Flow, benessere e prestazione eccellente. Dai modelli teorici alle applicazioni nello sport e in azienda

[Autom. eng. transl.] Psychology has always combined the interest in pathology and discomfort with attention to individual and social development and empowerment. One of the emerging themes in this area is the focus on "flow", the optimal experience. In the constant dialogue with the philosophical tradition and with the psychological models linked to the affirmation and self-expression, the studies on flow are born with the aim of analyzing the factors capable of transforming a momentary experience into an optimal psychological state. The understanding of this state and the conditions that underlie it allows, in fact, to outline a performance optimization model that identifies well-being as the prerequisite for excellent results. The flow experience is characterized by a high level of concentration and participation in the activity, the balance between the perception of the difficulty of the situation and of the task (challenge) and personal skills (skills), the sensation of temporal alteration (the internal clock slows down, while the external clock accelerates), a sense of pleasantness and satisfaction. Within this context the objective of the volume is threefold: to present to the reader the characteristics and determinants of optimal experiences; introduce and present some of the main tools available in Italian for flow assessment; describe and analyze the possible applications of optimal experiences and different measurement tools in two specific application areas such as individual and team sports, and the corporate world.