Investigating the "Flow" Experience: Key Conceptual and Operational Issues
Abuhamdeh, S. (2020). 'Investigating the "Flow" Experience: Key Conceptual and Operational Issues.' Frontiers in Psychology, 11, article 158. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00158. the governing source on operationalisation. Forty-two studies published in the five years to 2020 used twenty-four distinct operationalisations, so that 'the meaning of flow from one study to the next often changes drastically.' Any cutoff 'would necessarily involve a degree of arbitrariness', a sharp boundary is unlikely to exist, and one must be set because flow is optimal by definition. The quadrant criterion 'often results in 25% or more of all daily experiences being designated as "flow" experiences'. On why the field drifted: rarity is a power problem, so flow was reconceived as continuous, which he calls a retreat because '"Low flow" is a contradiction in terms, just as "mild rage" and "moderate ecstasy" are'. Extended across the full range of experience, flow 'has questionable discriminant validity over pre-existing constructs', specifically task involvement. On the model-or-theory question: 'Without distinguishing cause from effect, however, it is neither.' AND THE FOOTNOTE THE ARTICLE CLOSES ITS CRITICISM SECTION ON: 'in my own empirical work on goal-directed engagement,
Abuhamdeh, S. (2020). 'Investigating the "Flow" Experience: Key Conceptual and Operational Issues.' Frontiers in Psychology, 11, article 158. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00158. the governing source on operationalisation. Forty-two studies published in the five years to 2020 used twenty-four distinct operationalisations, so that 'the meaning of flow from one study to the next often changes drastically.' Any cutoff 'would necessarily involve a degree of arbitrariness', a sharp boundary is unlikely to exist, and one must be set because flow is optimal by definition. The quadrant criterion 'often results in 25% or more of all daily experiences being designated as "flow" experiences'. On why the field drifted: rarity is a power problem, so flow was reconceived as continuous, which he calls a retreat because '"Low flow" is a contradiction in terms, just as "mild rage" and "moderate ecstasy" are'. Extended across the full range of experience, flow 'has questionable discriminant validity over pre-existing constructs', specifically task involvement. On the model-or-theory question: 'Without distinguishing cause from effect, however, it is neither.' AND THE FOOTNOTE THE ARTICLE CLOSES ITS CRITICISM SECTION ON: 'in my own empirical work on goal-directed engagement,
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Abuhamdeh, S. (2020). Investigating the "Flow" Experience: Key Conceptual and Operational Issues. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, article 158.