TED.com

Check out this website they bill themselves as "Inspired talks by the world's leading thinkers and doers" It's were I found the link to the interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

ted conference link

Web links

Here are a few web links that I found when surfing the web

This one includes a down loadable PDF dissertation on flow theory.

flow theory webpage

The next on is where Jenova Chen shares his research and ideas with gamers and game designers from all over the world who are interested in game design theories, processes and their innovations.

The site is currently focused on Jenova's MFA thesis research. It is about inventing new methodologies usable by the frontline game designers to help realizing dynamic Flow experiences for different individuals and more importantly for potential gamers who are still out of the current video game market.

jenova webpage link

flow-like conference

I'm submitting this post for Debrayh.

I (Debrayh) found this conference when I was doing some research on the web. Professor Csikszentmihalyi is one of the speakers (see below).

Psychology Conference - Jan 24, 2009
2009 Stauffer Symposium on Applied Psychology
Conference Web Page

January 24, 2009
8:45 am – 6:45 pm
Claremont Graduate University

Positive Psychology emerged at the beginning of the new millennium as a movement within psychology aimed at enhancing human strengths and optimal human functioning. This emerging area of scholarship, scientific research, and application has inspired leading scholars and practitioners from across the globe to rethink the fundamental nature of how we live, work, and educate; of our health and well-being; of how to design and lead positive institutions; and how to develop positive public policies. The ideas contained in the initial work in positive psychology have spread far and wide across the disciplines to form a broader movement, sometimes referred to as the positive social and human sciences.

Claremont Graduate University is proud to announce that it will host a day-long event to celebrate the emerging positive social and human sciences, and to push their boundaries. Leaders and leading scholars from across the positive science landscape will gather in Claremont on Saturday, January 24, 2009 to discuss Applying the Science of Positive Psychology.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow
Some people become so deeply focused on an activity, they experience an almost euphoric state of joy and pleasure in the process. Time seems to stand still. They report feeling a sense of vitality and are highly alert and feel as if they are performing to the best of their ability.

According to psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, they are most likely experiencing ‘Flow,’ a state of deep focus that occurs when the individual is engaged in a challenging task that demands concentration and commitment. But in order for ‘Flow’ to occur, the individual’s skill level must balanced to the challenge level of the task, and the challenge must have clear goals and provide immediate feedback.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was born September 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy and immigrated to the United States at the age of 22. He is noted for his work in the study of happiness, creativity, subjective well-being, and fun, but is best known for his research on Flow Theory.

He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and the director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC) at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont California. The QLRC is a non-profit research institute that studies "positive psychology,” or human strengths, such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility.

Professor Csikszentmihalyi received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1965. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Studies.

Quotes from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To know one-self is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

It does not seem to be true that work necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may always have to be hard, or at least harder than doing nothing at all. But here is ample evidence that work can be enjoyable, and that indeed, it is often the most enjoyable part of life.

“If the next generation is to face the future with zest and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as well as competent”

If we agree that the bottom line of life is happiness, not success, then it makes perfect sense to say that it is the journey that counts, not reaching the destination.

. . . Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990.

As you reflect on the words of Professor Csikszentmihalyi, please consider the following questions and post your response.

1. Describe a time in your life when you experienced ‘Flow’ as it is described by Csikszentmihalyi.
2. What circumstances contributed to the ‘Flow’ experience?
3. Having experienced “Flow” do you feel that this is something that can be taught?