Flow and Abiding Interest: An Experiential Perspective on Identity Maintenance and Development in Later Life

An experiential perspective on identity development is presented here and focuses on the importance of flow experiences for developing abiding interests, or long-term interests that form the core of a person’s identity. The perspective shares similarities with the exploration/commitment dynamic incorporated in much identity research but suggests how experiences like flow can help regulate and motivate identity growth. The selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model of aging is applied within this experiential framework to illustrate how healthy identity maintenance and development in later life can occur by prioritizing abiding interests. Finally, when the search for meaning is magnified by existential circumstances in later life and cognition changes, a person’s abiding interests can be interpreted in new ways that lead beyond the individual self. Absorbing experiences like flow result in a momentary unselfconsciousness or feelings of egoless self-transcendence. Reflecting on such states in later life can enhance well-being and amplify a feeling of interconnectedness with life.