Self-transcendence refers to moments in which individuals do not confine their attention to personal needs and goals—but, instead, feel a greater concern or affiliation with other people, other generations, other species, or the natural world in general. This notion of self-transcendence overlaps considerably with humility (Tangney (2000). Consequently, initiatives or interventions that promote self-transcendence should also foster humility.
Self-transcendence workshops and interventions
Researchers have designed workshops and interventions that are specifically designed to promote self-transcendence in various populations, such as adolescents or elderly individuals. To illustrate, Russo et al. (2022) designed an intervention, comprising four tasks, that induces this self-transcendence in adolescents. Here were the four tasks:
- First, the participants read an article on research that shows that adolescents who consider other people—such as assist individuals and experience compassion—tend to experience greater wellbeing and satisfaction with life. Furthermore, the article reveals that adolescents are more inclined to be helpful and compassionate than many teenagers assume.
- Second, the participants received a list of common helpful behaviours, such as apologising to someone, offering advice, providing support to a person who feels distressed, helping a friend in need, thanking a friend or relative, and so forth. These participants were invited to specify, privately, which of these behaviours that have initiated in the past 18 months. This exercise is designed to prime memories of helpful or prosocial behaviours.
- Third, participants were invited to recall and to describe a moment in which they had been helpful to someone. Specifically, they were prompted to also remember and transcribe the emotions they felt during this experience, such as relief, pride, or empathy.
- Finally, participants were invited to transcribe a message they could communicate to convince friends, classmates, or other peers about the importance of such helpful, pro-social behaviour.
As Russo et al. (2022) revealed, in general, participants who reported self-transcendent values were more likely to assist other people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This relationship, however, was significant only in participants who completed this series of four tasks. Presumably, these four tasks elicit memories or inclinations that epitomise self-transcendence.
Exposure to nature
Rather than deliberate interventions, incidental life experiences may also foster self-transcendence. For example, as many studies have revealed (e.g., Guo et al., 2024; Mei et al., 2024), exposure to nature can elicit feelings of self-transcendence. To illustrate, in one study, conducted by Castelo et al. (2021), participants completed a survey. Half the participants were asked to remember the last time they felt embedded in nature. To reinforce this exposure to nature, the survey these participants received also displayed a forest in the background. The survey invited all participants to answer questions about
- the degree to which they orient their attention to the needs of other people,
- the extent to which they orient their attention to their personal needs, interests, and concerns,
- the degree to which they like to help other people, called prosocial attitudes.
Compared to participants who were not exposed to nature, participants who were exposed to nature demonstrated greater orientation to the needs of other people instead of themselves. Furthermore, this orientation to other people mediated the association between exposure to nature and prosocial attitudes.
Awe
Researchers have proposed several reasons that exposure to nature may foster self-transcendent emotions. According to one account, exposure to nature may elicit a sense of awe and wonder (Ballew & Omoto, 2018). That is, natural environments tend to be vast, intricate, and thus remarkable—and remarkable scenes or experiences tend to elicit awe. Individuals associate awe with a sense they are small in comparison. Individuals who experience awe, therefore, become more attuned to their surroundings rather than merely their immediate and personal needs, tantamount to self-transcendence.
Consistent with this account, research has revealed that exposure to nature does indeed elicit feelings of awe (Ballew & Omoto, 2018). And feelings of awe elicit a sense of self-transcendence (Dai & Jiang, 2024). In one study, conducted by Dai and Jiang (2024), some participants were invited to recall an experience that elicits awe—an experience in which they perceived vastness and felt compelled to adapt their assumptions to accommodate this moment. In the control condition, participants recalled the previous time in which they washed their clothes. Subsequently, participants completed a short measure that gauges self-transcendence. For example, participants indicated the degree to which they agree with four statements, such as “Right now, I want to find answers to some universal spiritual questions”. The findings revealed that a sense of awe elicited self-transcendence.
Authenticity
Besides awe, other accounts could also explain the association between nature and self-transcendence. For example, some research indicates that nature elicits a sense of authenticity—a state in which individuals feel their actions and choices in life primarily depend on their true values instead of the demands of other people. And this sense of authenticity promotes self-transcendence.
Research has indeed confirmed that nature fosters authenticity. In one study, for example, reported by Yang et al. (2024), participants watched a video recording of either a natural environment, such as forests, or an urban environment. Next, participants completed a measure of self-esteem as well as a series of questions that assess authenticity, such as “Right now, I am true to myself”. Participants who were exposed to a natural environment were more likely to experience authenticity. Self-esteem mediated this association.
