Research

My main research interests are in positive psychology, with a focus on optimal experience (flow), creativity, adaptive metacognitions, and on how these influence performance in occupational and educational contexts. I am developing models of flow-creativity and performance and testing them on longitudinal data.

Flow is a state of profound task-absorption and intense concentration that makes a person feel one with the activity. Flow was later conceptualized as a state, a disposition, and a domain-specific disposition. Flow plays a key role in the eudaimonic approach to positive psychology. Flow in study or work contexts was found to correlate with other dispositional constructs, such as attentional control, positive affect, and work engagement. However, these correlations were only moderate, indicating that flow stands as an independent construct in a well-established nomological network. Experiencing flow intensely and frequently was found to foster well-being and performance, including creative achievement.

With the help of PhD students, I developed and validated scales measuring flow and use of creative cognition in achievement contexts. Although progress has been made on a purely psychometric level, it has become increasingly clearer that each measurement method is grounded, either explicitly or implicitly, in a psychological model. Along the way, I discovered that the psychological models underlying the two constructs were too simple and that a new, nonlinear dynamic model is needed in order to integrate the two constructs and measure them validly. The kernel of this research idea is presented in the book chapters C17 and C18 (see list of publications).