Self‐awareness and leisure experience

Abstract In recent years, conceptualizations of leisure have focused on a “leisure experience”; characterized by intense involvement in ongoing activity. Some researchers have suggested that self‐attention or self‐awareness may detract from that involvement and thus inhibit or restrict leisure. The disruptive influence of self‐awareness is also addressed in social psychological theories (Duval and Wicklund 1972, Mead 1934), which suggest that self‐awareness coincides with judgmental self‐evaluation. The relevance of self‐evaluation to leisure has been shown in a study by Shaw (1985), but the overall relevance of self‐awareness (or loss of self‐awareness) to leisure is not well understood. In order to examine the relationship between leisure and self‐awareness, an experience sampling study was undertaken. Eighteen individuals completed 695 questionnaires describing situations from their normal daily routines. Analysis indicated that levels of self‐awareness were not markedly different in leisure and nonleisure contexts; however, self‐awareness within leisure was associated with more positive affect than self‐awareness in nonleisure. These results suggest that loss of self‐awareness is not central to all leisure situations; researchers who define leisure in terms that imply a loss of self‐awareness must carefully address the potentially limiting nature of that perspective. In addition, the positive nature of self‐awareness within leisure suggests that leisure may have an important situational influence on the relationship between affect and self‐awareness.