Presumably, in natural environments, such as forests, the worries and anxieties of individuals tend to dissipate as their usual pressures and concerns abate. As these worries and anxieties subside, individuals may be more attuned to their strengths, capabilities, and achievements, enhancing their self-esteem. After their self-esteem rises, people may be more inclined to trust their values and choices. They do not, therefore, feel the need to accommodate other people but will reach decisions that correspond to their values or inclinations, manifesting as authenticity.
This authenticity also tends to promote self-transcendence, as Toper et al. (2024) confirmed. In this study, 129 Turkish adults completed a survey that measured authenticity, self-transcendence, and environmental behaviour. The measure of authenticity comprised 12 items that assessed three facets:
- self-alienation, such as “I feel as I don’t know myself very well”,
- authentic living, such as “I think it is better to be yourself than to be popular”, and
- accepting external influence, such as “I am strongly influenced by the opinions of the others”.
Authenticity was operationalised as low levels of self-alienation and accepting external influence as well as high levels of authentic living. The self-transcendence scale, as developed by Reed (1991), measured the self-transcendence of participants. As the findings revealed, authenticity was positively associated with self-transcendence. In addition, self-transcendence mediated the association between authenticity and environmental behaviours like recycling.
Presumably, when individuals feel authentic, they choose actions that are compatible with their enduring values. They are thus more attuned to these enduring values instead of their immediate needs. These enduring values generally orient the attention of people to the needs of other individuals, generations, or times, epitomising self-transcendence.
Culture
In addition to transient emotions or states, more enduring cultural practices or norms could also promote self-transcendence. Indeed, Let and Levenson (2005) confirmed that culture may affect the prevalence of self-transcendence. For example, in cultures that are especially individualistic and competitive, people tend to orient their attention to personal, immediate needs, diminishing self-transcendence.
Practices that may foster the experience of flow
After individuals experience flow—a state in which people feel utterly absorbed in an interesting and challenging task (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000)—they may be more likely to experience humility. To illustrate, soon after individuals recall times in which they experienced flow, they are more likely to demonstrate intellectual humility, openness to change, and wise reasoning during conflicts (Kim et al., 2023). Presumably, this experience of flow diverts the attention of individuals from their immediate problems and needs. Their immediate problems or needs do not seem as significant. Therefore, these individuals are more willing to contemplate their limitations, consider alternative perspectives, and demonstrate other hallmarks of humility. Conditions or circumstances that promote flow should thus also foster humility.
Introduction to flow
In essence, when individuals feel they have developed the skills and capabilities they need to complete a specific, challenging task, they often experience flow while they undertake this activity. When individuals experience flow (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002),
- their concentration is intense and sharp,
- they often underestimate, but can also overestimate, the passage of time, partly because the task seems inherently fascinating,
- they feel a sense of agency and confidence,
- they are not as concerned about impressing anyone else.
The balance hypothesis
According to the balance hypothesis, flow inspires people to enhance and to refine their skills (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993). That is, whenever individuals apply skills they have recently developed to novel and challenging events, they experience this state of flow. Because this state is pleasurable, individuals may naturally gravitate to further opportunities that elicit flow. Therefore, over time, these individuals become more inclined to apply these skills in challenging circumstances, refining and extending these capabilities as well as enhancing their productivity.
These benefits of flow imply that individuals are more likely to experience this state in specific circumstances. Specifically, people experience flow when
- the task they need to complete is unambiguous—and hence these individuals can ascertain which skills they should apply to achieve this goal,
- the task is challenging to the individual and demands their most advanced skills,
- individuals can readily ascertain whether they have completed this task; that is, the feedback is unambiguous and immediate.
In short, as this argument implies, when the advanced skills of individuals and the elevated demands of a task match, people are more likely to experience flow. This argument is thus called the balance hypothesis (Massimini & Carli, 1988; Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002)
Many studies corroborate this hypothesis. For example, in a study that Keller and Bless (2008) conducted, participants attempted the computer game called Tetrus. The difficulty of this task was manipulated. Participants were more likely to manifest the state of flow, such as underestimate the time that had elapsed, when the task felt moderately difficult. Thus, as hypothesised, whenever the skills of individuals roughly matched the demands or challenges of this task, participants were more likely to experience flow.
As Ceja and Navarro (2009) underscored, many other characteristics of individuals, attributes of the task, or features of the circumstances affect the likelihood of flow. Nevertheless, the balance hypothesis presupposes that many of these characteristics, attributes, or circumstances will shape the degree to which individuals perceive the task as challenging but achievable.
