Dancing with the Muses: dissociation and flow.
This study investigated dissociative psychological processes and flow (dispositional and state) in a group of professional and pre-professional dancers (n=74). In this study, high scores for global (Mdn=4.14) and autotelic (Mdn=4.50) flow suggest that dancing was inherently integrating and rewarding, although 17.6% of the dancers were identified as possibly having clinical levels of dissociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon cutoff score≥20). The results of the multivariate analysis of variance indicated that subjects with high levels of dissociation had significantly lower levels of global flow (p<.05). Stepwise linear regression analyses demonstrated that dispositional flow negatively predicted the dissociative constructs of depersonalization and taxon (p<.05) but did not significantly predict the variance in absorption/imagination (p>.05). As hypothesized, dissociation and flow seem to operate as different mental processes.
Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, California 91330, USA. paula.thomson@csun.edu
Paula
P
Thomson
S Victoria
SV
Jaque
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D002605:Character; D003615:Dancing / Q000523:psychology*; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult