Garry Chick

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management

Satisfaction results from individuals’ comparison of what they have and what they feel they should have, deserve, or hope to have. Numerous studies point to relationships between satisfaction with one’s leisure and other life domains, including perceived quality of life, self-rated health, and life satisfaction, a component of subjective well-being...

Colorism, systematic intragroup discrimination based on skin color, plays a unique role in Chinese culture. In-group bias and aesthetic attitudes towards lighter skin prompt the consumption of skin-lightening products and daily sun avoidance/protection practices such as carrying parasols or wearing long-sleeved shirts. However, culturally grounded...

Previous studies have shown that individual differences in adult playfulness are important in interpersonal relationships. However, there is a lack of research on the role of playfulness in human sexuality. Using three studies with four independently collected samples (Ntotal = 1,124) we tested the differential relations between global playfulness...

Leisure satisfaction is associated with overarching individual characteristics such as life satisfaction, perceived quality of life, subjective wellbeing, and happiness. However, what predicts leisure satisfaction is less well understood, especially in non-Western cultures. To address this lacuna, we compared Han and Uyghur residents of Xinjiang, C...

Leisure is recognized as an arena in which an individual deals with fundamental human concerns including living a good life and pursuing happiness. It is therefore not peculiar to Western culture but an interest in most, if not all, cultures and societies. However, leisure researchers have been slow in acknowledging this assumption, especially with...

There is robust support for the notion that playfulness is important for how people initiate and engage in their romantic relationships. Our study sought to extend the knowledge on associations between four facets of playfulness (Other-directed, Lighthearted, Intellectual, and Whimsical; OLIW) with facets of relationship satisfaction (RS) in 116 mi...

There is increasing interest in the study of individual differences in playfulness in adults; the way people frame or reframe situations in a way that they are experienced as personally interesting, and/or intellectually stimulating, and/or entertaining. In this review, we describe and discuss its role for romantic life. After a brief introduction,...

Background: While there are numerous applications of play-based interventions, there is little research on playfulness-based interventions. We applied interventions that aim at stimulating playfulness and test effects on happiness and depressive symptoms. Method: In a randomised placebo-controlled online intervention, N = 533 participants were a...

The degree to which individuals are satisfied with their leisure strongly relates to and may substantially influence numerous other aspects of their lives. Nevertheless, although past research has shown that, in some cases, leisure satisfaction is associated with demographic, psychosocial, and/or cultural variables, the comparative efficacy of pred...

At the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, questions arise if contemporary audiences still find historical accounts relevant. Fundamental to understanding the relevance of stories from the war is assessing their emotional impact on leisure participants from various social groups. We used the social identity theory framework to asse...

Temple stay is a creative form of religious tourism in Korea that offers an authentic local experience at a Buddhist temple. This study is to describe the experiences of international participants during their overnight temple stay. Based on field research with in-depth interviews, this study result indicates that participants regarded temple stay...

Cultural socialization is a convoluted process involving sociocultural contexts and human interactions. Migration, immigration, and intercountry adoption has complicated such contexts. Based on two groups of female Chinese descendants who grew up in the United States and live in between two cultures, this study explores how bicultural socialization...

Previous research has shown that adult playfulness contributes to relationship satisfaction (RS). Using 211 heterosexual romantic couples we test the association between four facets of playfulness (Other-directed, Lighthearted, Intellectual, and Whimsical; OLIW) and indicators of RS in an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM)-design. The four...

Satisfaction with leisure contributes to life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, health, and overall wellbeing. It is not clear, however, how individuals develop expectations for satisfaction with their leisure experiences. In this study, we propose a cultural basis for leisure expectations. In particular, we model cultural consonance in leisure,...

Recent research has shown that individual differences in adult playfulness contribute to satisfaction in romantic relationships. The present study examines associations of four facets of playfulness (i.e., other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual, and whimsical) with approaches to romantic relationships in terms of love styles (i.e., Eros, Ludus,...

