Original Paper..

Physical Education and Sport, 51, 61 - 67, 2007

DOI 10.2478/v10030-007-0009-8

Relationships between experiencing flow state and personality traits, locus of control and achievement motivation in swimmers
Mirosaw Mikicin
Department of Psychology, University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland

Summary
Study aim: To determine possible effects of personality, locus of control and motivation for success on experiencing flow states by athletes. Material and methods: Male and female swimmers (n = 16 and 12, respectively) participated in the study. The following questionnaires were applied: flow questionnaire (Csikszentmihalyi), personality inventory NEO-FFI (Costa and McCrae), locus of control I-E (Rotter) and AMPET achievement motivation in sports (Nishida). Results: Significant relationships between experiencing flow state by swimmers and personality traits, locus of control and achievement motivation were demonstrated. Highest subjective significance was found for conscientiousness and agreeableness in association with the balance between ability level and challenge, clear goals, unequivocal perception of information, concentration on the task and the control paradox. Conclusions: The perceived degree of challenge, of motor skills and self-confidence were the most significant indicators of sport achievement motivation.

Key words

Flow Personality Locus of control Achievement motivation Swimmers

Introduction
Experiencing the flow state* in swimming competition appears highly desirable. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the author of the flow concept, the principal goal of activities inducing the flow state is to bring about satisfying perceptions leading to a harmonious mental state. Internal, as well as external factors condition the flow state; among the last ones, satisfying sensations associated with various (e.g. motor) challenges, are the principal ones [7], and the capacity to control the consciousness so as to enable creating flow state is the internal condition. Task difficulty and individuals skills are the prerequisites for flow state, on condition, that both are above the average for that individual and reasonably balanced.
________________________________________ * Flow state, i.e. feeling of being capable to meet challenges, is so intense that the subject cannot think of anything but the goal and striving for it becomes so profoundly satisfying that irrespectively of the potential outcome and possible hazards involved it would be hardly possible to resign from it [6,7].

Csikszentmihalyi [5] designed methodology (ESM) which enabled recording subjective feelings of individuals who experienced flow states in their activities. That methodology was employed in research in a number of countries. Experiencing flow state may be related as follows: My mind does not ponder. I think of nothing else. I am fully engrossed in what I am doing. My body feels perfect. It seems I do not hear anything. I am withdrawn from the world. I feel less aware of my ego and of my problems. I am greatly engaged in what I do. I believe to have become a part of my doings. A subject experiencing flow state is in a peculiar state of mind, notices events not observed by others, feels connexion with the entire world and the experienced emotional state is unique. Goleman [10] regards such a state as a peak of emotional intelligence, the perfect form of controlling emotions and driving them into work and learning. Flow state thus reveals individual capacity to control emotions and consciousness. Making use of information feedback is a natural expression of experiencing flow state.

Dr Mirosaw Mikicin, Department of Psychology, University of Physical Education, Marymoncka 34, Authors address 02-968 Warsaw, Poland

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As emphasised by Csikszentmihalyi [6,7], experiencing flow state is associated with autotelic personality features, typical of those who enjoy circumstances unbearable by others; the so-called flow people [17,18] may convert very hard situations into those of flow by being driven by a clearly defined goal, for then every feeling, motor action, etc., may be engaged in producing flow state. This raises question as to whether and to what extent the principal personality dimensions (NEO-AC) participate in that state. Those existing personality dimensions [3] are not modifiable because of their genetic preconditioning and a high degree of heritability [16]. Openness is known to be a predictor of professional interests, conscientiousness of work quality, and agreeableness is associated with satisfaction. Measuring personality traits may thus enable correlating their levels with experiencing flow states in sports. Satisfaction from swimming requires developing appropriate skills and concentration, apart from mental and somatic predispositions and motivation indispensable for mastering satisfaction-inducing movements. It has thus been assumed that all principal personality traits participate in generating flow state. An efficacious sport activity depends to a high degree on mental powers by engaging consciousness and its control, the betweensubject differences in the latter are thus of importance. It was demonstrated [11-14] that people differ with respect to the amounts of external stimuli necessary to complete the task. Those who need more external information to produce images may become dependent on their external environment and poorly control their thoughts and, in effect, an experience brings them no satisfaction. The between-subject differences mentioned above thus pertain to the degree of being convinced of the efficacy of own actions and to the sources of its amplification inner or outer. According to Rotter [30], this is expressed in the perceived locus of control and pertains to all areas of a purposeful striving for success and avoiding failures. Csikszentmihalyis features of flow are likely to occur more frequently in subjects having an internal locus of control. Namely, autotelic sensations mean experiencing flow state, in which the bare completion of a task is rewarding, so the amplification of sensations is internal. It may thus be assumed that an internal locus of control enhances flow state generation. This raises questions as to the role of motivation [19] in generating flow state and whether motivation is anyhow associated with the flow state at competition; thus, considering motivation as a factor stimulating an action of definite objective and intensity [29], becomes of significance for flow state. Therefore, the capacity to eliminate competing motives together with the readiness to undertake many an action

