The importance of leisure and the psychological mechanisms involved in living a good life: a content analysis of best-possible-selves texts

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The importance of leisure and the psychological mechanisms involved in living a good life: a content analysis of best-possible-selves texts

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Title: The importance of leisure and the psychological mechanisms involved in living a good life: a content analysis of best-possible-selves texts
Author/Creator: Loveday, Paula M | Lovell, G | Jones, C M
Description: This paper explored the psychological mechanisms by which leisure enhances well-being by using sentence-by-sentence coding of the best-possible-selves text produced by 112 participants. Of the 1097 sentences, 41% were coded as leisure indicating that leisure is an important component of optimal well-being. The data showed that Australians have significantly less leisure in their daily lives than our sample desired; older and wealthier individuals placed a greater emphasis on leisure but there were no significant differences based on gender. Application of the Detachment-Recovery, Autonomy, Mastery, Meaning, Affiliation (DRAMMA) framework showed the following allocation of sentences to psychological mechanisms: Detachment-Recovery-21%, Autonomy-23%, Mastery-12%, Meaning-11% and Affiliation-33%. In their ideal future, participants imagined that they have the time and money to do what they want, particularly, to travel. We showed leisure is not solely associated with ‘having fun’; 59% of participants wanted to use their leisure time to learn, improve, or contribute to society. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Relation: Journal of Positive Psychology / Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.18-28
Relation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1374441
Year: 2018
Publisher: Routledge
Subject: FoR 1701 (Psychology) | FoR 1503 (Business and Management) | FoR 2004 (Linguistics) | affiliation | autonomy | best possible self | detachment-recovery | leisure | mastery | meaning | social interaction | well-being | writing

Collection(s): Research Publications
Collection(s): Research Publications
Resource Type: Journal Article
Identifier: ISSN: 1743-9760
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