Leisure is a cultural universal generally regarded as time or activities that individuals engage in free from obligation. Free time and free‐time activities, such as play, games, sport, festivals, visiting family or friends, hobbies, resting, or simple idleness, have attracted relatively little anthropological attention but may be important in cult...

In this study, comparisons were made between two related cultural domains pertaining to a hedonistictourism experience (spring break) using free listing to elicit constituents of related cultural domains,both cognitive and behavioral. Data were analyzed using a variety of methods and visualized usingmultidimensional scaling and graphic layout algor...

The present study explores how culture-based meanings and values toward skin color, which are associated with women’s body image ideals and gender-role expectations, profoundly influence women’s leisure behaviors. Using in-depth interviews with East Asian, Asian American, and Euro-American women (n = 43), results revealed how leisure behaviors are...

Adult playfulness contributes to well-functioning romantic relationships. We study the association between playfulness (global and four facets; i.e., Other-directed, Lighthearted, Intellectual, and Whimsical) and six specific attitudes towards love-the love styles of Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania and Agape. Further, we argue that those high in...

For evolved phenotypical characteristics to be retained by organisms, the adaptive advantages of those characteristics must outweigh their costs. The costs of play can involve injury, susceptibility to predation, and use of time that might otherwise be devoted to food acquisition while its advantages might include learning, socialization, and physi...

The purpose of this study threefold: to determine whether a shared cultural model of the importance of a set of leisure activities to a good leisure life existed in urban Taiwan, the degree to which cultural consonance in leisure mediates the relationship between leisure constraints and leisure satisfaction, and the degree to which leisure satisfac...

This study deals with an emerging domestic rail travel phenomenon among Korean youth, known as Rail-ro (Railo), which has influenced aspects of youth culture and domestic tourism in Korea since 2007. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Railo experiences exist as a coherent culture among Railers based on cultural consensus analysis. Th...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between playfulness and resilience in women over the age of 50 who were participating in The Red Hat Society (RHS), a leisure group for older women. The Broaden-and-Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2001), which describes the benefits of positive emotions, was used as a rationale to test the pr...

Lists of leisure activities and/or constraints used in research in non-Western settings are typically imported from studies executed in North America or Europe despite the possible influence of cultural context. To avoid this problem, we asked 182 informants from six cities in Taiwan to free list leisure constraints. While our primary purpose was t...

The final variable in Drake’s equation for estimating the number of such civilizations in the Milky Way is L, the lifetime of communicating civilizations. Drake’s initial estimate for L was 10,000 years, but others have suggested different values or even defined the variable differently. Unfortunately, for empirical information on how to estimate L...

In this compelling book, leading scientists and historians explore the Drake Equation, which guides modern astrobiology's search for life beyond Earth. First used in 1961 as the organising framework for a conference in Green Bank, West Virginia, it uses seven factors to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilisations in our galaxy. Using the...

Extensive research shows that individuals in lower socioeconomic statuses experience higher levels of morbidity and mortality than those of higher social status. This disparity remains even after lifestyle changes such as reduced smoking, improved diet, more exercise, and better access to medical care are afforded to those of lower status. Accordin...

Meditation has been shown to be a cost-effective means to help individuals reduce stress, alleviate anxiety and depression. Similarly, leisure has been found to reduce stress, improve mood and contribute to overall health and well-being. The similarities and differences in outcomes between meditation and leisure suggest that a comparative analysis...

Rail-ro (Railo), a seasonal rail pass for passengers under 25, is considered a culture code among youth in Korea. This study provides an in-depth description about meanings of Railo based on the view of cultural insiders (i.e. youth train backpackers) using ethnographic data collection methods such as participant-observation and semi-structured/uns...

The purpose of this study is to examine leisure constraints, a new variable termed cultural consonance in leisure (CCL), and leisure satisfaction as possible mediators in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and self-rated health in six large cities in China. The hypothesis is that SES has a negative relationship with leisure constra...

