Flow experience, creativity and synchronized interactions during group-based problem solving task

Aims: The main purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between participants’ state flow experience and the experience of the actual interactions with the other group members during a group based creative problem solving task (CPS-task) in relation to their creativity attitude and the produced results (i.e. the groups solution on CPS-task).Participants: Twelve groups of a total of sixty two participants (26 women, M=30.12; SD=10.22) took part in the experiment.Methods: This study was designed as an experiment, where the participants were requested to perform a problem solving task in groups, and to answer questionnaires regarding 1) subjects experience about their state flow in relation to the task performance (FSS-2, Jackson & Eklund, 2004), 2) participants experience of synchronized social interactions during the task assessed with the Flow Synchronization Scale, (FSyQ, Magyarófi & Oláh, 2015), and 3) subjects creativity attitude towards openness to novelty and flexible adaptation assessed with the Langer Mindfulness/Mindlessness Scale (MMS, Langer 1992; Haigh et al.2011).Results: We found that state flow positively associated with subjectively perceived synchronized interactions during the CPS-task. Higher state flow during the task associated with higher values on creativity attitude in the Mindfulness Scale but perceived synchronized interactions, such as effective cooperation and coordination with group members during the activity, associated with low creativity attitude (Mindlessness). In addition, the groups with more original solutions on the CPS-task had significantly higher values on the dimension of unambiguous feedback in FSS-2, compare to the groups who produced less original solutions rated by external experts.Conclusion: The presentation ends with a conceptual framework for studying group interactions, flow and creativity and suggestions for further research.Invited lecture