The four-challenge model
The balance hypothesis implies that a blend of elevated skills and challenging tasks elicits flow. The four-challenge model, first proposed by Csikszentmihalyi (1975), also characterises the emotion or state that individuals experience if either their skills on this activity are not advanced or the task is not challenging. Specifically, according to this taxonomy
- when the relevant skills of people are limited but the task is challenging, these individuals tend to experience anxiety, because they feel unable to achieve their goals,
- when the relevant skills of people are not advanced and the task is simple, individuals tend to experience apathy,
- when the relevant skills of people are advanced but the task is simple, individuals tend to experience boredom—an emotion that tends to emanate from unfulfilled opportunities.
Lambert et al. (2013) outlined and validated a refined variant of this four-channel model called the experience fluctuation model. Specifically, they divided level of skill and level of demand into three levels rather than two levels. That is, rather than differentiate only low or high levels of skills and demand, these researchers also introduced a moderate level. To illustrate,
- when the relevant skills of people are moderate but the task is simple, individuals experience relaxation,
- when the relevant skills of people are moderate but the task is challenging, individuals experience arousal,
- when the relevant skills of people are limited but the task is moderately challenging, individuals experience worry, and
- when the relevant skills of people are advanced but the task is moderately challenging, individuals experience a sense of control.
This model does generate one significant implication. As Lambert et al. (2013) revealed, some of the experiences that researchers typically ascribe to flow are observed when people experience control instead—that is, when individuals utilise advanced skills to complete a moderately challenge task. In this study, 7 to 10 times a day, participants were told to complete some questions about their existing state. In particular, they were asked to indicate the extent to which they perceived the situation as challenging and the degree to which they felt they had developed the skills to meet this challenge. In addition, manifestations of flow, including enjoyment, concentration, happiness, and intrinsic motivation, were assessed. Enjoyment, happiness, and intrinsic motivation, but not concentration, were actually more likely to be observed when participants experienced control rather than flow.
Measures of flow
Researchers have developed and utilised a range of measures to gauge flow. Jackson and Eklund (2002), for example, designed a comprehensive measure, comprising 36 items, that assesses the nine key facets of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). These facets include
- a balance between level of skill and level of challenge,
- a merge between awareness and action—in contrast to a common experience in which people think about past or future events,
- clarity on the goals or purpose the individual needs to pursue,
- unambiguous feedback,
- concentration directed to the relevant task,
- a sense of control,
- a loss of self-consciousness—in contrast to a concern about how people might appear,
- a distorted sense of time,
- the sense the task is intrinsically rewarding, called an autotelic experience.
The consequences and determinants of flow vary across these nine facets. For example, when individuals engage in exercise, increasing their effort from 50% to 100%, this maximum level tends to increase both concentration and, to a lesser extent, the autotelic experience. The same increase in effort, however, tends to curb the clarity of goals (Connolly & Tenenbaum, 2010).
Simple interventions to promote flow: Challenging goals
Some researchers have designed and assessed simple interventions to promote flow—interventions that might thus foster humility as well. For example, in one study, conducted by Weintraub et al. (2021), half the participants completed a series of exercises that were designed to promote flow. Every morning, at 8 am, over five days, these participants received a message on their smartphone. The message prompted the participants to set three challenging but achievable goals they plan to complete during the day. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, and relevant to their lives. The message included a few examples to illustrate these instructions.
This simple experience significantly increased the level of flow these participants experienced, relative to individuals who had not set these goals. The experience also diminished stress and augmented engagement. Presumably, this exercise increased the likelihood that individuals would pursue challenging but attainable goals.
Simple interventions to promote flow: Job crafting
Rather than invite people to set challenging but attainable goals, other interventions utilised the principle of job crafting—in which workers deliberately change their tasks or role to enhance wellbeing, motivation, and engagement. In one study, conducted by Costantini et al. (2020), participants first attended a workshop, about job crafting, lasting four hours. During this workshop, they learned about the notion of job crafting, the benefits of job crafting, the boundaries or limitations of job crafting, as well as examples of how people may craft or adjust their tasks to enhance wellbeing.
Some examples revolved around how individuals could utilise job resources more effectively to fulfill challenging goals—such as advice, feedback, or support they could receive from colleagues, novel activities they could attempt, skills they could gradually refine, or rewards they could award themselves. Other examples revolved around how individuals could diminish the demands at work, such as clarify expectations or defer some deadlines. Participants discussed the benefits and drawbacks of both their past attempts to craft their jobs and future plans on how to craft their jobs
Furthermore, during this workshop, participants considered social norms around job crafting, such as whether managers embrace or disapprove these attempts as well as the prevalence of these strategies in the workplace. Finally, participants identified a buddy or colleague at the organisation with whom they could identify opportunities to craft their jobs.