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of taxi tour guides (TTGs) as culture brokers on Jeju Island in South Korea. A qualitative approach via in-depth interviews was utilized to describe domestic tourists' travel experiences with TTGs, and TTGs' perception of their roles. Weiler and Yu's dimensions of tour guides' cultural mediation (i.e...

This research is part of a larger effort that integrates advances from personality research and playfulness research to develop a valid and reliable measurement of adult playfulness. We proposed a latent network trait conceptualization that focuses on the interconnected cognitive qualities central to playfulness, strictly distinguished from their s...

As part of the systematic scale validation of the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale (APTS), a measurement that we developed along with a conceptualization of playfulness based on a synthesis of personality research and play literature (Shen, Chick, & Zinn, 2014), this paper provides additional tests of the APTS' psychometric properties. We empirically...

Altruism is the selfless concern for the well-being of others and is regarded as an admirable quality in most, if not all, cultures. One cross-culturally important area where it appears to occur abundantly is in the context of religious and secular rituals. Many of these are rites of passage associated with major life events, including birth, marri...

Religious activities religion can be a part of reducing tension, alleviating anxiety, and creating the hope that the performance will resolve them (Malefijt, 1968; Geertz, 1966; Glazier, 1997). Similarly, people often engage in recreation for reducing stress, improving moods, and enhancing mental and physical health. As such, religion and recreatio...

Increasing numbers of people are participating in reflexive forms of spiritual travel. Rites of passage and intensification are becoming voluntary, and so is religion. Arguably, individuals travel to achieve mental and social escape. Their quests to religious sites are self-motivated, not obligated. Because of their mobility, Americans constantly e...

Studies have suggested that positive emotions may occur in mature adult tourists’ experiences, but the processes linking participants’ social contexts and positive emotions are unknown. The study used an interpretive ethnographic approach with participant observation and conversations with key informants to document positive emotions in two mature...

The overwhelming majority of play research concerns juveniles. However, a full understanding of the phenomenon requires knowledge of play and playfulness across the life spans of those animals, including humans, who play in adulthood. The authors investigate a theory of play based on Darwin's concept of sexual selection that may account for the exi...

Nature based recreation visitors were not all alike. Visitors from different cultures may perceive different service quality. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of service quality differences among major Taiwan cultural groups, specifically looking at the case of Hoklo people, Hakka, and Mainlander. We examined a sample of 1,6...

In the early 1980s, the first author (Chick) was the University of Illinois representative to the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), Inc. At an HRAF meeting in New Haven, Mel Ember recommended the examination of leisure, or aspects of leisure, against a backdrop of cultural complexity because “it correlates with everything.” For its part, leisure h...

In postmodern societies, the touristic consumption of symbols of identity contributes to the formation of national identities. The purpose of this study was to examine residents’ and tourists’ perspectives on the meanings attached to and impacts caused by heritage tourism development. Data collected through structured interviews and field observati...

The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and usefulness of Hofstede's measure of values and Kahle's List of Values (LOV) in the context of parks and recreation. Parks and recreation areas around the world increasingly serve as international visitor attractions and play an important role in the international tourism industry. Sinc...

This study of the Monday Nite Pool League is a continuation of earlier research into recreational tavern pool. We argue that the very competition that is the reason for the league's being contributes to the development of endogenous conflicts within the game that lead some players to quit because the original reasons for their involvement in the ga...

Leisure researchers increasingly have invoked culture, either implicitly or explicitly, with the claim that it accounts for differences either in leisure behavior or in attitudes, motivations, or other feelings about leisure among putatively different cultural groups. Unfortunately, they have generally been unclear on what they mean by the term “cu...

The growing worth of heritage in the renegotiation and dissemination of identities has intensified conflicts over whose voice dominates heritage tourism representations. Therefore, this study compares the way India’s heritage is represented by the Indian government, by the domestic tourism trade media and by the popular tourism media. The findings...

