Flow State” In
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THE APPLICATION OF IMAGERY TO ENHANCE “FLOW STATE” IN DANCERS EUN-HEE JEONG DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE SCIENCE FACULTY OF ARTS, EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY JANUARY 2012 ii STUDENT DECLARATION “I, Eun-Hee Jeong, declare that the PhD thesis entitled the application of imagery to enhance “flow state” in dancers is no more than 100,000 words in length including quotes and exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, and references. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work”. Signature Date iii ABSTRACT In this thesis, I investigated imagery to enhance flow in dancers. To develop an imagery intervention, two Studies (Study 1 and 2) were conducted examining flow and imagery. Based on the findings from Studies 1 and 2, I developed an imagery intervention and tested its efficacy in terms of flow, anxiety, and performance in Study 3. Specifically, the aim of Study 1 was to examine flow experience and imagery use in professional dancers. This was a correlational study that investigated the relationship between flow experience and imagery use as a means of identifying what kind of imagery predicted flow experience during performance and training. The participants were 89 professional dancers of both genders (female=74; male=15), aged from 20 to 38 (M = 27.41; SD = 4.03). The Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2), Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2), and Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ) were used to assess the flow state and dispositional experience of flow related to performance and training, and to assess imagery use in dance. The results showed that correlations between dimensions of flow and imagery use levels varied from moderate to high. In particular, autotelic experience was the flow dimension most strongly involved in dancers’ flow experience, whereas, loss of self-consciousness demonstrated the weakest association. In addition, the results showed that these professional dancers found it easier to attain flow in training than performance (frequency; DFS-2), whereas, when dancers experienced flow during performance, typically, it was more intense (FSS-2) than it was in training. Moreover, there were strong correlations between flow experience and imagery use in dancers. Specifically, multiple regression analyses showed that motivational general mastery imagery and cognitive specific imagery were significant predictors of dispositional flow, and motivation-general-mastery imagery, cognitive general imagery, and cognitive iv specific imagery were predictors of flow state. To summarise, results of this study indicated that for enhancing flow experience, dancers should be encouraged to use imagery related to motivational general mastery for training and cognitive specific imagery for performance. Research is needed to explore flow and imagery use related to flow experience in-depth, and to help enhance flow state specifically in professional dancers. Thus, in Study 2, I explored the flow experience, facilitators of flow, and imagery use related to flowthrough in-depth interviews with professional Korean dancers. Dancers (N = 20) were interviewed to explore their experience of the optimal psychological state of flow, to identify the facilitators of flow, and to identify how they used imagery to enhance flow. The results showed that dancers did experience flow states and they referred to many of the nine antecedents of flow. In addition, the facilitators of flow were achieving optimal arousal level, self-confidence, satisfying oneself, motivating oneself, exploring the dance and one’s role in the performance, uniting of movement and music, positive thoughts, and communication with the audiences based on their positive response. Furthermore, dancers used imagery to retrieve bodily sensations, to become absorbed in the performance, to explore the feeling of movements, to connect to the stream of performance in each scene, and to create links between thinking and movement of the body. All the results in the first two studies provided support for the potential for imagery to enhance flow among dancers. Based on the results of these two studies, I devised the third study in this thesis to test the efficacy of an intervention designed to enhance flow state in dancers by using imagery during dance practice. The purpose of Study 3, the final study, was to examine the effects of imagery intervention programs, focusing on flow imagery and relaxation imagery, v respectively, for enhancing dancers’ motivation and dancers’ self-confidence, which are key components of flow state. The participants were 64 professional dancers. They were randomly assigned to two conditions, flow imagery training (n = 33), and pleasant place relaxation imagery training (n = 31) as an attention control condition. Participants were asked to train using their assigned imagery intervention three times a week for 8 weeks. Then I encouraged participants to use their imagery script for another 8 weeks. The Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2), Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS-2), Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Form Y) were used to assess the flow state and dispositional experience of flow related to performance and training, and to assess imagery use and anxiety in relation to dance training and performance. I devised a Dance Rating Scale, which dancers and teachers completed to assess performance. The flow imagery intervention was designed to evoke the flow experience focusing on facilitators of flow associated with self-confidence, positive thoughts, and exploring the dance and one’s role in the performance. The relaxation imagery intervention was a simple pleasant place relaxation script designed to help dancers relax their mind and body. Thus, I hypothesized that the flow imagery intervention would enhance the flow experiences of dancers, reduce anxiety, and improve performance, whereas the relaxation imagery intervention, largely considered to be an attention placebo condition, would not influence flow state or disposition, or performance. However, the results revealed that both flow and relaxation imagery interventions had positive effects on state and dispositional flow, state anxiety, and performance. I concluded that flow and relaxation imagery training were valuable techniques with the potential to enhance the experience of flow, as well as performance. vi Overall, results indicated that dancers experienced flow and used different kinds of imagery for a variety of purposes. Additionally, flow and relaxation imagery were effective for enhancing optimal positive experience and performance in dance. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my principal supervisor, Professor Tony Morris and my co-supervisor, Dr. Anthony Watt for their continuing encouragement, patience, and professional guidance through out this project whilst I completed this thesis. Without their support and advice, I could not have completed my thesis. I would like to thank my co-workers, Emily, Sam-sik, and Ji-won, for their encouragement and for providing the special working environment I needed. Also, I appreciate the dedication of the participants from the National Dance Company in Korea, for their contribution of time and effort without whom I could not have completed this research. Heartfelt thanks to my parents, Gil-seong An and Young-sic Jeong for their unconditional love, constant support and encouragement. Also, I thank my older sister, Ga-Young and younger brothers, Yang-hung and Tea-oh for their interest and encouragement in my completion of this PhD. I thank my friend Nam-yi Lee for supporting and cheering me on. Apologies and thanks go to my husband, Sung-jong Kim, for listening to my moaning, supporting me mentally and financially, and waiting patently for me to finish my thesis. I am sorry to my lovely babies, Chae- hyeon and Tea-hyeon, about the lack of time playing with me. Finally, I thank all of the people who I met in Australia. I have such good memories of my life studying for my PhD in Australia. God has richly blessed me through each of the people I have met. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS STUDENET DECLARATION………………..………………………………………ii ABSTRACT……………………………………….………………………………….iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………….……………………………...vii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………viii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………..……………………….xv LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………xvii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………...……………6 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..6 Nature of Dance………………………………………………………………………6 Flow in Sport…………………………………………………………………………9 Definition of Flow………………………………………………………………..9 Dimensions of Flow…………………………………………………………….12 Challenging Activity and Required Skills………………………………...….13 Merging of Action and Awareness………………………………………..….13 Clear Goals and Unambiguous Feedback……………………………….…...14 Concentration on the Task at Hand…………………………………………..14 Sense of Control……………………………………………………………...15 Loss of Self-consciousness…………………………………………………...15 Transformation of Time……………………………………………………...16 Autotelic Experience…………………………………………………………17 Measurement of Flow…………………………………………………………...18 Experience Sampling Method (ESM)……………………………………......18 Qualitative Approach Using In-Depth Interviews…………………………..19 ix Quantitative Approach Using Questionnaires for Flow State and Dispositional Flow…………………………………………………………...19 Flow research