ABSTRACT

The hobby profiles of the Dependents suggested that their leisure activities had traditionally been object-rather than person-centred and seemed able to satisfy their need for control within their lives, a need perhaps frustrated under other conditions. The literature suggested that this bias of interest develops early in life, within the home environment, which together with specific personality traits and cognitive styles provides an effective method of dealing with life. Quite a number of the interviewees confirmed that their social and family relationships were problematic, and that they somehow considered themselves to be different from other people and outside the mainstream of life.