Little is known about play in older women's leisure lives. An examination of The Red Hat Society®, a leisure-based social group, expanded an understanding of play by including older women's viewpoints. Because of the absence of literature about emotion and friendship in both play theory and evolutionary theory, our research questions included: how...

The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of ethnicity as a construct in leisure research. In particular, we are interested in the degree to which presumed ethnic groups exhibit internal cultural homogeneity. In 2002, the visitors to the Angeles National Forest (ANF) near metropolitan Los Angeles were surveyed. Using purposive sampling...

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the meanings recreationists tenting at an agricultural fair associated with the settings in which their fair experience occurred. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, our analysis of data collected through onsite observation and using photo-elicitation guided interviews illustrated that informa...

The question of how well cultural models correspond with actual behavior is fundamental to anthropology, yet relatively little explored in the literature. For the cargo (religious festival) system of San Rafael Tepatlaxco (Tlaxcala, Mexico), data are available on both office-holding behavior and informants’ accounts of the system. We used log-linea...

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential utility of HOFSTEDE's measure of cultural values (1980) for group segmentation in an ethnically diverse population in a forest recreation context, and to validate the values segmentation, if any, via socio-demographic and service quality related variables. In 2002, the visitors to the Angeles N...

ExECutivE SuMMARy: Hong Kong received more than 25 million visi-tors in 2006 with a forecasted 16 percent increase for 2007. Visitors from all over the world have brought more interactions between diverse visi-tors and local residents. Country parks (national parks) around the world increasingly serve as international visitor attractions and play a...

Edward Burnett Tylor, widely regarded as the founder of anthropology, titled Chapter XII in his 1881 text, Anthropology, ‘The Arts of Pleasure’. In that chapter, Tylor described aspects of poetry and rhyme, music and musical instruments, dance, drama, art, play, and games among ancient and tribal cultures. The chapter contrasted with the four previ...

During the summers of 1949, 1950, and 1951, John M. Roberts collected data on the levels of knowledge that a Zuni, a Navaho, a Mormon, and a Spanish American had of their own cultures. Specifically, Roberts asked the informants about their knowledge of the topics listed in the 1945 edition of the Outline of Cultural Materials and Gifford’s list of...

In this investigation we sought to explore the properties of enduring leisure involvement from the perspective of campers attending an agricultural encampment and fair in the United States. Using informants' narratives of their experiences, we sought to address the research question: 'what elements of informants' experience of the fair have sustain...

This article reviews a systematic approach to the study of transnational migration in the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. The authors argue that the investigation of transnational migration should be more than an exercise in labeling outcomes. They show that it is possible to model and score transnational outcomes for individual migrants and mig...

The involvement construct has been used to explain a variety of leisure-related phenomena. While these efforts have made valuable contributions toward furthering the field's understanding of leisure behavior and involvement in particular, many of these investigations have been limited by the measures used to operationalize the construct. Most resea...

An innovative aspect of consensus analysis is that it provides quantitative and culturally “correct” models of semantic domains. These models can then be compared with behavioral data to examine the relationship between culture and behavior. In this article, the author compares a consensus model of participation in the festival (cargo) system in a...

The articles that follow explore two issues. First, is it possible to differentiate empirically useful culture-bearing units from one another? If it is possible in principle, how can it be accomplished in practice? Second, are there operationalizable and empirically useful units of culture itself, and are such units necessary? Or, is it possible—an...

Although ethnography has traditionally been regarded as high in validity, the assessment of reliability in anthropological field research is very difficult. Fortunately, forms of systematic data collection exist that lend themselves both to reliability testing and replication. The analysis of culture in terms of the high-concordance codes that comp...

Cross-cultural comparative research on leisure is extremely rare in both the anthropological and leisure literatures. The opportunities for conducting such research are excellent, however. Ethnographic data archives, such as the Human Relations Area Files, are widely available and contain a trove of information on leisure in societies, both past an...

