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PSYC 471 > Lecture 6: Flow > Flashcards

Lecture 6: Flow Flashcards

1
Q

flow

A

a sense of effortless action felt in moments that stand out as the best in our lives

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2
Q

components of flow

A
  • Clarity of goals
  • Immediate feedback
  • Challenges and skills are matched
  • Absorbed in the task
  • Sense of personal control
  • Altered sense of time
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3
Q

example of flow

A

Nova Scotians surfing in the winter

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4
Q

prevalence of flow activities

A

90% of people have flow activities

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5
Q

flow in sports vs. academic activities

A
  • Csikszentmihalyi argues that school doesn’t have clear goals but sports do
  • This is why we are more likely to experience flow in sports
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6
Q

Csikszentmihalyi’s view of TV

A

“Mass leisure and mass culture are parasites of the mind: they absorb psychic energy without any substantive return.”

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7
Q

Csikszentmihalyi’s advice on flow

A
  • Figure out what your flow activities are and build your life around them
  • This will help make your life feel meaningful
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8
Q

daily experience sampling

A

Using pagers to have people report on their experiences randomly during the day

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9
Q

the paradox of work and leisure study method

A

conducted a daily experience sampling method where people were asked what they were doing and who they were with

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10
Q

the paradox of work and leisure study findings

A
  • People were most likely to experience flow when doing sports and hobbies (there’s usually an initial barrier with sports and hobbies)
  • Flow is moderately likely to happen when doing work or chores
  • Flow is highly unlikely to happen when watching TV
  • Participants reported more flow experiences at work than during their leisure time
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11
Q

why are people more likely to experience flow when at work?

A

This is likely because people spend 75% of their leisure time watching TV when they are highly unlikely to produce flow

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12
Q

daily variance in mood

A

There is a lot of variance in people’s moods

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13
Q

prevalence of TV watching in Canada

A
  • The average Canadian watches 4-5 hours of TV per day
  • It increases as we get older with the exception of the young adult years
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14
Q

TV vs. other activities

A
  • Other activities are higher in potency, concentration, challenge, and skills
  • TV is higher in relaxation than other activities
  • Other activities and TV are equal in cheerfulness
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15
Q

characteristics of watching TV

A
  • Highly relaxing
  • Moderately pleasant
  • Highly unchallenging
  • Highly passive
  • Requires low concentration
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16
Q

watching TV vs. reading

A
  • Watching TV is lower in potency, cheerfulness, concentration, challenge, and skills
  • Both are equally relaxing
17
Q

watching TV vs. reading over time

A
  • Watching TV becomes a worse experience over time
  • Reading becomes a better experience over time
18
Q

Koestner’s Three-Pronged Defence of Watching TV

A
  1. It’s okay if you do it with others
  2. Life as a professor is stressful. I watch TV when I feel exhausted and it helps me relax and recuperate
  3. It’s okay if you watch good shows
19
Q

Doing activities with others

A

doing activities with others is more fulfilling, including TV

20
Q

watching TV and stress

A
  • Having a stressful day has nothing to do with whether we watch TV
  • Watching TV doesn’t help us recover from a stressful day (ex. We watch more TV on weekends during the weekdays)
21
Q

does the type of TV program make a difference?

22
Q

why do we watch TV?

A
  • The natural state of our mind is entropy and chaos
  • If we sit and don’t have a goal or any activity, our thoughts will be chaotic, anxious, and depressed
  • At some level, we know this
  • TV is the easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to get control over our thoughts is to turn on the TV
23
Q

how does TV hook us?

A
  • We compulsively respond to jump cuts
  • We’ve been negatively conditioned: when we turn off the TV, we’re flooded with anxious and empty feelings
  • This teaches us that turning it back on will make us feel better
24
Q

the challenge of watching TV

A
  • The content of TV shows has changed dramatically in the last 10 years
  • Multiple threading and social networks require attention, patience, retention, and parsing of narrative threads
  • You have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing you are exercising the parts of your brain that map social networks, that fill in missing information and that connect multiple narrative threads
25
Q

Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi’s recommendations

A
  • Don’t try to give up TV totally
  • Watch with other people
  • Be a discriminating viewer
  • Make it goal-oriented
  • Record
  • Supplement with study

PSYC 471 (61 decks)

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