Psychometric properties of a newly established flow state questionnaire

Abstract

In the last decades several measuring methods have been established for studying flow experience. The starting point for the establishment of the Flow State Questionnaire (PPL-FSQ: Flow State Questionnaire of the Positive Psychology Lab) was Csikszentmihalyi’s phenomenological definition. There is no consensus about the basic factors of flow experience, so the goal was to develop a questionnaire which is based on theoretical principles and empirical results also. The first version of the PPL-FSQ had 40 items. In order to test this questionnaire a study was conducted with 214 participants. Exploratory post hoc analysis and factor analysis were performed and had a result of a two-factor model of 16 items. The questionnaire was improved by item-imputation, so the second version of the survey consisted of 23 items. Then the instrument was tested through several studies (N = 260) and the latent structure of the questionnaire was examined. The exploratory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor model of 20 items. The balance between challenges and skills (11 items) and Absorption in the activity (9 items) factors. Identifying these two factors strengthens the theoretical hypothesis that the basic dimensions of flow experience are the balance between challenges and skills, as well as absorption in the task.

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