Life is so fully of wonderful surprises. How can one find out if someone is autotelic (of an activity or creative work; having an end or purpose in itself)? The best method is to observe a person over a long period of time, in many different situations. A short test of the kind psychologist use is not very appropriate, in part because flow is such a subjective experience that it would be relatively easy for a person to fake his or her responses. A prolonged interview or questionnaire may help, but I prefer to use a more indirect measure. According to the theory, individuals should be in flow when they perceive both the challenges in a given situation and their skills to be high. So one way of measuring how autotelic an individual is, is by computing the frequency with which they report being in a high-challenge, high-skill situation over a week of paging with the Experience Sampling Method. We find that there are people who report being in this situation over 70 percent of the time, and other less than 10 percent. We assume that the former are more autotelic than the latter. Using this method, we can look at what distinguishes people whose experiences are mainly autotelic from those who rarely experience this state.

For instance, in one study we took a group of two hundred very talented teenagers, and divided them into two groups: fifty whose frequency of high-challenges, high-skill responses during the week was in the upper quartile (the “autotelic” group), and contrasted them with fifty who were in the lower quartile (the “non-autotelic” group). Then we asked the question: Are these two groups of adolescents using their time in different ways? The most significant contrasts between the two groups: Autotelic teenagers spent 45 percent of their working hours studying, 30 percent watching TV, 20 percent on hobbies, and 5 percent on sports. Non-autotelic teenagers spent 55 percent of their day watching TV, 20 percent studying, 20 percent on hobbies, and 5 percent on sports. Clearly an important dimension of what it means to be autotelic is what one does with one’s time. Passive leisure and entertainment do not provide much opportunity to exercise one’s skills. One learns to experience flow by getting involved in activities that are more suited to provide it, namely, mental work and active leisure. However, is the quality of experience of autotelic youngsters better than that of their peers? After all, the fact that they do more challenging thins is in part true by definition, since we defined being autotelic as being often in challenging situations.

The real question is whether being often in flow-producing situations actually improves subjective experiences. The answer is yes. The results how that when involved in productive activities, the first group concentrates significantly more, has a significantly higher self-esteem, and sees what they are doing as very significantly more important for their future goals. However, the two groups are not significantly different in terms of enjoyment or happiness. How about the quality of experience in active leisure? First of all, as one would expect, in leisure all teens report higher enjoyment and happiness than they do in productive activities; however, they concentrate less and feel that what they do is less important for their future goals. The comparisons between the groups, except for happiness, are all statistically significant. Autotelic youngsters concentrate more, enjoy themselves more, have higher self-esteem, and see what they do as more related to their future goals. All of this fits what we would expect, except one thing. Why are they not happier? What I have learned from doing research is that self-reported happiness is not a very good indicator of the quality of a person’s life. Some people say they are happy even when their home life is nonexistent, when they spend all their time in meaningless activities.

We are resilient beings, and apparently we are able to avoid feeling sad even when all the conditions suggest otherwise. If we cannot say we are at least somewhat happy, what is the point of going on? Autotelic individuals are not necessarily happier, but they are involved in more complex activities, and they feel better about themselves as a result. It is not enough to be happy to have an excellent life. The point is to be happy while doing things that stretch our skills, that help us grow and fulfill our potential. This is especially true in the early years: A teenager who feels happy doing nothing is unlikely to grow into a happy adult. Let to fend for themselves too early, young people can easily become insecure and defensive. It could be argued, in fact, that the more complex the adult World in which they have to find a place, the longer a period of dependence an adolescent requires in order to prepare for it. Of course this “social neoteny” only works if the family is a relatively complex unit that provides stimulation as well as support; it would not help a child to stay dependent on a dysfunctional family.