Work and Leisure

174 John T. Haworthanalyses of emotion (e.g. Watson and Tellegen 1985). They measure the frequencyof occurrence of a range of positive and negative mood states includingtense, uneasy, worried, calm, contented, and relaxed (measuring theanxiety–contentment axis), and depressed, gloomy, miserable, cheerful,enthusiastic and optimistic (measuring the depression–enthusiasm axis).While Warr (1990) notes that the anxiety–contentment and depression–enthusiasm measures are likely to be intercorrelated in practice, rather thanindependent, they can distinguish between different facets of well-beingin different groups. For example, individuals at higher occupational levelsreported significantly more job-related enthusiasm, but also reportedexperiencing more anxiety at work than individuals of lower occupationallevel.EnjoymentIn discussing Positive Psychology, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000)distinguish between pleasure and enjoyment. They note thatPleasure is the good feeling that comes from satisfying homeostatic needssuch as hunger, sex, and bodily comfort. Enjoyment on the other hand,refers to the good feelings people experience when they break throughthe limits of homeostasis – when they do something that stretches thembeyond what they were – in an athletic event, an artistic performance, agood deed, a stimulating conversation. Enjoyment, rather than pleasure,is what leads to personal growth and long term happiness.(Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000: 12)Csikszentmihalyi has long considered enjoyment to play a pivotal role in wellbeing(Csikszentmihalyi 1975, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1999; Csikszentmihalyi andCsikszentmihalyi 1988). In a pioneering study, Csikszentmihalyi (1975) setout to understand enjoyment in its own terms and to describe what makes anactivity enjoyable. He found that when artists, athletes and creative professionalswere asked to describe the best times experienced in their favouriteactivities they all mentioned a dynamic balance between opportunity andability as crucial. Optimal experience, or ‘flow’ as some of the respondentsdescribed it, could be differentiated from states of boredom, in which there isless to do than what one is capable of, and from anxiety, which occurs whenthings to do are more than one can cope with.Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (1988) report several in-depthaccounts of flow and its importance for subjective well-being. They summarisethe main dimensions of enjoyable flow as:• intense involvement• clarity of goals and feedback