M. Mikicin

to achieve the goal and with an adequate mobilisation of the body, are essential and compatible with the internal and external conditions under which the generation of flow state [7] becomes feasible. In addition, motivational processes do not affect the locomotor activity directly but via e.g. perceptive processes [15], as well as direct and stimulate the control of activities [20], the prime factor in a flow state. Every motive regarded as stimulating or inhibiting [31] may have a decisive impact on experiencing flow state. The needs and tasks as sources of motivation [35], which indicate its internal or external origin, apparently switch on the flow state generating mechanism. Subjects striving for mastery were reported to have a high degree of internal motivation [9,34]. The aim of the study was to determine possible effects of personality, locus of control and motivation for success [23] on experiencing flow states by athletes. It was assumed that flow state would be perceived through positive emotions experienced when exposed to task execution circumstances regarded as a challenge.

Material and Methods

Male and female swimmers (n = 16 and 12, respectively), aged 18 22 years, participated in the study. They were subjected to the following questionnaire tests: Flow questionnaire of Csikszentmihalyi [4,5], which contains 9 variables rated 1 5, 4 statements being assigned to each variable. The variables are: 1. Balance between ability level and challenge (BA); 2. Loss of the feeling of self-consciousness (LF), which means an extreme dedication making the activity spontaneous and automatic; 3. Clear goals (CG); 4. Intrinsically rewarding (IR), resulting from unequivocal perception of information; 5. Concentrating and focusing (CF) on the task in order to eliminate disturbing signals; 6. Control (C) in a flow state the subject is aware of his/her capacity to control the situation and activities; 7. Feedback (F) performing the task engages the subject so much that past events or other distracting stimuli do not get access to the mind; 8. Distorted sense of time (DS) makes the real time, confronted with the rhythm of the performed action, insignificant; 9. Action awareness merging (AA) is the perception of flow as a satisfying state due to experiencing it only; thus, performing the task is a reward and a positive feedback. The sums of ratings of statements contained in every scale (4 20) are the raw results of the test. Personality inventory (NEO-FFI of Costa and Mc Crae) [3] containing 5 scales: neuroticism (NEU), extraversion (EXT), openness (OPE), agreeableness (AGR)

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challenge, clear goals, intrinsic rewarding, concentrating and focusing, and control. Of course, negative correlations are associated with the opposite end of personality scale. Table 2. Mean values (SD) of personality variables (NEO-FFI) in men and women Personality variables NEU EXT OPE AGR CON Men n = 16 31.44 5.58 40.83 6.73 36.55 3.79 39.61 4.07 40.22 6.93 Women n = 12 37.7 7.60* 37.9 6.00 41.3 4.64** 39.3 3.91 44.1 7.50

and conscientiousness (CON). Every scale contains 12 statements rated 1 5. I E Questionnaire of Rotter [30] for determining the perceived locus of control (internal external). Contains 29 pairs of statements. AMPET Questionnaire of Nishida [24] containing 7 scales for determining achievement motivation in sports and a lie scale: 1. Learning strategy (LS), 2. Overcoming obstacles (OO), 3. Diligence and seriousness (DI), 4. Competence of motor ability (CM), 5. Value of learning (VL), 6. Anxiety about stress-causing situations (SA) and 7. Failure anxiety (FA). Every scale contains 8 statements rated 1 5. The results were processed using conventional statistical procedures (means SD, Pearsons coefficients of correlation, Students t-test for independent variables), the level of p0.05 being considered significant.

