Freedom and Enjoyment: Disentangling Perceived Leisure

Through participant observation research and. open-ended questionnaires administered to professional and amateur soccer players and gardeners, a hypothesis is presented as a reason why an activity is identified or defined as work or leisure. That is, a situation is likely to be defined as leisure where the individual is oriented toward realizing positive role experiences (things that are sought or deemed enjoyable), and as work, where the orientation is toward accepting negative ones (things the individual would prefer to avoid). Also, included is a test of this hypothesis on elderly subjects.