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Abstract
Positive psychology and the study of leisure of leisure have more in common than meets the eye. Their shared ground is especially evident in the concept of leisure activity: a type of pursuit, wherein participants in it mentally or physically (often both) think or do something, motivated by the hope of achieving a desired end. Leisure activities are positive activities, identified psychologically by particular sets of behaviors and sociologically by their place in a leisure social world and often in a social institution (e.g. sport, art, entertainment). Leisure is defined and the concept of leisure experience examined. Next, the serious leisure perspective is introduced. The main part of the article explores the emotions of leisure experience in interpersonal relationships, contemplation/spirituality, volunteering, quality of life/well-being, happiness, and play and creativity. The serious pursuits offer the richest range of positive psychological states, but casual and project-based leisure are not to be ignored.
Notes
1. I (Stebbins, Citation2015a, pp. 45–47) have found it necessary, when striving to be sufficiently clear about the rewards of serious leisure, to rely exclusively on the concept of fulfillment, which is substantially different from satisfaction, even in the second sense of the word. Serious leisure is about satisfying achievement and accomplishment – of that there is no doubt; but it is also about personal development, of maximizing one’s gifts and character through pursuit of particular leisure activities. Psychology tends to conflate satisfaction and fulfillment under the heading of the former (e.g. Mannell & Kleiber, Citation1997, pp. 185–186).
2. Serious consumers of passive entertainment material have been conceptualized as hobbyist buffs (Stebbins, Citation2007/2015, pp. 96–97).
3. The psychological states presented as emotions in this section have been defined as such by either Parrott (Citation2001) or Plutchik (Citation2001) if not by both. The authors also address themselves to the problems of defining some of these emotions.
4. Dubin (Citation1992) defines this interest as ‘that portion of a person's total life in which energies are invested in both physical/intellectual activities and in positive emotional states’.
5. This demonstration of the alignment of the Converse et al. version of QOL with the SLP is, I believe, sufficient to show the extensive affinity of the two concepts with each other. The components of at least two other conceptions of QOL and well-being, notably those of Ryff and Keyes (Citation1995) and Haybron (Citation2012), show a similar correspondence with aspects of the SLP, which given space limitations we cannot cover here.
6. Happiness is one of four main emotions associated with QOL and well-being The other three – joy, hope, and optimism – are covered elsewhere (Stebbins, Citation2015a, Chap 7).
7. See Questia’s extensive list of publications on the psychology of play, all of them centered on children: http://www.questia.com/library/psychology/other-types-of-psychology/psychology-of-play (retrieved 4 July 2014).
8. Sometimes it helps to have an actual list of SLP activities, the most up-to-date of which is found in Stebbins (Citation2013, Chaps. 3–5). An earlier version is available in Stebbins (Citation1998, Chaps. 3–5) in the Digital Library at www.seriousleisure.net.