Results
Mean values of recorded variables and the relationships between them are presented in Tables 1 6. As follows from Table 1, focusing on the current task, formulation of clear goals and autotelic experience had highest impact on experiencing flow state. Table 1. Flow state variables ranked by mean values Flow state variable Concentrating and focusing Clear goals Action awareness merging Intrinsically rewarding Balance between ability level and challenge Control Loss of the feeling of self-consciousness Feedback Distorted sense of time Means SD 16.04 2.73 15.93 2.94 15.79 4.30 15.36 2.20 15.21 2.95 14.68 3.33 14.54 3.14 13.36 3.55 10.57 3.33

Legend: NEU Neuroticism; EXT Extra-/introversion; OPE Openness; AGR Agreeableness; CON Conscientiousness Significantly higher from the respective value in men: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01

Table 3. Coefficients of correlation between personality and flow variables (n = 28) NEU -0.134 0.137 -0.161 -0.152 -0.138 -0.328 -0.117 0.152 -0.079 EXT 0.089 -0.039 -0.020 -0.098 0.141 0.030 -0.185 -0.079 0.309 OPE 0.171 0.165 -0.115 -0.060 -0.024 0.093 0.097 0.076 0.260 AGR 0.432* -0.016 0.356 0.307 0.455* 0.572** 0.327 -0.076 0.196 CON 0.528** -0.030 0.425* 0.387* 0.303 0.418* 0.241 0.086 0.297

BA LF CG IR CF C F DS AA

As far as personality variables were concerned, conscientiousness was highly expressed, especially in the female swimmers (Table 2). Besides, female swimmers had significantly higher neuroticism and openness than men. The coefficients of correlation between flow and personality (NEO-AC) variables presented in Table 3 reflect the structure of autotelic personality; namely, highly correlated variables were meaningful for flow. Significant correlations were found between agreeableness or conscientiousness and balance between ability level and

Legend: BA Balance between ability level and challenge; LF Loss of the feeling of self-consciousness; CG Clear goals; IR Intrinsically rewarding; CF Concentrating and focusing; C Control; F Feedback; DS Distorted sense of time; AA Action awareness merging. For other explanations see Table 2. * p<0.05; ** p<0.01

The subjects were classified according to their perceived locus of control (Table 4); 8 male and 4 female swimmers had internal, and another 10 male and 6 female swimmers had external locus of control. The former subjects proved significantly better than the external ones with respect to balance between ability level and challenge, intrinsic rewarding, concentrating and focusing and clear goals.

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Table 4. Mean values (SD) of flow variables in athletes differing in the locus of control Group EXT Variable n = 16 LOC 10.00 2.78 BA 14.00 3.22 LF 14.37 2.68 CG 14.93 3.15 IR 14.43 2.25 CF 14.93 3.04 C 13.75 3.69 F 13.12 3.81 DS 10.37 2.98 AA 15.75 4.37 % 70.0 71.9 74.7 72.2 74.7 68.7 65.7 51.9 78.7 INT n = 12 15.50 1.73 16.83 1.46** 14.75 3.79 17.25 2.09* 16.58 1.44** 17.50 1.24* 15.91 2.39 13.66 3.31 10.83 3.85 15.83 4.38 % 84.1 73.7 86.3 82.9 87.5 79.6 68.3 54.1 79.1

M. Mikicin

achievement motives in competitive swimming pertained to the value of learning, diligence and seriousness, learning strategy and overcoming obstacles, the other dimensions being less frequently considered. All achievement motivation variables correlated, to a different degree, with those of the flow state (Table 6), the anxiety-based variables being negatively correlated. Table 5. Achievement motivation variables (AMPET) ranked by mean values (n = 28) Variables Value of learning Diligence and seriousness Learning strategy Overcoming obstacles Competence of motor ability Failure anxiety Anxiety about stress-causing situations Lie scale Means SD 30.86 3.75 27.93 4.88 27.86 4.34 27.93 4.88 22.61 5.85 21.14 5.45 21.14 4.96 24.46 3.70

Legend: EXT External locus of control; INT Internal locus of control; LOC Locus of control; for other explanations see Table 3. Significantly different from the respective value in the external LOC (EXT) subgroup: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01

Mean values of achievement motivation variables are presented in Table 5. The most frequently declared

Table 6. Coefficients of correlation between achievement motivation and flow variables (n = 28) BA LS 0.466* OO 0.610*** DI 0.266 CM 0.204 VL 0.646*** SA -0.440* FA -0.272 LF CG IR CF C F DS AA 0.098 0.637*** 0.553** 0.442* 0.475* 0.138 0.339 0.304 0.158 0.562** 0.502** 0.407* 0.392* 0.071 0.269 0.241 0.470* 0.270 0.226 0.331 0.203 0.279 0.472* 0.648*** 0.269 0.327 0.538** 0.344 0.439* 0.408* 0.472* 0.555** 0.242 0.536** 0.640*** 0.500** 0.651*** 0.404* 0.372 0.568** 0.067 -0.318 -0.292 -0.178 -0.582** -0.244 -0.212 -0.216 0.055 -0.140 -0.280 -0.167 -0.440* -0.370 -0.090 -0.252

