Beyond challenge-seeking and skill-building: Toward the lifespan developmental perspective on flow theory

Flow experience fosters university students' well-being through psychological resilience: A longitudinal design with cross-lagged analysis

BACKGROUND

Existing research has linked individuals' flow experience - a positive affective and cognitive state of deep immersion and engagement in daily activities - and their well-being, particularly among university students. A growing number of longitudinal studies have further contributed to this understanding. However, limited attention has been given to exploring the dynamic interplay between these two variables and their underlying mechanisms (i.e., the mediator) of psychological resilience, specifically among university students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIMS

To address this research gap, the present study draws on self-determination, flow and broaden-and-build theories. It examines the temporal dynamics and relationships between flow experience and well-being, and the mediating role of psychological resilience among Chinese university students.

SAMPLE

The study adopts a three-wave longitudinal design with a sample of 474 university students in Southwest China.

METHODS

Participants' flow experience, well-being and psychological resilience were measured across three time waves.

RESULTS

The findings of this study reveal that flow experience predicts well-being across the three waves and that psychological resilience mediates this prediction. This empirical evidence emphasizes the significance of both flow experience and psychological resilience in contributing to the well-being of university students over time amid COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings enrich our understanding of the factors contributing to well-being in educational settings and provide highly relevant and timely insights for developing strategies to foster well-being among university students, especially in the transition into the post-pandemic era; findings also offer valuable insights not only for researchers but also for educators and policymakers.

Measuring optimal psychological states: Proposal of two brief versions to measure flow and clutch in athletes

Background

The study of sports experiences with high levels of performance has led to the observation of two psychological states categorized as optimal, denominated flow and clutch. The objective of this study is to design and validate two brief scales version to measure flow and clutch.

Methods

Following the MIMO (Maximum Information, Minimum Discomfort) protocol, three studies are carried out: In Study 1, we developed the short versions of the questionnaires based on theory-driven and data-driven criteria; in Study 2, we used quantitative criteria to validate the short versions; and in Study 3, we checked the final version of each scale to observe their statistical validity and their relation to other variables.

Results

The new short flow scale is made up of seven items, while the clutch scale is made up of five items. Throughout the three studies, evidence is provided of the internal consistency, invariance of the measurement models and content validity, validity related to the responding process and validity in relation to other variables.

Conclusion

This study provides two short versions to evaluate flow and clutch, which will help to continue advancing in the study of optimal psychological states in sport.

Animals in flow - towards the scientific study of intrinsic reward in animals

The concept of flow, a state of complete absorption in an intrinsically rewarding activity, has played a pivotal role in advancing notions of human well-being beyond minimising suffering towards promoting flourishing and thriving. While flow has played a fundamental role in human positive psychology, it has not yet been explored in non-human animals, leaving an enormous void in our understanding of intrinsic motivation in animals. As ethology and related fields keep progressing in uncovering complex cognitive and affective capacities of non-human animals, we propose the time is ripe to translate the concept of flow to animals. We start by embedding flow in the topic of intrinsic motivation and describe its impact on positive human psychology and potentially positive animal welfare. We then disambiguate flow from related concepts discussed in the animal literature. Next, we derive experimental approaches in animals from the canonical characteristics of flow in humans and provide guidelines for both inducing and assessing flow by focusing on two characteristics that do not necessarily depend on self-report, namely resistance to distraction and time distortion. Not all aspects of the human flow experience are (yet) translatable, but those that are may improve quality of life in captive non-human animals.

The role of students' relational identity and autotelic experience for their innovative and continuous use of e-learning

Over the last decades, using e-learning systems as an alternative format of education for traditional classroom has been growing in higher education and due to COVID-19 pandemic, this transition has been unprecedently accelerated. Although there is a large body of research on e-learning, little is known about the extent to which innovative and continuous use of e-learning systems can be influenced by students' social and motivational factors especially their relational identity and autotelic experience. This study collected data from 400 higher education students through a survey to explore the role of students' relational identity and autotelic experiences regarding their innovative and continuous use of e-learning systems while considering the mediating role of students' perception of relatedness. Collected data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method. The results showed that students' relational identity and autotelic experience significantly influence the innovative and continuous use of e-learning. The results showed that relational identity and autotelic experience positivly associatewith innovative (β = 0.190, t = 3.544; β = 0.405, t = 7.973) and continuous use of e-learning (β = 0.188, t = 3.115; β = 0.344, t = 7.459) and relatedness plays a moderating role between relational identity and continuous use (β = 0.194, t = 4.500, p = 0.000). Relatedness weakens the relationship between relational identity and innovative use of e-learning. However, it reinforces the relationship between relational identity and the continuous use of e-learning. It was found that relatedness strengthens the relationship between autotelic experience with innovative and continuous use of e-learning. The results of this study provide evidence of how students' social and motivational factors can influence their approaches to the innovative and continuous use of e-learning systems. We discuss these results and provide agenda for future practical and professional work.

More Knowledge, More Satisfaction with Online Teaching? Examining the Mediation of Teacher Efficacy and Moderation of Engagement during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, university teachers need to spend time and energy getting used to the online teaching system and adapting their teaching materials to the new teaching mode. According to the social cognitive theory, teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and their work engagement, both of which can be important sources of efficacy beliefs, can be critical in conducing teachers’ self-efficacy for online teaching and in turn their well-being. Based on the data collected from 2763 university teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, this study explored how TPACK and work engagement contribute to teachers’ self-efficacy for online teaching, if there is any interaction between TPACK and work engagement, and how self-efficacy mediates the relationships between TPACK and teachers’ online-teaching-related emotional exhaustion, teaching satisfaction, and their intention to use online teaching in the future. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Desire for Success Awakens: Proof of Competence Restoration in a Non-competitive Environment

Pioneering studies reported that individuals who worked on a highly difficult task and experienced competence frustration beforehand would activate a restorative process and show enhanced autonomous motivation in a subsequent irrelevant activity. In this follow-up study, we explored the effect of prior competition outcome on one’s autonomous motivation in a subsequent non-competitive environment. According to our experimental manipulation, participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (a winning group and a losing group) and a control group. The experiment lasted for three sessions. Participants in the control group completed a single-player stop-watch (SW) task all along, while those in both treatment groups worked on a competitive SW task and competed for monetary rewards during Session 2 only. Electrophysiological data in Session 1 serve as the baseline and measure one’s trait-level autonomous motivation towards the SW game. For participants in the losing group, more pronounced difference wave of feedback-related negativity was observed in Session 3 compared with Session 1, suggesting enhanced autonomous motivation in Session 3. Such a pattern was observed in neither the winning group nor the control group. These results suggested that failure in a prior competition would activate one’s competence restoration in a subsequent non-competitive environment. Task difficulty and social competition are varied sources of competence frustration. Thus, our findings advanced understanding of the competence restorative process and helped clarify the dynamics between competition and human motivation.