Optimal Experience and Optimal Identity: A Multinational Study of the Associations Between Flow and Social Identity

“I want it all”: exploring the relationship between entrepreneurs’ satisfaction with work–life balance, well-being, flow and firm growth

Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, we explore how two personal resources (satisfaction with work–life balance and experience of flow at work) contribute to two important outcomes in entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being and firm growth. Although previous research has emphasized the importance of personal factors for firm growth and explored a variety of factors affecting entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being, little attention has been paid to the role of satisfaction with work–life balance as a critical personal resource for entrepreneurs. With this study, we find that entrepreneurs’ satisfaction with work–life balance is positively associated with subjective well-being, which, in turn, mediates the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and firm growth. Our study also shows that experiencing flow at work accentuates the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and subjective well-being. Based on our findings, we offer implications for practicing entrepreneurs in terms of how to achieve higher levels of well-being and better firm growth. Specifically, we emphasize the benefits of achieving satisfaction with work–life balance, as this is important for an entrepreneur’s subjective well-being and has an indirect impact on firm growth. Stakeholders in entrepreneurial ecosystems should embrace subjective well-being as an important indicator of firm outcomes alongside traditional economic measures.

Authentic leadership and employee resilience during the COVID-19: The role of flow, organizational identification, and trust

The present work investigated fundamental mediating mechanisms (i.e., flow experience, organizational identification, and trust), underlining the impact of authentic leadership on employee resilience during the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 901 frontline employees working in a construction engineering company in China participated in this study. They were asked to respond to a battery of questionnaires comprising Trust Scale (affective-based, cognitive-based, and competence-based), Flow Proneness Questionnaire (FPQ), Organizational Identification Scale, Authentic Leadership Questionnaire, and Employee Resilience Scale. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) Authentic leadership positively predicted employee resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic, directly and indirectly. (2) As for the indirect relationship, two parallel mediation effects and one chain mediation were detected: employees' flow at work and organizational identification respectively and dependently mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and employee resilience; trust and organizational identification played as a chain mediation role within authentic leadership-employee resilience association. The study provides empirical evidence for organizations' resilience-building and leadership training programs. Findings also contribute to the literature by facilitating flow intervention, promoting organizational identification and trust to enhance the effect of authentic leadership in promoting positive psychological functioning of employee resilience. Limitations with respect to future research directions were also outlined.

Group‐based flow: The influence of cardiovascular synchronization and identifiability

Previous work has demonstrated the role of group-based flow in group performance and experience, but the physiological correlates of these relations are largely unknown. We examined the relation between cardiovascular synchronization, self-reported flow, and performance in a three-person online gaming task. We included measures of Heart Rate (HR), Pre-Ejection Period (PEP), and Cardiac Output (CO) as indices of task engagement and challenge (vs. threat) motivation. Group members were identifiable (i.e., visible) or anonymous during the game. Results indicated that PEP (as a marker of task engagement) and within-group synchronization in PEP, predicted flow, and that synchronization in PEP mediated the relation between group performance and experienced flow. The anonymity vs. identifiability of group members did not play a role in these effects. Results are discussed in terms of implications for flow theory, group dynamics, and physiological synchrony.

Flow experience and city identity in the restorative environment: A conceptual model and nature-based intervention

Within environmental psychology, the restorative environment is receiving increasing attention due to its favorable impact on people's mental recovery, stress reduction, and psychophysiological well-being. Flow theory, as one of the foundations of positive psychology, is a popular theoretical framework for understanding human flourishing and well-being. The restorative environment is suggested to facilitate flow experience and city identity from the perspective of positive environmental psychology. Nonetheless, systematic research investigating them all together can hardly be traced. Thus, through a preliminary review of 169 relevant studies retrieved from the data source, this work proposes a novel theoretical model in which people's interactions within the restorative environment facilitate their experience of flow and perceived city identity. Additionally, this research provides conceptual guidance for city workers to engage in nature-based intervention and leisure therapy for improved well-being. Overall, this review endeavors to contribute to developing urban workers' restoration, happiness, and well-being from both practical and theoretical perspectives.

