Relationships between Flow Experience, Life Meaningfulness and Subjective Well-being in Music Students

The study examines relationships between flow experience in musical activities, life meaningfulness and subjective well – being. Life meaningfulness belongs to eudaimonic good life, subjective well–being belongs to hedonic good life and flow seems to be combination of both approaches. It is supposed that flow experience in musical activity and life meaningfulness should have positive impact on subjective well –being. The research sample consisted of 96 university music students (37 males, 59 females) from the Music and Dance Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. Dispositional Flow Scale–2, which measures nine dimension of flow, was used for measuring frequency o f flow experience. Life Meaningfulness Scale, which measures three dimensions of life meaningfulness, was used for measuring meaningfulness of life. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule measured affective components of subjective well–being, and Satisfaction with Life Scale measured cognitive component of subjective well–being. Categorization revealed that the most favourite performing musical activities are creative musical activities, such as reproduction and production, during which music students relatively often experience flow. The results of correlation analysis showed that total scores of flow experience, life meaningfulness and components of subjective well–being, significantly correlate each other. Aspects of flow, clear goals and autotelic experience are positively related to cognitive and motivational dimension of life meaningfulness and also to positive affectivity. Loss of self–consciousness and autotelic experience are positively related to emotional dimension of life meaningfulness. Challenge–skill balance, action–awareness merging, clear goals, concentration on task at hand, sense of control and autotelic experience are negatively related to negative affectivity. Challenge–skill balance and autotelic experience are related to satisfaction with life. Correlation coeficients of these relations showed that flow experience is relatively equally associated with life meaningfulness and subjective well–being. It suggests that flow experience is partly hedonic and also eudaimonic concept. Next, all dimensions of life meaningfulness correlate positively with positive affectivity and satisfaction with life, and negatively with negative affectivity. Multiple regression analysis revealed that life meaningfulness significantly contributes to all components of subjective well–being, and experiencing flow significantly predicts only negative affectivity. Thus, life meaningfulness brings good feeling and creates in one‘smind order just like flow does it on its own way and in shorter time period. Flow experience rather prevents experiencing unpleasant affects. Considering specific research sample, generalizations of the results are limited. This is quantitative research which does not enable to examine phenomenological nuances of flow experience that are usually examined. Qualitative research, but also personality characteristics, age of musicians and length of musical practise would give another view on examined relations. Despite some limitations, our results confirm theoretical assumptions and research studies. They refer to the function of flow experience in musical activity and especially to life meaningfulness as important factor of subjective well–being.