An introduction to a lecture

Listen to the introduction of a psychology lecture to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the first lecture of our new course in Positive Psychology. While some people may associate psychology with looking at what's wrong with us, and at what problems we have, there is much more to psychology than that. Positive psychology, for example, looks at how to help people become happier.

This lecture begins with a question: what makes a happy life?

Now, I'm going to give you one possible answer. A happy life is a life in which you are completely absorbed in what you do. Now, how does this compare with what you and your partner said?

This answer comes from the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the theory of flow. Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist who has spent much of his professional life on the study of what makes people happy and how we can find happiness.

Csikszentmihalyi suggests the theory that happiness is not caused by external events or things that happen to us. Our perception of these things and how we see these events either makes us happy or sad. In other words, if we want happiness, we have to actively look for it. However, this does not mean that we should always look for happiness! Csikszentmihalyi believed that our happiest moments happen when we are in a state of flow.

The theory of flow can be summarised like this: when we are totally involved in, or focused on, what we are doing, we are in a state of flow.

Csikszentmihalyi got the inspiration for this theory when he noticed how artists worked in a studio. They completely lost track of time, they didn't notice they were hungry or tired, and they could work for hours, even days, without stopping. Anyone I have spoken to who has experienced this state of concentration has said it's difficult to explain. The best way to explain it is that it is like being in a river and the flow of the water carries you away.

For the rest of this lecture, I will explore this theory of flow in more detail. First we will look at Csikszentmihalyi's life, and how it influenced his ideas. Then we will look at the conditions that go with a state of flow. What creates flow, exactly? Finally, we will look at activities that can help us achieve flow in our everyday lives. Will this course make you happy for life? Well, maybe. Maybe.

Right, let's get started. If you look at the next slide …

Task 1

ReorderingVertical_MjMzNDM=.xml

Task 2

TrueOrFalse_MjMzNDQ=.xml

Discussion

Have you ever been in a 'state of flow' while doing an activity?

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

Csikszentmihalyi... although his name is hard to pronounce, developed a very cool theory. “Flow states” are an interesting perspective on happiness.

Yes, I feel good when I’m absorbed in an activity. It sounds like a symptom of happiness to me. Who knows? Maybe the path to happiness is learning how to concentrate.

Could it be about abandoning the enemies of focus, such as cell phones and social media? In other words, things that cause brain rot and reduce our capacity to concentrate. We need to think about this.

First of all, this topic is fascinating. The “state of flow” describes a period when are fully immersed in an activity and completely focused. This level of focus helps us perform at our best, and sometimes we can stay in this state for hours or even days, losing track of time working on something meaningful.

Yes. I've been in a 'state of flow when I have work before. Sometimes I forget to have lunch and sometimes dinner. Now, as much as possible, I want to avoid it because it's not good for my health.

Yes, I have been in a state of flow when I read a good book. I become involved in the story and lose my sense of time.

I like this theory it's exactly explaining how can be happy

Yes , Iam in a state of flow when Iam working in the site , It take all of my Concentration and be out of the world .

Have you ever been in a 'state of flow' while doing an activity?

Yes, when I was a student, and I had to do a very long and difficult homework, I used to spend hours in front of the computer in a state of flow. But I wasn't happy, so I think the theory talks about another kind of state of flow.