Authentic Leadership and Employee Resilience: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Authentic leadership is essential for predicting employee resilience. However, despite fruitful findings, more adapted models of authentic leadership - employee resilience based on empirical findings can serve as a guide to understand the complex mediators and moderators in different industries such as in construction engineering project organizations during the turbulent pandemic. This study, therefore, based on the organizational identification theory and flow theory through the lens of positive organizational psychology, aims to disentangle the authentic leadership-employee resilience association by investigating their underlying mechanism and their boundary condition. To test our hypothetical model, we applied a cross-sectional design with data collected from a large sample of 884 employees from a big enterprise in China. Findings from confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling analysis, and Hayes's conditional process model indicated that: authentic leadership positively predicted employee resilience through the partial mediation effect of organizational identification, and such a mediation model was moderated by the experience of flow. In other words, flow moderated the relationships between authentic leadership, organizational identification, and employee resilience. Findings provide evidence for cultivating leaders' authenticity in promoting their subordinates' resilience; findings also highlight the significance of organizational identification in bridging authentic leadership and employee resilience and the essential role of flow experience in supporting the relationships mentioned above.

Flow Experience and Emotional Well-Being among Italian Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research highlighted the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents' emotional well-being worldwide. In the attempt to identify resources which could facilitate adolescents' adjustment, this study examined the occurrence of flow experience and related activities, and the association between flow and emotional well-being among Italian teenagers. In Spring 2021, 150 students (40.7% girls) aged 15-19 completed instruments assessing flow and related activities before and during the pandemic, and current positive and negative affect. Findings revealed that only 24.7% of the participants currently reported flow; over half of those reporting flow before the pandemic did not experience it subsequently, and only 6.5% of those not reporting flow before the pandemic currently experienced it. Participants with flow both before and during the pandemic reported higher positive affect than teens who never experienced flow (p = .011), or lost it (p = .006). No group differences were detected for negative affect. Learning, structured leisure, and interpersonal relations were the domains most frequently associated with flow before and during the pandemic, but after the pandemic onset a reduction in the variety of flow activities and limited identification of new flow domains were observed. The association of flow with higher emotional well-being even in pandemic times suggests the potential usefulness of interventions promoting flow retrieval under adverse circumstances.

A Scoping Review of Flow Research

Flow is a gratifying state of deep involvement and absorption that individuals report when facing a challenging activity and they perceive adequate abilities to cope with it (EFRN, 2014). The flow concept was introduced by Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, and interest in flow research is growing. However, to our best knowledge, no scoping review exists that takes a systematic look at studies on flow which were published between the years 2000 and 2016. Overall, 252 studies have been included in this review. Our review (1) provides a framework to cluster flow research, (2) gives a systematic overview about existing studies and their findings, and (3) provides an overview about implications for future research. The provided framework consists of three levels of flow research. In the first “Individual” level are the categories for personality, motivation, physiology, emotion, cognition, and behavior. The second “Contextual” level contains the categories for contextual and interindividual factors and the third “Cultural” level contains cultural factors that relate to flow. Using our framework, we systematically present the findings for each category. While flow research has made progress in understanding flow, in the future, more experimental and longitudinal studies are needed to gain deeper insights into the causal structure of flow and its antecedents and consequences.

