Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
The clearest and most influential introduction to Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow and optimal experience.
Author guide
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Books in Order
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist, professor, and researcher whose work examined happiness, creativity, motivation, development, and the quality of everyday experience. He pioneered experience-sampling research and developed the influential concept of flow, the state of deep engagement in an activity. He taught at the University of Chicago and Claremont Graduate University, where he founded the Quality of Life Research Center, and helped establish positive psychology with Martin Seligman.
psychologypositive psychologysocial scienceself-helpeducation
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
A concise, practical introduction to applying flow theory in everyday life.
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
The best starting point for his research on creativity, discovery, and creative work.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Edited works (6)
- Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness
edited_collection · 1988
A comprehensive survey of study on the 'flow' experience, a desirable or optimal state of consciousness that enhances the psychic state.
- From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change
edited_collection · 1999
- Flow in Sports: The Keys to Optimal Experiences and Performances
edited_collection · 1999
With help from sports psychology researcher Jackson, Csikszentmihalyi (human behavior, U. of Chicago) pares down his now-famous concept of flow to basic explanations and self-assessment exercises. Emphasis is on achieving a balance…
- A Life Worth Living: Contributions to Positive Psychology
edited_collection · 2006
- Applied Positive Psychology: Improving Everyday Life, Health, Schools, Work, and Society
edited_collection · 2011
- Positive Tourism
edited_collection · 2017
Other (14)
- Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years
book · 1984
To find out what teenagers' lives are like, two psychologists gave beepers to seventy-five adolescents, signaled them at random, and asked them to record their thoughts and feelings as they sat in classrooms, socialized with friends, and…
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
book · 1990
- Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday Experience
book · 1990
First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
- Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet
book · 2001
What does it mean to carry out "good work"? What strategies allow people to maintain moral and ethical standards at a time when market forces have unprecedented power and work life is being radically altered by technological innovation?…
- Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
book · 2003
Since the publication of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow in 1990, the notion of "flow"—the state of optimal experience in which one loses oneself in a task or activity—has become a household word. It has been endorsed by political leaders…
- Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Quality of Everyday Life
book · 2007
No further information has been provided for this title.
- Running Flow
book · 2017
