Stressful Day

Today was stressful to say the least, however I do believe colouring-in helped! My PANAS score below does reflects how I felt before and after colouring-in; a moderate increase in my positive affect and a major decrease in negative affect. Specifically, my highest scoring negative affect items Distressed, Guilty, Hostile, Irritable and Nervous, all reduced by two points. With regards to flow I really felt the features Sense of Control and Autoletic Experience to be most noticeable. Jackson and Marsh clarify Sense of Control as having an experience of exercising control without actively trying to exert control (1996, p.19). I certainly felt this when picking which colours to use, as I did not strictly try and control what colours I was using, but felt like I had control. Autoletic Experience is defined as an intrinsically rewarding experience and is interpreted as the end result of being in flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Jackson & Marsh; 1996, p. 20). I experienced this after finishing the colouring-in as it felt rewarding completing the drawing. Perhaps finishing colouring-in the drawing is more important to flow than I previously thought. My PANAS scores are below:

Before:

Positive Affect: 12

Negative Affect: 35

After:

Positive Affect: 16

Negative Affect: 19