Blog Posting 5

 Hi, everyone! Hope you all had a relaxing weekend post-anatomy exam (woohoo)! This past week, once again, I feel that I have slacked on my new occupation. With the stress of the anatomy exam, I definitely put off engaging in my new occupation. I did get some work with it done, though! I am really enjoying the interactive ASL app that I got, and have been trying to perfect my hand orientation with the alphabet and ensuring that I have the letters memorized correctly. This week I have uploaded a video of me practicing some of the letters with the app, I was more excited to use it than I look in the video. I can also share the details for the app I have been using if anyone is interested! I read the second chapter in the history of the deaf community book, and it was super interesting! The chapter talked about the origins of deaf learning in America,  and I learned about the first attempt of a school for children who were deaf and also the beginnings of mainstreaming those children in education. Overall, I have really enjoyed learning about the deaf community's history and feel that it's helped me to engage in my occupation of ASL. 

After re-examining the characteristics of flow, I do think that I have experienced this state. Apparently achieving this state has not occurred in my activities super frequently, as I did have a hard time thinking about when I have found myself in a state of flow. I think that I have experienced flow while preparing and studying for exams (in undergrad, definitely not in OT school yet). I really enjoyed the majority of my child development courses, and often found myself completely engulfed in the material and losing track of time.  I think it also helped that the coursework and information was not too difficult for me to understand, and I feel that I was able to achieve the state of flow through the balance of perceived action capacities and perceived action opportunities. I got super into coloring during quarantine, because I wasn't doing much else. And while coloring is a simple activity, I think that I achieved a state of flow many times while engaging in the activity. I would color for hours, and the pictures I colored gradually became more difficult to complete. 

In terms of my new occupation of ASL, I definitely think there is an imbalance of my current skills and the current level of challenge. Although I am working to advance my skills, I often find myself realizing how extensive the skill of ASL is. There is so much to know, and I feel that the current level of challenge greatly outweighs my current skill level. Although I have not achieved it quite yet, I do think that my new occupation has the potential to create a flow experience for me. In order for this to happen, I think that I need to achieve the sense that the challenges I am engaging in are at an appropriate level for my current skill level. 

In regard to the information provided about autotelic personalities, I definitely think that my personality fits into that personality aspect in some aspects, however not all. I would say that I generally do most things for my own enjoyment. However, I do recognize that some things that I do, I do in order to achieve a goal with later rewards. I do think that that there is a quite a bit of overlap, though. For example, attending graduate school is something that I am very intrinsically motivated to do, because it is something that I am passionate about and genuinely interested in. However, I know that by attending graduate school, I will be able to achieve a higher level of education and professionalism, and work in the career field of my choice. I think that one's personality can affect the attractiveness of the flow experience as a motivator to choose particular occupations in your life because someone with an autotelic personality, intrinsically motivated, would be more willing to achieve a state of flow while completing occupations that they are genuinely interested in. I would think that those individuals who are intrinsically motivated would choose to engage in occupations that challenge them, and that require a certain skill level in order to keep them engaged. 

Hope you guys had a great time with your occupations this past week, I can't wait to read about your progress!