The Relationship Between Perceived Residential Environment Quality (PREQ) and Community Identity: Flow and Social Capital as Mediators

The wide-spread novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has posed severe challenges to people's life especially their life style. Due to the residential confinement contingency, people were restricted in their study, work and leisure within constrained residential community. The physical environment of residential community therefore became the main activity place and it thus played a significant role for facilitating inhabitants' daily activities and influencing community identity. Based on the eudaimonic identity theory, this study explored how the spatial dimensions of perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), activity experience (i.e., flow) and social capital, would impact on urbanities' residential community identity during Covid-19. Results from 508 Chinese residential inhabitants analyzed via structural equation modeling suggested that: a better degree in the spatial dimensions of PREQ would predict a stronger community identity; flow and social capital mediated the relationship between the spatial dimensions of PREQ and the inhabitants' community identity. The implications of such accounts for our understanding of community identity are then discussed, considering the important meaning of the relationships between people and the perceived physical properties of their residential place.

Flow as a Key Predictor of Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students: A Chain Mediating Model

The present study investigated a conceptual model by testing flow experience and subjective well-being of university students during Coronavirus Diseas-19 (COVID-19) via considering their underlying mechanisms of academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. A total of 1,109 Chinese university students completed a questionnaire containing scales of subjective well-being, flow, academic self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Results yielded from the structural equation modeling analysis indicated a significant and positive association between flow experience and subjective well-being, and such an association was sequentially mediated by academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings also provided empirical evidence for the proposed model highlighting the significant role of flow experience at the higher educational context in predicting subjective well-being of Chinese university students, and how such a relation can be supported by suggested mediating roles academic self-efficacy and self-esteem played.

Moral Identity and Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Identity Commitment Quality

Moral identity is associated with people’s subjective well-being; however, little is known about how an individual with moral identity relates to one’s subjective well-being. Based on the eudaimonic identity theory, the current study proposed that identity commitment quality is a critical mechanism that links moral identity (two dimensions: internalization and symbolization) and subjective well-being. We examined our hypotheses in 419 college students, who completed the Self-importance of Moral Identity Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, and Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-being. Results confirmed significant positive correlations among moral identity, identity commitment quality, and subjective well-being; findings also suggested that both the internalization and symbolization dimensions of moral identity predicted subjective well-being through identity commitment quality, and identity commitment quality fully mediated the pathway relationship between moral identity and subjective well-being. We discussed these findings with respect to implications and proposed research suggestions for future studies.

How higher goals are constructed and collapse under stress: A hierarchical Bayesian control systems perspective

In this paper, we show that organisms can be modeled as hierarchical Bayesian control systems with small world and information bottleneck (bow-tie) network structure. Such systems combine hierarchical perception with hierarchical goal setting and hierarchical action control. We argue that hierarchical Bayesian control systems produce deep hierarchies of goal states, from which it follows that organisms must have some form of 'highest goals'. For all organisms, these involve internal (self) models, external (social) models and overarching (normative) models. We show that goal hierarchies tend to decompose in a top-down manner under severe and prolonged levels of stress. This produces behavior that favors short-term and self-referential goals over long term, social and/or normative goals. The collapse of goal hierarchies is universally accompanied by an increase in entropy (disorder) in control systems that can serve as an early warning sign for tipping points (disease or death of the organism). In humans, learning goal hierarchies corresponds to personality development (maturation). The failure of goal hierarchies to mature properly corresponds to personality deficits. A top-down collapse of such hierarchies under stress is identified as a common factor in all forms of episodic mental disorders (psychopathology). The paper concludes by discussing ways of testing these hypotheses empirically.

Expanding Social, Psychological, and Physical Indicators of Urbanites' Life Satisfaction toward Residential Community: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Attention on, and interest in, life satisfaction has increased worldwide. However, research on life satisfaction focused toward the urban dwellers' residential community is mainly from western countries, and the limited research from China is solely focused on the geriatric population via a narrowly constrained research perspective. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate urbanites' life satisfaction toward their community, combining the psychological (behavioral community engagement, mental state of flow, and cognitive community identity), physical (PREQIs-perceived residential environment quality indicators: e.g., green area), and social perspectives (social capital). The proposed conceptual model was tested on a regionally representative sample of 508 urban community residents in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. Data were analyzed via a structure equation modelling approach in AMOS software. Findings suggested that all of the psychological, physical and social factors contributed to a prediction of life satisfaction. Specifically, social capital mediated the path from community engagement and flow to life satisfaction, and community identity mediated the path from flow experience and green area to life satisfaction. Additionally, social capital contributed to predict life satisfaction through its influence on community identity. Findings provide suggestions for urban designers and policymakers to focus on creating an urban community equipped with green area, which helps to promote physical activities that are flow-productive, to enhance residents' identification to their residential community and, therefore, increase life satisfaction.