A week later, participants attended a second workshop, lasting 3 hours, around how to translate their goal to craft jobs into action. First, participants recorded plans on how they will implement each job crafting strategy, such as the behaviour they will implement, the day they will implement this plan, and other relevant features of the setting. These attempts to relate a strategy to a specific circumstance is called an implementation intention. Next, participants indicated some possible barriers that might disrupt these plans and strategies to overcome these barriers.
This intervention subsequently increased the degree to which individuals felt absorbed in their tasks—a feature of flow. Presumably, job crafting enables individuals to plan tasks that are challenging but not overwhelming.
Simple interventions to promote flow: Humour
Other research has shown that interventions that revolve around humour might also increase the likelihood that staff experience flow. Bartzik et al. (2021) reported a seminal research study on this topic. In this study, nurses attended a workshop, lasting three hours, that was designed to encourage these participants to utilise humour when interacting with patients, relatives of patients, and colleagues. Participants were able to maintain more humour in their interactions six months later. This humour increased the frequency with which these nurses experienced flow as well as enhanced the degree to which their work seemed meaningful and enjoyable.
Arguably, humour can elicit a sense of fun at work. When individuals perceive work as fun, challenges that might initially seem overwhelming initially might subsequently feel more attainable. This fun might improve creativity, enabling individuals to resolve problems, diminish job demands, and increase the feasibility of their tasks.
Features of jobs that promote flow
Some tasks or activities are especially likely to induce flow. For example, when employees plan future tasks, solve important problems, or evaluate alternatives, they become more likely to experience flow (Nielsen & Cleal, 2010). In particular, planning instils a sense of control over the environment, evoking flow. Problem solving and evaluation invoke a vast range of skills, also inducing flow.
Because these tasks often elicit flow, this state is more prevalent during work than leisure time (Czikszentmihalyi & Lefevre, 1989). That is, during work, the tasks are usually sufficiently challenging to generate flow. According to one study, employees experience flow 44% of the time at work, boredom 20%, and anxiety the remaining 36% (Donner & Czikszentmihalyi, 1992). Indeed, flow is even more elevated in managers (Donner & Czikszentmihalyi, 1992).
Besides the goal of tasks, various characteristics of tasks can also elicit flow. For example, individuals are more likely to experience flow if
- they are granted autonomy and, for example, can choose which methods they will use to complete tasks (Demerouti, 2006),
- they can utilise a variety of skills to complete their tasks (Demerouti, 2006),
- their task feels important, generating a discrete and significant outcome (Demerouti, 2006).
These job characteristics, presumably, mobilise the motivation individuals need to complete challenging tasks. In addition, these job characteristics orient the attention of individuals to the task and not to distractions, such as other people.
Characteristics of individuals that affect flow: Achievement flow motivations
According to Baumann and Scheffer (2010), the primary individual trait or tendency that determines whether people are likely to experience flow is called an achievement flow motive. To clarify, motives are derived from the various actions that individuals have learnt to apply in specific circumstances. Often, across a variety of circumstances, a particular subset of behaviours, such as intimate conversations, tends to be reinforced. Individuals thus feel inclined to enact these behaviours in many settings, manifested as motives.
These motives tend to differ across individuals. Some individuals, for example, often strive to improve intimacy. Other individuals feel motivated to attract attention, to avert rejection, to seek familiar people, to gain status, to influence other people, or to gain independence. Hence, many of the motives of individuals relate to affiliation or power.
In addition to affiliation or power, many of the motives that guide individuals revolve around achievement instead. Individuals, for example, can be motivated to fulfill standards of excellence, cope with failure, avoid disappointment, or experience a sense of flow.
Thus, the flow motive is only one of many different motivations that might be invoked. According to Baumann and Scheffer (2010), the flow motive comprises two distinct, but interrelated, facets: the motivation to seek challenges and the motivation to master or resolve these difficulties.
In a series of studies, Baumann and Scheffer (2010) administered the operant motive test to assess and characterise this flow motivation. Specifically, participants observed a series of schematic illustrations. One illustration, for example, depicted a person seemingly climbing a hill. Another illustration portrayed two people near a series of rectangular items, positioned on a table. Participants were asked questions, like “What is important for the person in this situation?”, “How does the person feel and why?”, as well as “How does this story end”.
