Personality Correlates of Psychological Flow States in Videogame Play

Psychological flow states experienced during videogame play was the topic of this study. Flow is defined as a pleasurable, immersive state experienced when engaged in a challenging task for which one has requisite skills, and has been suggested as the primary reward of videogame play. One hundred eighty-five adult videogame players completed a survey of videogaming patterns, experiences of flow states during videogaming, and a measure of personality traits. Results indicate that individual dimensions of flow were reported as moderately frequent during videogaming, and showed strong coherence in a factor analysis. Personality traits reflecting a high need to learn and low need for activity predicted weekly videogaming hours in a path analysis model. Traits reflecting high need to learn, high need to compete, and low need for activity predicted frequency of videogaming flow experiences. Participant sex predicted flow as well, favoring males. Weekly videogaming hours modestly predicted frequency of flow experiences in a positive direction. Results are generally consistent with previous research on trait and motivational predictors of videogaming as well as supporting theoretical proposals about game-induced flow experiences.