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Flow and Health: A Bio-psycho-social Perspective

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Psychological Selection and Optimal Experience Across Cultures

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 2))

Abstract

Health is so fundamental to the biocultural survival of individuals and groups that complex bodies of knowledge about preventive lifestyles, disease, and treatment have been developed across cultures and millennia. This chapter deals with the role of optimal experience in promoting health, by first presenting the dominant WHO definitions of health, held as universally valid standards across cultures. It then illustrates some of the constructs proposed by positive psychology that have been fruitfully applied to the health domain. Within this framework, findings on optimal experience and well-being promotion will be discussed. Several studies were conducted over the years among individuals with motor and sensory disabilities, participants with eating disorders, women who underwent breast cancer surgery, and people with mental illness. Findings showed that disease is not necessarily synonymous with suffering and languishing; occasions for optimal experiences and personal growth can be retrieved in suboptimal physical conditions. Under these circumstances personal resources, social support, and cultural and environmental factors can promote well-being and can be flourishing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche Luigi Saccos, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20157, Milano, Italy

    Antonella Delle Fave (Professor of Psychology), Fausto Massimini (Professor of Psychology) & Marta Bassi (Assistant Professor of Psychology)

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  1. Antonella Delle Fave
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  2. Fausto Massimini
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  3. Marta Bassi
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Correspondence to Antonella Delle Fave .

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Delle Fave, A., Massimini, F., Bassi, M. (2011). Flow and Health: A Bio-psycho-social Perspective. In: Psychological Selection and Optimal Experience Across Cultures. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9876-4_14

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