1985/01/01 by Susan Shaw, Susan M. Shaw · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Computer science #Conceptualization #Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research #Epistemology #Everyday life #Leisure activity #Leisure satisfaction #Leisure studies #Leisure time #Meaning (existential) #Perception #Physical activity #Psychology #Recreation #Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management #Sample (material) #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology #Sociology of leisure #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
paper · doi:10.1080/01490408509512105
crossref issued 1985/01/01 · crossref published 1985/01/01 · crossref published-print 1985/01/01 · openalex publication_date 1985/01/01 · crossref published-online 2009/07/13 · crossref created 2009/07/14 · crossref deposited 2019/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
One of the ongoing problems surrounding the whole area of leisure studies concerns conceptualization of the term leisure itself. Few empirical studies to date have looked at the meaning of leisure, and even fewer have incorporated a grounded theory approach. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, the present study employed a time‐diary technique combined with in‐depth interviews to explore perceptions of leisure situations among a random sample of married couples. The results showed that although leisure could be experienced during almost any type of activity, there was considerable consensus with regard to the perceptual factors associated with leisure situations. The factors shown to best differentiate leisure from non‐leisure were enjoyment, freedom of choice, relaxation, intrinsic motivation, and the lack of evaluation. None of these factors alone can be equated with the concept of leisure, but the combination of three or more factors leads to accurate predictions of the definition of situations as leisure.