Flow As An Experience Beyond Boredom

Weibel, David; Wissmath, Bartholomäus (2024). Flow As An Experience Beyond Boredom. In: Bieleke, Maik; Wolff, Wanja; Martarelli, Corinna (eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Boredom (pp. 163-177). London: Routledge

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The holistic experience of flow was first proposed by Csikszentmihalyi in 1975. Flow can be described as a mental state of operation in which a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. Flow is a highly gratifying mental state which is characterized by the merging of action and awareness, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task, sense of control, the loss of self-consciousness, time transformation, and autotelic experience. In addition, and most importantly, flow is experienced when there is a balance between a particular challenge and the skills required to accomplish it. However, if this balance is not met and the situation is not challenging enough, the individual is likely to experience boredom. Thus, flow is somehow the opposite of boredom. In the words of Csikszentmihalyi, flow is “beyond boredom.” In this context, the question arises as to what point the state of boredom changes to the state of flow and how an initially satisfying activity can be perceived as boring. In addition to providing an overview of flow theory, we will discuss these issues in this chapter. We will also look at the consequences of boredom and flow and examine strategies for avoiding boredom and facilitating flow.

Item Type:

Book Section (Book Chapter)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Methodology

UniBE Contributor:

Weibel, David, Wissmath, Bartholomäus

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISBN:

9781003271536

Publisher:

Routledge

Language:

English

Submitter:

David Weibel

Date Deposited:

01 May 2024 16:07

Last Modified:

01 May 2024 16:07

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/196426

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