EEG dynamics and neural generators of psychological flow during one tightrope performance

Psychological “flow” emerges from a goal requiring action, and a match between skills and challenge. Using high-density electroencephalographic (EEG) recording, we quantified the neural generators characterizing psychological “flow” compared to a mindful “stress” state during a professional tightrope performance. Applying swLORETA based on self-reported mental states revealed the right superior temporal gyrus (BA38), right globus pallidus, and putamen as generators of delta, alpha, and beta oscillations, respectively, when comparing “flow” versus “stress”. Comparison of “stress” versus “flow” identified the middle temporal gyrus (BA39) as the delta generator, and the medial frontal gyrus (BA10) as the alpha and beta generator. These results support that “flow” emergence required transient hypo-frontality. Applying swLORETA on the motor command represented by the tibialis anterior EMG burst identified the ipsilateral cerebellum and contralateral sensorimotor cortex in association with on-line control exerted during both “flow” and “stress”, while the basal ganglia was identified only during “flow”.

Apple or Huawei: Understanding Flow, Brand Image, Brand Identity, Brand Personality and Purchase Intention of Smartphone

The global use of smartphone has had tremendous social, environmental, and economic impacts in the last decade, and continues to grow impressively. In order to comprehend customers’ purchase behavior, it is crucial to understand the driving force behind their choice of one specific brand among various competitors. A few prior researches have demonstrated that not only the optimal experience of flow, but also identity features (i.e., self-identity, social identity, brand identity) facilitate a customer’s purchase intention. Previous studies also indicate that brand-related constructs (e.g., typically brand image but sometimes also brand personality and communication) predict purchase intention. As the first study combining flow, which focuses on investigating the consumer purchase behavior through identity and brand-related constructs, we propose a conceptual model that combines flow theory, brand image, brand communication, brand identity, and brand personality to investigate purchase intention. We have empirically tested the conceptual model based on the data collected from 1377 Chinese smartphone users. Results via the structural equation modeling with AMOS software indicated that flow experience, brand image, brand communication, brand personality, and brand identity all directly or indirectly explain purchase intention. Flow experience serves a critical role in mediating the path from brand communication, brand personality, and brand identity to purchase intention. The research focuses on the strategic implication of the various brand features management and aims to harmonize economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Can Flow Alleviate Anxiety? The Roles of Academic Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem in Building Psychological Sustainability and Resilience

A growing number of studies suggest that flow experience is associated with life satisfaction, eudaimonic well-being, and the perceived strength of one’s social and place identity. However, little research has placed emphasis on flow and its relations with negative experiences such as anxiety. The current study investigated the relations between flow and anxiety by considering the roles of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy. The study sample included 590 Chinese university students, who were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire on flow, anxiety, self-esteem, and academic self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS software, in which both factorial analysis and path analysis were performed. Results revealed that the experience of flow negatively predicted anxiety, and both self-esteem and academic self-efficacy fully mediated the path between flow and anxiety. Specifically, self-esteem played a crucial and complete mediating role in this relationship, while academic self-efficacy mediated the path between self-esteem and anxiety. Our findings enrich the literature on flow experience and help with identifying practical considerations for buffering anxiety and more broadly with fostering strategies for promoting psychological sustainability and resilience.

