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Abstract

Play is a distinctive kind of positive behavior, whereas creativity is a distinctive positive process. Leisure studies and the study of play should be natural partners in the investigation of free-time activity. The scope of the two fields is examined and their central concepts defined. Much of theory and research in the social scientific study of play falls into three concentrations: (1) play as disinterested activity; (2) play as interested activity in games, both sport and nonsport; and (3) play as interested activity in the arts. Next, play is placed within the serious leisure perspective. Creativeness is treated as positive leisure activity, an offspring of the marriage of the studies of play and leisure.

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© 2015 Robert A. Stebbins

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Stebbins, R.A. (2015). Play and Creativity. In: Leisure and Positive Psychology: Linking Activities with Positiveness. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-56994-3_10

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