Living well by “flowing’ well: The indirect effect of autotelic personality on well-being through flow experience

ABSTRACT

One way to achieve a high level of well-being is by engaging in and enjoying everyday activities. Research has unveiled seven personal attributes (autotelic personality, collectively) that facilitate such engagement and enjoyment. We hypothesized that flow experience—a state of deep engagement and enjoyment—accounts for the positive relationship between autotelic personality and well-being. Study 1 participants (N = 393) completed a one-time survey that measured autotelic personality, proneness to experiencing flow, and well-being (satisfaction with life and flourishing). A subsample of Study 1 participants (N = 127) participated in Study 2, a 10-day diary study, that examined their daily flow experience and daily well-being (affect and flourishing). As hypothesized, both studies revealed an indirect, positive effect of autotelic personality on well-being through flow experience, elucidating a pathway toward a good life through deep engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• optimal experiences
• well-being
• positive psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This sensitivity analysis is adapted from the left-out variables error (L.O.V.E.) approach (Mauro, 1990). Another conventional version of L.O.V.E. method is to estimate the mediation model with separate omitted variables (confounders) that (a) correlate with X and M, (b) correlate with M and Y1, and (c) correlate with M and Y2, respectively. The current sensitivity analyses simplified the model by estimating a common omitted variable that simultaneously predicted the predictor, mediator, and outcome with the same (standardized) magnitude, based on Brewer, Campbell, and Crano (1970) reasoning that a single omitted variable could explain covariations among X, M, and Y in a non-experimental design (see also Kenny, 2018). Nonetheless, the statistical conclusions drawn from conventional L.O.V.E. model with separate omitted variables were similar to the reported findings.