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The Concept of Flow

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Book cover Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology

Abstract

What constitutes a good life? Few questions are of more fundamental importance to a positive psychology. Flow research has yielded one answer, providing an understanding of experiences during which individuals are fully involved in the present moment. Viewed through the experiential lens of flow, a good life is one that is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. In this chapter, we describe the flow model of optimal experience and optimal development, explain how flow and related constructs have been measured, discuss recent work in this area, and identify some promising directions for future research.

Copyright statement "Reprinted with permission of the Oxford University Press, Inc. in C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Eds.) Handbook of Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, pp 89-105, 2002" © Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Behavioral & Organizational Science, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA

    Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  2. The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jeanne Nakamura

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  1. Jeanne Nakamura
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  2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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Correspondence to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi .

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Nakamura, J., Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The Concept of Flow. In: Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9088-8_16

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