann, 2017) found that goal types significantly influenced subjective experience (i.e., flow and clutch states, as discussed below) during a cognitive task, suggesting that clarification of the goal types necessary for flow is highly important. It may previously have been the case that flow dimensions were defined broadly to maintain relevance across a broad number of domains (e.g., the various activities included in Csikszentmihalyi"s initial study in 1975).…”

“…In experimental studies to date, flow has typically been measured as a secondary outcome (e.g., of various characteristics of music; Karageorghis et al, 2008), with fewer studies that explicitly aimed to induce flow as the dependent variable. Recent exceptions include Harris, Vine and Wilson (2017) who set incrementally more difficult specific goals to induce flow through challenge-skill balance; however similar work (Schweickle et al, 2017) found contradictory evidence that incrementally more difficult specific goals are detrimental to flow, and induce a more effortful state instead. Regardless, there is generally little research in sport and exercise that focuses specifically on experimentally inducing flow.…”

Rethinking validity in qualitative sport and exercise psychology research: a realist perspective

“…While no conceptual papers have discussed realism in SEP, realist philosophical positions are increasingly being used in empirical SEP research (see Arnautovska, O'Callaghan, & Hamilton 2017;Brown, Webb, Robinson, & Cotgreave, 2019;de Grace, Knight, Rodgers, & Clark, 2017;Schweickle, Groves, Vella, & Swann, 2017) and sport coaching theory and research (North, 2013(North, , 2017McCarthy & Stoszkowski, 2018). Yet, there exist numerous examples of it being misunderstood in theoretical debates about qualitative research more broadly and in SEP specifically.…”

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“…According to Keller et al (2011), high skills-demands-compatibility result in increased stress levels as indicated by relatively high levels of salivary cortisol. Although elevated challenges have been positively associated with the occurrence of both flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988;Keller et al, 2011) and clutch state (Schweickle et al, 2017), these results could have been mediated by athletes use of psychological skills to manage the stressful demands of the situation. According to the Lazarus's cognitive-motivationalrelational theory (CMRT;1999, after appraising whether the environment has the potential to endanger personal goals (primary appraisal), the athlete can deploy, if needed, appropriate coping skills to deal with aspects of the problem or with emotions associated with it (secondary appraisal).…”

“…Although unresolved debates still remains about which and how many conditions are necessary for flow to occur (Swann et al, 2018), the challenge-skill condition is theoretically (Moneta, 2012) and empirically well supported. Namely, the manipulation of the balance between the task and skill has successfully triggered flow in participants of several experimental studies (Keller & Bless, 2008;Keller, Bless, Blomann, & Kleinböhl, 2011;Schweickle, Groves, Vella, & Swann, 2017). The current research thus focuses on this condition that facilitate both flow and clutch states.…”