A critique of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2) and Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2)
[full text read at source; an opinion article rather than an empirical study, and labelled one at every point of use] Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2022). 'A critique of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2) and Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2).' Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 992813. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.992813. the named, published, dedicated criticism of the standard flow scales. Scoring is ambiguous between intensity and probability, so a high score 'may be interpreted as an intense flow experience or as an experience that is very likely to be flow' depending on the researcher, and 'two identically high scores may consist of different combinations of extremely high dimensional averages and close to zero averages'. The multidimensional profile does not recover the state, their analogy being that a list of baking ingredients does not tell you whether the product is a cake, a muffin or pancakes. State and trait are not separated, since the items are near-identical apart from verb tense, so 'the scales are in fact self-reports that: (i) assess the memory of a recent flow experience and (ii) assess the memory of overall flow experiences.' Their conclusion: one can only state 'it depends… it's complicated' and 'probably.'
[full text read at source; an opinion article rather than an empirical study, and labelled one at every point of use] Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2022). 'A critique of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2) and Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2).' Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 992813. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.992813. the named, published, dedicated criticism of the standard flow scales. Scoring is ambiguous between intensity and probability, so a high score 'may be interpreted as an intense flow experience or as an experience that is very likely to be flow' depending on the researcher, and 'two identically high scores may consist of different combinations of extremely high dimensional averages and close to zero averages'. The multidimensional profile does not recover the state, their analogy being that a list of baking ingredients does not tell you whether the product is a cake, a muffin or pancakes. State and trait are not separated, since the items are near-identical apart from verb tense, so 'the scales are in fact self-reports that: (i) assess the memory of a recent flow experience and (ii) assess the memory of overall flow experiences.' Their conclusion: one can only state 'it depends… it's complicated' and 'probably.'
Written from the full text read at source; an opinion article rather than an empirical study, and labelled one at every point of use.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Lee-Shi, J., & Ley, R. G. (2022). A critique of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2) and Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2). Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 992813.