This paper is a response to the commentaries on my article, “Leisure and Culture: Issues for an Anthropology of Leisure,”; that appeared in the previous issue of Leisure Sciences (Vol. 20, No. 2). The commentators addressed two topics, in the main. The first of these is my epistemological stance, cultural materialism, and its utility in the study o...

In their classic cross-cultural study "Games in Culture," Roberts, Arth, and Bush (1959) delineated a three-category classification for games (i.e., physical skill, strategy, and chance) as well as a defini tion of games. Both the classification system and the definition have become anthropological standards. Roberts et al. also found that several...

The coverage of and interest in non‐Western and cross‐cultural aspects of leisure seems to be on the increase in leisure studies. Although this is a welcome trend in the current climate of multiculturalism, there is currently no systematic agenda for the anthropological study of leisure. I suggest that four issues should be addressed to serve as a...

Cultural complexity is one of the most commonly used variables in cross-cultural research. It has often been used as a measure of cultural evolution and has been shown to correlate with numerous other variables. At least eight measures of cultural complexity have been constructed since the late 1940s. The purpose of this article is to examine three...

In his classic 1973 study, Richard Sipes used a cross-cultural sample to examine the relationship between combative sport and warfare. He found that combat sport and war tended to co-occur, thus supporting a spillover hypothesis, rather than a catharsis hypothesis. However, his sample was small (n = 20) and composed of outliers—societies that were...

The relationship between work and leisure has most often been described in terms of three basic models. First, the spillover model suggests that one's choice of leisure is affected by interests and attitudes developed during work. Second, the compensation model holds that leisure choices are the opposite of one's work activities, thus providing sat...

Recent research has considered the "benefits of leisure" from psychological, physiological, and social perspectives. Such studies, while valuable, have overlooked an even more fundamental benefit, that is, the possible contribution of leisure to human adaptation. The concept of adaptation holds that those who possess environmentally favored forms,...

Models of attitudes and emotional conflicts related to players quitting a recreational pool league, developed in an earlier study, are tested with follow‐up data collected 2 years after the original data were collected. The earlier study suggested that some players quit because of psychologically uncomfortable levels of approach‐avoidance and tensi...

Leisure is often described as being intrinsically motivated and offering the element of choice. Although games are normally considered recreational or leisure activities, there are certain circumstances in which they take on qualities that are not only nonleisurelike (i.e., lacking in intrinsic motivation and choice) but are actually destructive to...

Craftsmanship on the engine lathe in the context of four small western Pennsylvania machine shops is examined in terms of behaviors associated with lathe operation, the technological specialization of machinists, and some cognitive and expressive qualities of parts produced on a lathe. A comparison of the categorizations and rankings of lathe produ...

Explored the hypothesis that much of the child's play style is influenced by messages that parents give from their own leisure. Preschool children ( N = 32) were rated by several of their teachers on 5 play styles, and each of the child's parents provided information about his/her leisure. Correlational analyses were computed for each play style se...

This paper explores and evaluates several theoretical models dealing with the relationship of leisure time availability and cultural complexity from a cross-cultural, anthropological perspective. Culture, cultural complexity, and cultural evolution are discussed in terms of how each may influence, or be influenced by, leisure, when viewed as free o...

Used multivariate profile analysis and stepwise discriminant analysis in an effort to discriminate among four groups of male opiate-addicted reformatory inmates (N = 193) classified according to degree of criminal violence: (1) Bodily Violent (N = 19); (2) Potentially Bodily Violent (N = 25); (3) Materially Violent (N = 113); and (4) Nonviolent (N...

The debate over whether violence and aggressive behavior is innate or learned has been rekindled by several recent publications. Regardless of the merits of this debate, cross-cultural data indicate that the levels of both inter-and intra-group aggressive behavior differ among societies. Moreover, males in some societies exhibit what has been terme...