Scala map and flatMap are surely mixing map, I mean mixing map, I mean mixing up.

Let’s start simple; All of those map, flatMap are methods of some classes (for the sake of explanation classes, interfaces, whatever). So they all work on some kind of an encapsulation. map and flatMap are methods of Option, of List, of Future.

If you look at map and flatMap method signatures you will see:

// for `Future`

    def map[S](f: (T) ⇒ S)(implicit executor: ExecutionContext): Future[S]
    def flatMap[S](f: (T) ⇒ Future[S])(implicit executor: ExecutionContext): Future[S]

// for `List`

    def map[B](f: (A) ⇒ B): List[B]
    def flatMap[B](f: (A) ⇒ GenTraversableOnce[B]): List[B]

// and for `Option`

	def map[B](f: (A) ⇒ B): Option[B]
    def flatMap[B](f: (A) ⇒ Option[B]): Option[B]