ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 offers a comprehensive definition for boredom, from dictionaries and scholars. It begins by introducing boredom’s qualities: 1. Emotional 2. Cognitive 3. Physiological 4. Expressive and 5. Motivational and by introducing boredom’s types: 1. Indifferent 2. Calibrating 3. Searching 4. Reactant 5. Apathetic. This chapter extends Durkheim’s theory of suicide to Goetz and Frenzel’s categorization of boredom, suggesting that besides for too little regulation, too little integration, surplus integration and surplus regulation in society can also cause boredom. As both inadequate integration and surplus regulation can lead to indifferent and reactant boredom, this chapter suggest an inconsistency of Durkheim’s framework and that here may be little difference in the effect of regulation and integration. It continues to discuss its definition and phenomenon from the perspective of: Julian Jason Haladyn, Adam Phillips, Antonio Calcagno, Viktor Frankl, Peter Toohey, Lars Svendsen, Elizabeth Goodstein, Patricia Spacks, Anton Zijderveld, and Susan Morrissey, amongst others, providing an overview of children’s experience, definitional nuances, and measurement modalities.
