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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B1 Intermediate

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I have been in state of flow when I am creating new tools to help the companies to resolve their problems.

Yes of course, I completely absorb my self and become in a state of flow during watching international cricket matches on television, I also take a long time when I read stories and poetry books.

I also agree with this theory that a happy life is a life in which we are completely absorbed in what we do. Il means we interested so much in what we do. But i demmande if addiction is a type of hapiness? For example: game addiction, a person can spend most of his time on video game without eating and sleeping. He completely loses track of time, he does not notice about externant events around him, he plays video game for many hours , evens days. It’s very harmful for his health

Yes I 'm completely enter the state of flow when I read a good books or sing my favourite songs,It's wonderful state ,you feel like swimm in the space with out any noisy ideas

I rarely have been in a "state of flow", because I have always tried to preserve a discriminating approach in regard to everything I was doing.

I am always lose track of time when I am watching my favorite movies or when I am attending a lecture which its lecture can convey his or her knowledge obviously.

I experience this state of flow when I learn something new and in the same time I love it, I lost the track of time, otherwise when I did something I didn't like I feel boring.

Of course, I have been in state of flow when I used to play football or basketball. It’s a pretty difficult feeling to describe. But it’s totally true when they say you lose track of time. I also feel this state of flow when I read, but obviously I really have to be quite attracted by the topic.

Yes, sometimes I can concentrate on doing some activity that I can lose track of time, for example when I play the piano or when I am running, however when I am doing something that I like.