Content area
Full Text
The authors discuss the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale (APTS), a measurement that they developed along with a conceptualization of playfulness based on a synthesis of personality research and play literature. They assert the research they conducted, which examined the nomological network of playfulness and involved relevant constructs of personality (self as entertainment), behavior (playing), attitude (goal attainment), and perception (leisure boredom), empirically validates the APTS. They present data from two studies to show correlations between the APTS and measures of theoretically related constructs to support their claims. In particular, they use results from known-group comparisons to illustrate that the APTS can successfully and effectively distinguish individuals with different levels of playfulness. They hope thereby not only to establish the validity of the APTS but to encourage its wider application in research on play. Key words: Adult Playfulness Trait Scale; APTS; nomological network of playfulness; personality research; play; playfulness; play research; reliability studies; validating research instruments
WE HAVE DEVELOPED the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale (APTS), a new measurement of playfulness that assesses an individual's disposition for unin- hibited and spontaneous fun. We base our theory for the APTS on a new, inte- grated review of three major paradigms of personality research, namely the trait approach, social-cognitive theories, and the interactionist approach. We propose that, instead of considering traits as both internal psychological qualities and phenotypic states (i.e., the summary view of traits), we should focus on the internal dispositional qualities and strictly distinguish these from corresponding overt behavioral manifestations (i.e., a latent dispositional view of traits; Shen, Chick, and Zinn 2014).
The summary view dominates the development of many trait inventories, including most playfulness studies (Barnett 1990; Glynn and Webster 1992, 1993; Lieberman 1977). Despite its popularity, the summary-trait concept lends itself to circular reasoning, especially when researchers use it to explain behavior, as we discuss in our review of the literature. The missing distinction between internal qualities and external state manifestations also commonly causes a "conflating" of "characteristics of playful behavior with dispositional qualities of the player" in playfulness research (Shen, Chick, and Zinn 2014). By contrast, the latent- disposition view avoids such circular reasoning by excluding the behavioral component from the trait conceptualization, making it theoretically tenable both to examine the relationship...