Investigating the "Flow" Experience: Key Conceptual and Operational Issues

The “flow” experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) has been the focus of a large body of empirical work spanning more than four decades. Nevertheless, advancement in understanding – beyond what Csikszentmihalyi uncovered during his initial breakthrough in 1975 – has been modest. In this conceptual analysis, it is argued that progress within the field has been impeded by a lack of consistency in how flow is operationalized, and that this inconsistency in part reflects an underlying confusion regarding what flow is. Flow operationalizations from papers published within the past 5 years are reviewed. Across the 42 reviewed studies, flow was operationalized in 24 distinct ways. Three specific points of inconsistency are then highlighted: (1) inconsistences in operationalizing flow as a continuous versus discrete construct, (2) inconsistencies in operationalizing flow as inherently enjoyable (i.e., “autotelic”) or not, and (3) inconsistencies in operationalizing flow as dependent on versus distinct from the task characteristics proposed to elicit it (i.e., the conditions/antecedents). After tracing the origins of these discrepancies, the author argues that, in the interest of conceptual intelligibility, flow should be conceptualized and operationalized exclusively as a discrete, highly enjoyable, “optimal” state of consciousness, and that this state should be clearly distinguished from the conditions proposed to elicit it. He suggests that more mundane instances of goal-directed engagement are better conceived and operationalized as variations in task involvement rather than variations in flow. Additional ways to achieve greater conceptual and operational consistency within the field are suggested.

Experiences of treadmill walking with non-immersive virtual reality after stroke or acquired brain injury - A qualitative study

Objectives

It is well known that physical activity levels for persons after stroke or acquired brain injuries do not reach existing recommendations. Walking training is highly important since the ability to walk is considered to be a meaningful occupation for most people, and is often reduced after a brain injury. This suggests a need to innovate stroke rehabilitation, so that forms of walking training that are user-friendly and enjoyable can be provided.

Method

An interview study was carried out with persons after stroke (n = 8), or acquired brain injury (n = 2) at a rehabilitation unit at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. We used a semi-structured interview guide to investigate experiences and thoughts about walking on a treadmill with non-immersive virtual reality feedback. The contents were analyzed through an inductive approach, using qualitative content analysis.

Results

The virtual reality experience was perceived as enjoyable, exciting, and challenging. Participants stressed that the visual and auditory feedback increased their motivation to walk on a treadmill. However, for some participants, the virtual reality experience was too challenging, and extreme tiredness or fatigue were reported after the walking session.

Conclusions

Participants’ thoughts and experiences indicated that the Virtual Reality walking system could serve as a complement to more traditional forms of walking training. Early after a brain injury, virtual reality could be a way to train the ability to handle individually adapted multisensory input while walking. Obvious benefits were that participants perceived it as engaging and exciting.

Optimal Experience and Personal Growth: Flow and the Consolidation of Place Identity

This study examined the relationship between flow experience and place identity, based on eudaimonistic identity theory (EIT) which prioritizes self-defining activities as important for an individual’s identification of his/her goals, values, beliefs, and interests corresponding to one’s own identity development or enhancement. This study focuses on place identity, the identity’s features relating to a person’s relation with her/his place. The study is also based on flow theory, according to which some salient features of an activity experience are important for happiness and well-being. Questionnaire surveys on Italian and Greek residents focused on their perceived flow and place identity in relation to their own specific local place experiences. The overall findings revealed that flow experience occurring in one’s own preferred place is widely reported as resulting from a range of self-defining activities, irrespective of gender or age, and it is positively and significantly associated with one’s own place identity. Such findings provide the first quantitative evidence about the link between flow experienced during meaningfully located self-defining activities and identity experienced at the place level, similarly to the corresponding personal and social levels that had been previously already empirically tested. Results are also discussed in terms of their implications for EIT’s understanding and enrichment, especially by its generalization from the traditional, personal identity level up to that of place identity. More generally, this study has implications for maintaining or enhancing one’s own place identity, and therefore people–place relations, by means of facilitating a person’s flow experience within psychologically meaningful places.