Chapter 4: Leisure, Flow, Mindfulness, and Peak Performance

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Subjective well-being is associated with time affluence ______.

A. only among the upper class

B. only among the middle class

C. only among those who are considered poor

D. across all income levels

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Research has shown that happy people ______.

A. watch more TV than unhappy people.

B. watch less TV than unhappy people.

C. watch TV the same number of hours per week as unhappy people

D. watch more TV than unhappy people overall, and also more time watching with other people

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Which of the following is FALSE?

A. Only people who had a very relaxing vacation continued to feel happier after they returned from vacation.

B. Increases in aerobic exercise can decrease depression and increase happiness.

C. Many people recall their vacations as being less happy than they were at the time.

D. More participation in leisure activities in high school predicts higher life satisfaction during adulthood.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. The best definition of an autotelic experience is ______.

A. one that is done for its own sake

B. one that provides immediate feedback

C. one that is challenging but also enjoyable

D. one where there is no sense of being an observer who is watching and evaluating the activity

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Characteristics of Flow

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Which of the following is TRUE of the Buddhist inspired style of mindfulness?

A. Mindfulness is achieved by increasing a focus on self-identity.

B. A person proficient in this style of mindfulness would be considered “happy” because they have high levels of positive emotions and fewer negative emotions.

C. No suggestion exists that the information gained through the process of mindfulness should be used in a specific way.

D. It is associated with the same concept of well-being as Langer’s approach: finding happiness by achieving self-directed external goals.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Comparison Between Ellen Langer’s & Buddhist Styles of Mindfulness

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. Shan (2014) proposed that ______ is a personality trait composed of fun-loving motivation, uninhibitedness, and spontaneity.

A. adult playfulness

B. extraversion

C. peak performance

D. hedonism

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Turns an Activity Into “Leisure”

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Researchers examining brain wave activity in athletes found that being “in the zone” coincided with ______.

A. more activity in the left hemisphere

B. more activity in the right hemisphere

C. more activity in the amygdala

D. more activity in the hippocampus

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Unique Qualities of Flow

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. As predicted by ______, increases in well-being often require meeting the needs for autonomy, relationships, and competence.

A. the hedonic treadmill

B. self-determination theory

C. microflow theory

D. psychic entropy theory

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Galway (1975) proposed a stage theory of moving from microflow to intense flow experiences. Which of the following was the final stage?

A. paying attention

B. interested attention

C. merging

D. absorbed attention

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Behavior: Unique Qualities of Flow

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Which of the following is TRUE of a person in the hypoegoic state?

A. Self-awareness is low.

B. Attention is focused on abstract stimuli.

C. Self-talk is increased.

D. Anxiety and distress are high.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Flow and Subjective Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Hard

11. Which of the following is TRUE about Flow?

A. It has been measured only as a trait.

B. It applies only to sports.

C. It has been measured using the experience sampling method.

D. People in flow are very self-focused rather than task focused.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Flow and Subjective Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. ______ refers to being aware of the present moment during our daily activities, including both the world outside us and our inner experiences.

A. Flow

B. Savoring

C. Mindfulness

D. Transcendent functioning

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Mindfulness

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Participants in Dr. Vega’s study downloaded an app to their phones that sends a signal at random moments throughout the day. When they get the signal, they completed a questionnaire as soon as possible that asked about what they were doing when the beeper sounded and how they felt in terms of the parameters of flow. Dr. Vega was using ______.

A. meta-analysis

B. phenomenological analysis

C. the experience sampling method

D. mindfulness-to-meaning theory

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Flow and Subjective Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Which of the following best describes the “self-absorption paradox.”

A. A good match between implicit cognitive processes and explicit processes.

B. Greater insight is also associated with higher anxiety and rumination.

C. Mindfulness is correlated with greater egocentrism.

D. People are not very good at predicting how they will feel when they reach their goals.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Why Does Mindfulness Increase Well-Being?

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Mindfulness fosters the ability to think about one’s own thought processes. In other words, mindfulness increases ______.

A. self-concordance

B. decentering

C. affective forecasting

D. one’s metacognitive perspective

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Why Does Mindfulness Increase Well-Being?

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Which of the following is NOT one of the four basic types of savoring outlined by Bryant and Veroff?

A. flourishing

B. basking

C. marveling

D. thanksgiving

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Savoring

Difficulty Level: Hard

17. The key element common to leisure, flow, mindfulness, savoring, and peak performance is ______.

A. goal setting

B. absorption

C. self-focused attention

D. a task that is neither too easy, nor too difficult

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Comments on Flow, Mindfulness, Savoring, and Peak Performance

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Which of the following is FALSE about Peak Performance?

A. Meditation is important for peak performance.

B. It can happen in different ways: during a crisis or during the performance of a learned skill.

C. Being in flow always translates into objectively better performance.

D. Peak performance is superior behavior at a task, not just a subjective experience while engaged in the task.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Peak Performance

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. In self-determination theory, the three basic needs are ______.

A. competence, relatedness, and autonomy

B. motivation, flow, and social responsibility

C. conscientiousness, competence, and autonomy

D. openness, relatedness, and engagement/level of involvement in activities

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Privette defined ______ as behavior that transcends predictable functioning.

A. character strengths

B. a hypo-egoic state

C. flow

D. peak functioning

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Peak Performance

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Research has shown that subjective well-being is associated with time affluence among people from higher SES backgrounds but not among those from lower SES backgrounds.

Cognitive Domain: Factual

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. High school students who received higher grades and excel scholastically are also involved in more activities outside of class.

Cognitive Domain: Factual

Answer Location: Leisure and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Extraversion is a major predictor of adult playfulness.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: What Turns an Activity Into “Leisure”?

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Csikszentmihalyi’s used questionnaires to collect data for his original study on flow.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Flow and Optimal Experience

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Autotelic refers to a person enjoying an activity because it relieves stress.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Characteristics of Flow

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Describe a time when experienced flow. Illustrate at least two of the eight parameters of flow outlined by Csikszentmihalyi.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Characteristics of Flow

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. What is the experience sampling method (ESM) and how was it used to measure Flow?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Measurement of Flow

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Discuss one way that peak performance is similar to flow and one way that it is different from flow.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Peak Performance

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Discuss at least two ways to enhance and promote savoring as discussed by Bryant and Veroff. Include a specific example to illustrate each.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Savoring

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. The textbook authors note that there has been a “rather obvious lack of clarity about the definition of mindfulness.” Discuss one of the ways the term has been used in recent psychological research.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Comparisons Between Ellen Langer’s & Buddhist Styles of Mindfulness.

Difficulty Level: Hard