Tse Dwight C K, Joseph Ayodele, Sweeny Kate
Department of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA.
J Pers. 2025 Feb;93(1):67-80. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12938. Epub 2024 May 10.
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Flow, a psychological state of intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity, can arise during both solitary and socially interactive experiences. In the literature, whereas people high in extraversion have difficulty achieving flow in solitude, those with an autotelic personality-a combination of traits that make people prone to flow-readily experience flow in both solitary and interactive conditions. In this pre-registered experiment, we investigated whether autotelic personality mitigates the negative association between solitary flow and extraversion.
Participants and their romantic partners (final N = 368) played the game Perfection™ in three conditions (order was counterbalanced): alone (solitary condition), in the presence of their partner without interaction (mere-presence condition), and collaboratively (interactive condition).
There were independent, positive main effects of extraversion and autotelic personality on flow experience in mere-presence and interactive conditions. However, the positive effect of extraversion on solitary flow was only significant among participants with high (vs. low) autotelic personality. In all conditions, flow experience was associated with greater low-arousal positive affect and lesser high-arousal negative affect.
The findings shed light on the role of personality in promoting solitary flow experiences, and particularly how traits might interact to determine optimal and non-optimal conditions for achieving flow.
目的/背景：心流是一种全身心投入并享受某项活动的心理状态，在独自活动和社交互动体验中都可能出现。在文献中，外向性得分高的人在独处时难以进入心流状态，而具有自足人格（一种使人易于进入心流状态的特质组合）的人在独处和互动情境中都能轻松体验到心流。在这项预先注册的实验中，我们研究了自足人格是否能减轻独处时的心流与外向性之间的负相关。
参与者及其恋爱伴侣（最终样本量N = 368）在三种条件下玩“完美”游戏（条件顺序采用平衡法）：独自玩（独处条件）、在伴侣在场但无互动的情况下玩（单纯在场条件）以及合作玩（互动条件）。
在单纯在场和互动条件下，外向性和自足人格对心流体验有独立的正向主效应。然而，外向性对独处时心流的正向影响仅在自足人格高（与低相对）的参与者中显著。在所有条件下，心流体验都与较低唤醒水平下的积极情绪增加以及较高唤醒水平下的消极情绪减少有关。
这些发现揭示了人格在促进独处时的心流体验中的作用，特别是特质如何相互作用以确定实现心流的最佳和非最佳条件。