Legend: LS Learning strategy; OO Overcoming obstacles; DI Diligence and seriousness; CM Competence of motor ability; VL Value of learning; SA Anxiety about stress-causing situations; FA Failure anxiety. For other explanations see Table 3. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; *** p<0.001

Discussion
When inspecting the results of personality traits it was noted that highest values were recorded for conscientiousness which suggested the swimmers were well organised, thorough and reliable, had strong motivation and persistence in striving for the goals, both genders alike. Female swimmers dominated over the male ones (p<0.01) in openness, which suggested they were more creative and imaginative, had higher intellectual curiosity and aesthetic sensitiveness than their male counterparts. They had, however, also a higher level of neuroticism than men, which suggested they were more sensitive emotionally, more prone to irrational ideas and less capable to control their emotions or cope with stress.

Personality features, locus of control and achievement motivation are both interrelated and correlate with flow variables to different degrees. The most characteristic dimensions of an autotelic personality, i.e. personality/flow correlates, are arranged hierarchically. Conscientiousness and agreeableness, positively correlated with balance between the ability level and challenge, clear goals, intrinsic rewarding, concentration and focusing and control, are components of that structure. In other words, a friendly, non-conflictive disposition, reliability, strong will and persistence in attaining goals, are typical of an autotelic personality. Maybe these features enable athletes adjusting their potential to challenges, define goals and appraise their feasibility, concentrate and control own actions. It may thus be assumed that sociableness,

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tally were capable of an extremely efficient engagement of their skills and work input in sport achievements. Still, investigations into the subjectively perceived flow states may seem doubtful as many people have difficulties with recording own psycho-emotional states. Application of questionnaire techniques to study an autotelic personality reveals the perceived flow state, i.e. happiness, joy, satisfaction [33], which are important factors in achieving sport goals. However, further studies are necessary in order to clarify the structure of autotelic personality. Such studies may involve, e.g., determining functional potentials in the brain and in muscles [25-28]. Since changes in those potentials precede subjective perceptions, a prediction of performance of a sport task appears likely. Functional potentials are probably most essential in generating flow states in athletes and, on the other hand, frequently experienced flow states may optimise those potentials. Summing up, conscientiousness and agreeableness highly correlated with most flow variables while autotelic experience was associated with extraversion and control ability with emotional stability. Experiencing flow state by swimmers was also associated with achievement motivation variables, especially with the perceived value of learning.

stimulation seeking, optimism and enthusiasm enhance satisfaction from experiencing flow state. On the other hand, consciousness of controlling own actions in a flow state is possible only when the subject is emotionally stable, relaxed and able to cope with stress without experiencing anxiety or tension. Swimmers classified as having internal locus of control were superior over the external ones with respect to adjusting own potential to the challenge, clear defining goals, intrinsic rewarding and focusing on the task, the latter being the most essential. Since only a sport goal defined by inner wish may contribute to inducing flow state, the capacity to clearly establish the horizon of own subjectivity and separateness from others is indispensable. Therefore, athletes who have high self-control and who do not require many pieces of external information for imagery are probably the efficient and effective ones. Athletes with internal locus of control are more skilful psychologically and better cope with anxiety than the external ones thus achieving satisfactory sport results [21,22]. The latter athletes ought to include mental exercises into their sport training; some authors [1,2] reported that regular mental training helped such athletes to eliminate tension and anxiety. It seems likely that a subject ought to have adequate motor competence and a positive attitude to the challenge, however risky or of low value [8,32], in order to feel control over own actions and to assess the capacity to achieve goals, when experiencing flow state. The perceived value of learning was positively and in most cases highly significantly correlated with all flow variables except LF (loss of the feeling of self-consciousness) and DS (distorted sense of time), although the latter was nearly significant (p<0.06). Other highly significant correlations include those between learning strategy and clear formulation of goals, between the balance between ability level and challenge and the ability to overcome obstacles and between diligence and seriousness, and action awareness merging. The few negative correlations between flow state and anxiety-related variables are compatible with the nature of the former as a clear, totally undisturbed mind. Some achievement motivation variables amplify the experience of flow state. It seems likely that an intense concentration on the challenge prevents from losing control over the performed action and real time. The real time becomes unimportant in confrontation with the rhythm of the performance in association with diligence and the perceived motor competence. The results of this study may prove valuable also for coaches engaged in sports other than swimming as many examples exist that competitive athletes who trained men-

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