If individuals experience a flow motivation, their need to seek difficulties and their need to master challenges are likely to be activated. These needs should then shape their responses to these questions. The participants might, for example, contend that perhaps the protagonist is feeling invigorated and enthralled as they master this task. Thus, allusions to positive feelings of curiosity, interest, excitement, concentration, absorption, challenge, variety, or stimulation while learning manifest this need to seek and to master difficulties, representing a flow motivation.
In one study, Baumann and Scheffer (2010) explored whether tangible incentives compromise this achievement flow motive. That is, sometimes, individuals are motivated by a sense of fascination, challenge, and interest, called intrinsic motivation. In contrast, on other occasions, individuals are motivated by tangible incentives, such as money or status. In this state, individuals monitor the needs of other people, rather than undertake the tasks they inherently prefer, compromising flow.
According to this account, intrinsic motivation, and not tangible incentives, should guide the choices of individuals who experience flow motive. These individuals should be aware of their own preferences. They should not, therefore, confuse their own preferences with the constraints that are imposed by anyone else—a confusion that is sometimes called self-infiltration.
Baumann and Scheffer (2010) indeed showed that self-infiltration is inversely associated with this achievement flow motive. To assess self-infiltration, participants were instructed to decide which of 48 clerical tasks they would prefer to complete. Next, the experimenter indicated some other tasks the participants need to complete. Later, participants were asked to recall which tasks they chose. If participants demonstrated an achievement flow motive, they could more readily remember which tasks they chose, demonstrating negligible self-infiltration. They were more cognisant of their own preferences.
These findings imply that individuals who often seek and master difficulties can identify which goals are derived from preferences that evolved from past experiences. The implementation of these plausible goals may underpin the experience of flow.
Characteristics of individuals that affect flow: Locus of control
A variety of individual characteristics may affect the inclination of people to pursue an achievement flow motivation, to experience flow, and to demonstrate humility. Keller and Blomann (2008), for example, showed that individuals who feel their success and satisfaction depends on events they cannot control, called an external locus of control, are not as likely to experience flow. Presumably, the attention of these individuals may be oriented towards other people and events, instead of their own private needs or pursuits, compromising flow.
Characteristics of individuals that affect flow: Temperament
The temperament of individuals—that is, how individuals tend to appraise and respond to information—may also influence the frequency of flow. In one study, published by Teng (2011), participants completed a measure that assesses four facets of temperament that tend to be largely heritable: harm avoidance, novelty seeking, reward dependence, and persistence. Participants also completed a measure of flow, comprising three items.
Novelty seeking was positively associated with flow. That is, individuals who like to explore unusual and novel activities, events, and objects tended to report more flow. Furthermore, persistence was also associated with flow. Taken together, these findings might imply that people who seek novelty and persist despite obstacles are more likely to embrace challenging experiences. This inclination to embrace challenge enhances the skills of individuals as well. This combination of challenge and skill is regarded as the cardinal source of flow.
Characteristics of workplaces that promote flow: Leadership tools
Some features of workplaces may promote experiences of flow. For example, Buzady et al. (2024) validated an online game that teaches leaders how to promote flow in their organisations, called FLIGBY, or Flow is Good Business For You, developed by Csikszentmihalyi.
Each participant assumes the role of a leader at a company, called “Flow Consulting”. Participants play the game alone but pretend to be guiding a team. Their goal is to help a team navigate various challenges and to elicit flow in these members. Throughout the game, leaders need to reach decisions that resemble everyday choices in workplaces—derived from a pool of over 150 scenarios. For example, leaders may need to assign tasks to staff, address concerns about performance, and encourage collaboration. These decisions affect the motivation, engagement, and flow experiences of their staff.
The team consist of various fictional characters, each demonstrating unique preferences, talents, and limitations. Leaders need to adapt their style to accommodate these traits, to fulfill deadlines, to solve conflicts, and to boost morale. The leaders must balance authority with empathy as well as clarity with autonomy or flexibility.
After each decision, leaders receive feedback. The team will thrive to the degree these members experience flow. The literature on flow, such as the importance of intrinsic motivation, together with 29 leadership principles, guides this feedback. ddition to transient emotions or states, more enduring cultural practices or norms could also promote self-transcendence. Indeed, Let and Levenson (2005) confirmed that culture may affect the prevalence of self-transcendence. For example, in cultures that are especially individualistic and competitive, people tend to orient their attention to personal, immediate needs, diminishing self-transcendence.