The present study had five purposes: to examine whether participants in a high-school choral ensemble experience flow, to determine whether flow or other affective states occurred consistently within an individual rehearsal, to determine whether flow or other affective states occurred consistently throughout the rehearsal sequence, to determine whether previous singing experience affects flow or other affective states, and to determine whether gender affects the presence of flow or other affective states.

Singers in this study experienced all nine dimensions of flow: merging of action and awareness, sense of control, concentration, loss of self-consciousness, time transformation, unambiguous feedback, challenge-skill balance, clear goals, and autotelic experience. Mean scores (scaled from zero to four on a five-point Likert-type scale) ranged from to 2.396 to 3.765 indicating that, on average, participants experienced all dimensions of flow sometimes or frequently.

Positive affective states did occur consistently within an individual rehearsal. On average, a discernable pattern of rise in affect occurred in the later portion of rehearsals. Based on this information, ensemble directors may wish to pace their rehearsals in ways that benefit from this pattern.

Flow occurred consistently throughout the rehearsal sequence, increasing steadily across the first three days, but declining for three of the four remaining days (rehearsal six constituted the exception). A significant day by time interaction was revealed for all three affect measures: excited, involved and satisfied. The most salient feature of these interactions was the spike in affect during the third measure on day six. The high score of day six appears to have been caused by the emotional and physical response to a particular repertoire choice. The results indicate that repertoire choice may effect rehearsal structure, which in turn effects flow and affect among singers. Previous singing experience does effect the experience of flow but not affect. No significant effect of gender was found on any of the flow dimensions or affect scales. In the final chapter of the dissertation, each of these findings is carefully examined.