Abstract
What makes people want to go on with the effort required from life? Every epistemology of behavior must sooner or later cope with this basic question. The question is not so mysterious for nonhuman organisms, which presumably have built-in genetic programs instructing them to live as long as their physical machinery is able to function. But our species has a choice: With the development of consciousness, we have the ability to second-guess and occasionally override the instructions coded in our chromosomes. This evolutionary development has added a great deal of flexibility to the human repertoire of behaviors. But the freedom gained has its downside—too many possibilities can have a paralyzing effect on action (Schwartz 2000). Among the options we are able to entertain is that of ending our lives; thus, as the existential philosophers remarked, the question of why one should not commit suicide is fundamental to the understanding of human life.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Reprinted with permission of the Guilford Press, in A.J. Elliot & C.S. Dweck (Eds.) Handbook of Competence and Motivation. New York: The Guilford Press, pp 598-608, 2005 © 2005 Guilford Publications Inc..
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37, 122–147.
Bergson, H. (1944). Creative evolution. New York: The Modern Library (Original published in 1931).
Berlyne, D. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bühler, C. (1930). Die geistige Entwicklung des Kindes [The mental development of children]. Jena: G. Fischer.
Conti, R. (2001). Time flies: Investigating the connection between intrinsic motivation and the experience of time. Journal of Personality, 69, 1, 1–26.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity! Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, L. (Eds.). (1988). Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Hunter, J. (2003). Happiness in everyday life: The uses of experience sampling. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4(2), 1–15.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & LeFevre, J. (1989). Optimal experience in work and leisure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(5), 815–822.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Nakamura, J. (1989). The dynamics of intrinsic motivation: A study of adolescents. In R. Ames, C. Ames. (Eds.). Research on motivation in education; goals and cognitions (pp. 45–71). New York: Academic Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Nakamura, J., (1999). Emerging goals and the self-regulation of behavior. In R. S. Wyer (Ed.). Advances in social cognition. Perspectives on behavioral self-regulation (Vol. 12, pp. 107–118) Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rathunde, K., & Whalen, S. (1993). Talented teenagers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
deCharms, R. (1968). Personal causation. New York: Academic Press.
Deci, E. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18(1), 105–115.
Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum Press.
Deci. E., & Ryan. R. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
Elliot, A. J., Faler, J., McGregor, Η. Α., Campbell, W. Κ., Sedikides, C., & Harackiewicz, J. (2000). Competence valuation as a strategic intrinsic motivation process. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(7), 780–794.
Fisher, C. D. (1978). The effects of personal control, competence, and extrinsic reward systems on intrinsic motivation. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 21, 273–288.
Friedman, W. J. (1990). About time: inventing the fourth dimension. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Glisky, M. L., Tataiyn, D. J., Tobias, Β. Α., Kihlstrom, J. F., & McConkey, Κ. M. (1991). Absorption, openness to experience, and hypnotizability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 263–272.
Greenwald, A. (1982). Ego task analysis: An integration of research on ego-involvement and self-awareness. In A. H. Hastorf, A. M. Isen (Eds.). Cognitive social psychology (pp. 109–147). New York: Elsevier.
Groos, K. (1901). The play of man. New York: Appleton.
Harackicwiz, J. M. (1979). The effects of reward contingency and performance feedback on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1352–1363.
Harackiewicz, J. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1998). The joint effects of target and purpose goals on intrinsic motivation: A mediational analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(7), 673–689.
Harackiewicz, J. M., & Manderlink, G. (1984). Λ process analysis of the effects of performance-contingent rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 531–551.
Harackiewicz, J. M., Sansone, C., & Manderlink, G. (1985). Competence, achievement orientation, and intrinsic motivation: A process analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48(2), 493–508.
Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: toward a developmental model. Human Development, 2(1), 34–64.
Hebb, D. O. (1955). Drive and the CNS. Psychology Review, 62, 243–252.
Hunt, J. (1965). Intrinsic motivation and its role in development. In Nebraska symposium on motivation, Vol 12. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 189–282.
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. New York: Holt.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410–422.
Levin, R., & St Fireman, G. (2001). The relation of fantasy proneness, psychological absorption, and imaginative involvement to nightmare prevalence and nightmare distress. Imagination Cognitive Personality, 21(2), 111–129.
Mead, G. H. (1970). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (Original published in 1934).
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 33–52.
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2001). Catalytic creativity: The case of Linus Pauling. American Psychologist, 56(4), 337–341.
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002). The concept of flow. In: C. R. Snyder, S. J. Lopez (Eds.). Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 89–105). New York: Oxford University Press.
Piager, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press.
Raihuiide, K. (1989). The context of optimal experience: an exploratory model of the family. New Ideas in Psychology, 7(1), 91–97.
Reser, J. P., & Scherl, L. M. (1988). Clear and unambiguous feedback: A transactional and motivational analysis of environmental challenge and self-encounter. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 8(4), 269–286.
Ryan, R. M. (1982). Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. The Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 450–461.
Sansone, C., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (1996). “I don’t feel like it”: The function of interest in self-regulation. In L. L. Maitin, A. Tesser. (Eds.). Striving and feeling: interactions among goals, affect, and self-regulation (pp. 203–228). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Sansone, C., Sachau, D. Α., & Weir, C. (1989). Effects of instruction on intrinsic interest: The importance of context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(5), 819–829.
Schmuck, P., & Sheldon, K. M. (Eds.). (2001). Life goals and well-being: Towards a positive psychology of human striving. Seattle: Hogrefe and Huber.
Schwartz, B. (2000). Self-determination: The tyranny of freedom. American Psychologist 55(1), 79–88.
Tellegen, Α., & Atkinson, G. (1974). Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences (“absorption”), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83(3), 268–277.
Vallerand, R. J., & Reid, G. (1984). On the causal effects of perceived competence on intrinsic motivation: A test of cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Sport Psychology, 6(1), 94–102.
Weber, M. J. (1930). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Scribner.
White, R. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333.
Wild, T. C., Kuiken, D., & Schopflocher, D. (1995). The role of absorption in experiential involvement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(3), 569–579.
Wong, M. (2000). The relations among causality orientations, academic experience, academic performance, and academic commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(3), 315–326.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., Nakamura, J. (2014). Flow. In: Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9088-8_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9088-8_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9087-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9088-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)