Experience as a Component of Personality Theory: Phenomenological Support
Psychological Reports October 1, 1985 DOI: 10.2466/pr0.1985.57.2.558 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 123 |
| Population | Adults enrolled in upper-division and graduate university courses in social sciences and communication arts |
| Citations | 5 |
| Key findings | The text describes a survey in which 123 adults rated their self-perceived performance and feeling for six experiences (peak performance, peak experience, flow, an average afternoon, deepest misery, and total failure). The abstract states that the self-ratings are shown in a table but does not report what those ratings were or how the experiences compared. |
Abstract
Two experiential phenomena, performance and feeling, were defined operationally by a model that indicated gradients and possible interrelations between phenomena (Privette, 1985). Six events characterize major gradients and interrelations: peak performance, functioning at one's best; peak experience, highest happiness; flow, intrinsic reward, identified as a sport or game; an average event, identified as an event the preceding afternoon; deepest misery; and total failure. Respondents were 123 adults, 43 men and 80 women, enrolled in upper-division and graduate university courses in social sciences and communication arts. Median age was within the 21- to 35-yr. range. Respondents indicated the following fields of interest: social services 37%, science, business, and technical 26%; arts and humanities 2 1 %; and other (military, education, sports/recreation) 167;. SIX forms of Quesitonnaire: Peak Performance and Peak Experience (Privette, 1984), based on peak performance, peak experience, and flow literature (Privette, 1983). were randomly presented to elicit descriptions of the six experiences. Respondents were asked for self-perceptions of their levels of performance and feeling associated with each event. Self-ratings associated with each phenomenon are shown in Table 1.