Work and Leisure

170 John T. Haworthwe passively accept and which shape life from the outside-in. A great deal oflife consists of passively following unexamined social rules, not of our makingbut largely imposed by the collective plans of our ancestors. Some ofthese rules meet basic human needs, even if we become aware of them onlywhen they are broken by, for example, the enforced exclusion from an institutionas in unemployment. Jahoda regards dependency on social institutionsnot as good or bad but as the sine qua non of human existence.LeisureIt has long been accepted that it is difficult to define work and leisure. At onetime an activity can be considered by a person as work, another time asleisure. Iso-Ahola (1997) and Iso-Ahola and Mannell (Chapter 10 in thisvolume) recognise that many people are stressed because of financial difficultiesand the dominance of work, and that leisure is used for recuperation fromwork. The result is a passive leisure lifestyle and a reactive approach to personalhealth. They argue on the basis of considerable research that activeleisure is important for health and well-being. Iso-Ahola (1997) states thatparticipation in both physical and non-physical leisure activities has beenshown to reduce depression and anxiety, produce positive moods, andenhance self-esteem and self-concept, facilitate social interaction, increasegeneral psychological well-being and life satisfaction, and improve cognitivefunctioning. Of course, leisure is not a panacea. If it is used as avoidancebehaviour in order not to face up to something that has to be done, it canincrease stress. However, many people fail to discover active leisure.Stebbins (1992, 1997; see also Chapter 11 in this volume) argues that anoptimal leisure lifestyle includes both serious and casual leisure. His extensivestudies of serious leisure activities, such as astronomy, archaeology, music,singing, sports, and career volunteering, show that it is defined by six distinguishingqualities. These are the occasional need to persevere at it; thedevelopment of the activity as in a career; the requirement for effort based onspecialised knowledge, training or skill; the provision of durable benefits orrewards; the identification of the person with the activity; the production ofan ethos and social world. It also offers a distinctive set of rewards, satisfyingas a counterweight to the costs involved.Work–life balancePrimeau (1996) argues that it is not possible to say what is a healthy work–lifebalance. He suggests that occupational psychologists should examine therange of affective experiences that occur during engagement in one’s customaryround of occupations in daily life. He sites an important example beingresearch into enjoyable, challenging (‘flow’) experiences in daily life. Lewis(2001, seminar 2 www.wellbeing-esrc.com, 2003) notes that the issue of