ABSTRACT
Understanding play Playing is an activity generally, though by no means exclusively, connected with the young of higher mammals – for example, foals and lambs, kittens and puppies and children.1 Play involves active participation by the player and is freely chosen. It appears to be essentially pleasurable, and apparently has no purpose outside itself. As such it can be considered to be the opposite of work, and even of learning. Playtime in school is the break between lessons, a chance to run and frolic, to let off steam before returning to the serious business of the classroom. Indeed, in 1855 in the Principles of Psychology1 Herbert Spencer suggested the 'surplus energy' theory of play although, as he acknowledged, the idea had been foreshadowed some years before in the writings of the German poet, Friedrich von Schiller. This theory, which was reformulated in 1932 by E.C. Tolman,3 maintained that animals expend a certain amount of energy on survival tasks – work, and that surplus energy is thus available for non-productive functions – play. In its cruder forms, however, the surplus energy theory of play takes inadequate account of other human needs. Playing, particularly by older children and adults, may draw deeply upon reserves rather than excesses of physical energy. For example, a game of squash at the end of a tiring day at school, home, office or factory may be physically exhausting but psychologically stimulating or relaxing – a genuine form of recreation. This alternative theory of play as recreation, restoration or relaxation seems particularly appropriate to the urban, industrialized and commercial world in which fatigue may be the result of excessive mental strain, and alleviation be provided by strenuous physical activity.
