C HAPTER 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
C ONSTRAINTS 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.
S TRUCTURAL
CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTRAPERSONAL CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTERPERSONAL 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.
S TRUCTURAL
CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTRAPERSONAL CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTERPERSONAL CONSTRAINTS

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.
S TRUCTURAL
CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTRAPERSONAL CONSTRAINTS 、
I NTERPERSONAL 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
C ONSTRAINTS 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.
L EISURE 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.
L EISURE PREFERENCE ,
LEISURE CONSTRAINTS , AND
LEISURE PARTICIPATION

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.
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.
G ETTING
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
G ETTING

Opportunity :


Knowing enough about the activity that an interests is
aroused.
Social milieu:


Geographical accessibility, transportation availability,
physical capabilities, financial considerations, time
availability, access to resources, and change in living
circumstances
Knowledge:


INVOLVED
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
C ONTINUITY, 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.
C ONTINUITY, GROWTH , AND
CHANGE

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
G OOD
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
S OME 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
C EASING
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
S TUDY
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?