Flow – Psychology of Optimal Experience

80 The information about the Great Ise Shrine was provided in a personal

communication by Mark Csikszentmihalyi.

82 For the percentages of happy people in different nations, see George

Gallup (1976). The study that showed U.S. respondents to be about as

happy as Cubans and Egyptians was conducted by Easterlin (1974). For

a general discussion of happiness and cross-cultural differences, see Ar-

gyle (1987, pp. 102-11).

Affluence and happiness. Both Argyle (1987) and Veenhoven (1984)

agree, on the basis of their evaluation of practically every study in the

field conducted so far, that there is conclusive evidence for a positive but

very modest correlation between material well-being and happiness or

satisfaction with life.

The time budgets for U.S. workers are based on our ESM studies (e.g.,

Csikszentmihalyi &. Graef 1980; Graef, Csikszentmihalyi, & Gianinno

1983; Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre 1987, 1989). These estimates are very

similar to those obtained with much more extensive surveys (e.g., Robin­

son 1977).

84 Stimulus overinclusion in schizophrenia. The concept of anhedonia

was originally developed by the psychiatrist Roy Grinker. Overinclusion

and the symptomatology of attentional disorders have been studied by,

among others, Harrow, Grinker, Holzman, & Kayton (1977) and Har­

row, Tucker, Hanover, & Shield (1972). The quotations are from

McGhie & Chapman (1961, pp. 109, 114). I have argued the continuity

between lack of flow experiences due to severe psychopathologies and

milder attentional disorders often caused by social deprivation in Csik-

szentmihalyi (1978, 1982a).

85- Among the studies of the Eskimo that are worth reading are those of

86 Carpenter (1970, 1973). The destruction of Caribbean cultures is de­

scribed by Mintz (1985). The concept of anomie was originally devel­

oped by Emile Durkheim in his work Suicide (1897 [1951]). The best

introduction to the concept of alienation is in the early manuscripts of

Karl Marx, especially his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

(see Tucker 1972). The sociologist Richard Mitchell (1983, 1988) has

argued that anomie and alienation are the societal counterparts of anxi­

ety and boredom, respectively, and that they occur when people cannot

find flow because the conditions of everyday life are either too chaotic

or too predictable.

86 The neurophysiological hypothesis concerning attention and flow is

based on the following research: Hamilton (1976, 1981), Hamilton,

Holcomb, & De la Pena (1977), and Hamilton, Haier, & Buchsbaum

(1984). This line of research is now continuing with the use of more

sophisticated brain-scanning equipment.

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