CHAPTER 4 GETTING INVOLVED:FROM KILLING TIME TO CENTRAL LIFE PURPOSE

PREVIOUS

How did you get involved in your current leisure behaviors? Who or what was responsible for your playing video games, loving to go mountain biking, or reading for pleasure?

In this chapter we will examine not only how people get involved in leisure activities but also what prevents them from participating , how their participating in a giving leisure behavior changes over time, and even why their cycle of involvement comes to an end.

CONTENTS

Constraints to participation

Getting involved

Continuity, growth, and change

Goo leisure

Ceasing participation

CONSTRAINTS TO PARTICIPATION

All of us are constrained from using leisure by a number of factors.

You might want to play computer games all the time but you feel obligated to come to the class.

All of us are subject to constraints and limitations.

There are three types of constraints to leisure behaviors

Structural constraints

Intrapersonal constraints

Interpersonal constraints

Structural constraints、 Intrapersonal constraints、 Interpersonal constraints

Structural constraints

A person at times may have a desire to undertake some leisure experience. For example, he or she may want to go hiking, but the constraint comes when under the heavy rain.

Many structural constraints such as “lack of time” often indicate that the individual didn’t want or need to participate enough to give up some other activity to do so. For example, you may say that “ I don’t have enough time to go

to the museum of art” even I still have enough time to watch television several hours each day.

In such case such as this, the individual may simply have decided that the costs of participating outweigh the benefits.

STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTRAPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTERPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS Intrapersonal constraints: individual psychological barriers

We may want to go for a hike but feel too depressed to go out of the house.

We may want to write a poem but feel we just don’t have the skill or inspiration.

Stress, anxiety, religious belief, attitude of our friends, and whether or not we believe the activity is appropriate for us all determine if an intrapersonal constraints exists which makes our involvement unlikely.

For example, some types of activities may be considered as for males but not appropriate for females. i.e. car racing, boxing. Some appropriate for females, such as ballet. This has produced very different intrapersonal constraints to

participation between females and males.

Interpersonal constraints

Such constraints involves interaction with other people or relations between individuals. You might want to play badminton but can’t find

anyone to play with.

Perhaps you would like to start a cooking club but no one else is interested.

Since many leisure activities involve other people, there are lots interpersonal constraints.

STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTRAPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTERPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS

Three types of constraints must be overcome for participation to take place.

Those constraints must be overcome in a sequence of orders. First, the intrapersonal constraint must be overcome

Second, the interpersonal constraint may become a consideration

If the individual thinks it is appropriate to participate, then the issue of finding others with whom to participate become an issue.

Third, then the structural constraint can be overcome

STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTRAPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS 、 INTERPER

SONAL CONSTRAINTS

CONSTRAINTS FOR DISABLED

People with a disability have a unique set of constraints to participation.

Such people may have a physical handicap, may be emotionally disturbed, or may be developmentally disabled.

In addition, they may have the situational disability of residing in an institution, such as hospital, prison, or other mass living arrangement.

An individual with a disability may have to contend with his or her own depression, anxiety, or lack of socialization into specific leisure activities in ways that others do not.

Changes in society’s attitudes toward such individuals could help minimize both the interpersonal and intrapersonal constraints with which they must contend.

LEISURE PREFERENCE, LEISURE CONSTRAINTS, AND LEISURE

PARTICIPATION

Leisure preference, leisure constraints, and leisure participation influence each other.

For example, you may have a set of drums you wish to play. The constraint to playing the drums is that the amount of

noise they would make would lead to complaints and the possibility that you may be thrown out of the apartment.

After six months, you begin to think less about playing the drums and decide to buy an acoustic guitar which you begin learning to play. Thus the constraint changes your leisure preference

People, in most cases, gradually quit desiring to do things they are prevented from doing.

Participation may change a preference. You may feel certain that you would not like

wilderness camping out, but once exposed to it, decide that it is worthwhile and you want very much to participate.

Changing a person’s leisure preferences by exposing him or her to an activity is a very important issue to those who operate commercial sport facilities, manage resorts, or work. Thus they develop lots of schemes to get people to

try the activities they are promoting.

LEISURE PREFERENCE, LEISURE CONSTRAINTS, AND LEISURE

PARTICIPATION

ACCOMMODATION

Some researchers have pointed out that in many cases, individuals don’t really overcome or negotiate a constraint to their leisure activity as much as they simply accommodate it.

Broad cultural beliefs and the assumptions of those in power define what is “normal”.

Because of this, many people never overcome or negotiate some conditions defined as undesirable in society.

Rather, they simply accommodate the situation in ways which never lead to equal acceptance.

GETTING INVOLVED

Do you remember the first time you tried some leisure activity with which you are currently involved?

There is some evidence that family, friends, and school are the most important sources of people’s initial exposure to leisure behaviors.

Television and the internet increasingly expose individuals to new activities and therefore suggests participation.

There are four categories need to present for a person to begin participating in a specific leisure activity:

Opportunity, knowledge, social milieu and receptiveness

GETTING INVOLVED

Opportunity : Geographical accessibility, transportation availability, physical

capabilities, financial considerations, time availability, access to resources, and change in living circumstances

Knowledge:

Knowing enough about the activity that an interests is aroused.

Social milieu:

The individual resides- family and friends must approve of the activity or at least be accepting of it.

Receptiveness:

A willingness or desire to enter into the new experience

CONTINUITY, GROWTH, AND CHANGE

What is your favorite leisure activity and how long have you been participated in this activity?

Continuing to be involved in a leisure activity may go through several stages of participation.

People may go through several stages of specialization in regard to a leisure activity. Beginners who fish, for example, want merely to catch

a fish, any fish by almost any means. If the individual chooses to go further, a learning stage begin to take place. Bigger challenges are accepted, and document success become important.

The fact that there are stages of specialization doesn’t imply that everyone who continue to participate will go through each stage.

Evidence indicates some people don’t want to become specialized in a leisure activity, even if they continue to participate for many years

CONTINUITY, GROWTH, AND CHANGE

GOOD LEISURE

We may also think of continuity and change in leisure behavior in terms of what constitutes “good” leisure

Jay Nash provided a model showing a hierarchy of leisure participation in terms of what is the most desirable use of free time.

Nash considered creative activity as the highest use of leisure, while criminal activity was deemed the lowest

SOME IDEAS ABOUT GOOD LEISURE

Good leisure evolves within selected frameworks

Good leisure evolves toward complexity

Good leisure increasingly produces importance, meaning and love

Good leisure produces increased uniqueness, idiosyncrasy, and eccentricity

Good leisure involves joyfully giving

Good leisure recognizes limits and rules

Good leisure moves toward the intuitive, the touched, and the trusted

Good leisure involved skill and challenge

Good leisure requires accepting one’s life with joy

CEASING PARTICIPATION

One may stop participating an specific leisure activity due to physical constraint.

As Jackson and Dunn found during the same year, when respondents were asked about their leisure behavior, 51 percent of the sample said they had ceased participating in some previously done leisure activity during the year.

Of that 51%, 23% were “quitter” who did not replace the activity with a new one, and almost 28% were “replacers” who added some new leisure activity during the year.

49 of the sample had not ceased participating in any leisure activity during the year and 20% were “adders” who added one or more new leisure activities without drop any.

29% were continuers.

Respondents were more likely to drop exercise-oriented sports than others

STUDY QUESTIONS

List three or four leisure activities you currently participate in and identify the circumstances surrounding your initial participation. Was your initial participation voluntary(group)

What leisure activities have you ceased participate in during the last few years? Why stop?