2021 Volume 59 Issue 2-3 Pages 63-71
An American psychologist, Csikszentmihalyi, defined a mental state which is called “Flow.” Flow is the state in which an individual feels deeply involved and focused. Csikszentmihalyi proposed 8 mental states which include the flow as a flow model. In this study, subjects were asked to provide psychological self-reports, based on Experience Sampling Method every time they were engaged in an activity which lasted more than 30 minutes and we aggregated their activities into 18 categories, and also examined their subjective experiences. We carried out factor analysis and cluster analysis to divide those data in 8 psychological states based on Flow theory. Collating the result of the clustering and the responses to the psychological self-reports, the data which clustered into “Flow,” “Apathy,” or “Control” were especially reasonable. In addition, other psychological state clusters were generally reasonable. Focusing on the cluster named “Flow,” those activities matched to the answers that subjects mentioned in the self-reports which asked them when they would be in flow. Therefore, the result of this study appears to be reliable and it suggests that the method used for this study can apply to monitor mental health trend of people on a daily basis.
