Enabling Positive Change

Flow and Complexity in Daily Experience

Paolo Inghilleri, Giuseppe Riva, Eleonora Riva

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open Poland
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9783110410235
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110410242
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Personal psychological growth

Why are some people able to promote their own psychological growth and change toward complexity while others not? Is it possible to propose simple methodologies and instruments that would allow selection of positive experiences and hence develop a stronger and richer Self? This book describes the way to promote and foster positive psychological growth in everyday life, through simple instruments accessible to anyone.

Positive psychological experience

The focal point of the approach is the concept of Flow of Consciousness, an experience of subjective psychological wellbeing that nourishes and complexifies the Self. The authors propose a wide overview of positive psychological experience considering individual characteristics and experiences, as well as the influence of context, culture and social relationship, and the effects of the immersion in a globalized world, like the increasing daily use of mediated communication technologies. In the various chapters, this conceptual frame is declined in different areas of research, either consolidated ones or new fields.

Self-development tips

In a fresh and engaging style, the book transports the readers in a world of situations and opportunities through which they can identify themselves in a positive and stable self-development process. In the first two chapters the authors describe the impact of positive psychological experience in social and individual life. In the following chapters the reader discovers, accompanied by the exposition of concrete research results, the specific characteristics that may promote flow experience in several field of experience: the use of communication technology; the experience of social-networks; clinical settings and Psychotherapy; the psychological relation with environment, politics and social participation, school, sports, family business, mentor's influence, and the perception of quality of life in daytime.

Everyday opportunities

This opportunity of interacting with different and various kinds of experiences, that may appear dispersive, will on the contrary bring the reader - who may choose this book both for professional or personal reasons - to understand the concept of personal psychological growth in the wider and more concrete perspective, and to comprehend which personal skills he may bring into play in order to improve his personality and his daily experience.

Table of contents

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• Introduction: Positive Change in Global World: Creative Individuals and Complex Societies
• References
• 1 Phenomenology of Positive Change: Social Growth
• References
• 2 Phenomenology of Positive Change: Personal Growth
• References
• 3 Positive Change and Positive Technology
• References
• 4 Positive Change and Networked Flow: From Creative Individuals to Creative Networks
• References
• 5 Positive change in clinical settings: flow experience in psychodynamic therapies
• References
• 6 Positive Change in Environment: Aesthetics, Environmental Flowability and Well-Being
• References
• 7 Positive Change and Political Participation: Well-Being as an Indicator of the Quality of Citizens’ Engagement
• References
• 8 Positive Change and Scholastic Education
• References
• 9 Positive Change and Flow in Sport
• References
• 10 Positive Change and Transgenerational Relationships in Family Business
• References
• 11 Positive Change and Mentoring in Adulthood
• References
• 12 Positive Change and Quality of Time in Daily Life
• References
• _GoBack
• Figure 1.1: Theoretical precursors of Csikszentmihalyi ‘s Flow theory (from Engeser & Tiska, 2012)
• Figure 2.1: The intentional chain (from Riva and Mantovani, 2012a).
• Figure 2.2: Layers of presence in human activity.
• Figure 2.3: The experience of presence
• Figure 2.4: Presence and Optimal Experiences.
• Figure 3.1: Positive Technology levels (Adapted from Riva et al., 2012)
• Figure 3.2: Positive Psychology tools (Adapted from Botella et al., 2012)
• Figure 3.3: The Process of Patient Engagement (Adapted from Graffigna et al., 2013a)
• Figure 4.1: Phase 1: Meeting (or Persistence).
• Figure 4.2: Phase 2: Reducing the distance.
• Figure 4.3: Phase 3: Liminality-Parallel Action
• Figure 4.4: Phase 4: Networked Flow
• Figure 4.5: Phase 5: Creation of the artifact
• Figure 4.6: Phase 6: Application of the artifact to social reality
• Figure 4.7: An example of adjacency matrix, which provides the possible choices of respondents to the question: «Which member of the team do you think most shares your vision?». It is interesting to note a remarkable centralization of the two most interna
• Figure 4.8: Density and Centralization indices of a group over 11 weeks of collaboration (adapted from Gaggioli et al., in press)
• Figure 6.1: Flowability-preference covariance
• Figure 9.1: Flow and Peak Moments (Berger & Tobar, 2007, modified)
• Figure 12.1: What is quality most important in term of?
• Figure 12.2: Most important reason when condsidering an object‘s excellence
• Figure 12.3: Percent of respondents calling technology „wasted time“
• Figure 12.4: Percent of respondent who wasted time with technology, AND would spend unplanned time using technology
• Table 2.1: The TransTheoretical Model of behavior change (adapted from Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982, 1983; Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992).
• Table 2.2: The Perceptual Control Theory (adapted from Higginson, Mansell, & Wood, 2011; Vancouver & Putka, 2000).
• Table 2.3: Differences between the Rational and the Intuitive systems.
• Table 2.4: The layers of presence
• Table 6.1: Matrix of correlations between flowability and other main variables
• Table 7.1: Structural analogies between features of positive participatory settings and dimensions of flow
• Table 9.1: Peak moments
• Table 9.2: From flow to mental training