ABSTRACT
Variety and diffusion would appear to be integral to the experience of leisure in our culture and era. There is a multiplicity of social contexts – from solitary occupation to the coached meshing of positions in team sports, from one-dimensional interaction in an activity group to the complex relationships and expectations of leisure with a primary group such as the family. Several models of leisure provide approaches to grasping the dimensions of leisure as a human phenomenon. The persistent element in defining leisure throughout the history of Western civilization has been relative freedom of choice. Leisure as activity is usually socially situated with impinging role expectations and implicit structural elements. The affective and cognitive components of leisure experiences are being differentiated and measured in ways that are complementary and frequently cumulative. In the social role model leisure is understood to be related to but not determined by economic, familial and community roles.
