Personal Leisure Profile
All of us engage in recreation and leisure activities that reflect our values and understandings of the world. However, we may not have consciously thought about the various ways that leisure is conceptualized and the ways these ideas influence what we do or how we see the world. Further, we may be aware of the various influences that either enable or constrain our leisure but we may not have thought about the interrelationships between such influences.
By the end of this assignment you will be able to describe your burgeoning personal philosophy of leisure that will, hopefully, lead to a greater understanding of leisure in your life until this point and perhaps lead to new ways of thinking about leisure in your life for the future.
Objective:
With this assignment you will create a personal leisure profile by:
describing your understandings of the term leisure
describing your understandings of the term recreation
explaining the activities that you are currently involved in
explaining what motivates your leisure participation
explaining what constrains your leisure participation
explaining the various influences on your leisure behaviour such as gender, family, and/or culture
explain how your leisure enhances or negatively impacts your personal well-being
How to Complete Your Leisure Profile
This assignment requires you to write a descriptive essay about your leisure, your understandings of what enables or constrains your leisure, and your overall philosophy of leisure in your life. For tips on what a descriptive essay is, please see the following link:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
To succeed you will:
apply the knowledge presented to you in this course
draw from your personal experiences
apply the knowledge from the academic resources and contrast that knowledge with your experiences and understandings
Format:
The essay must be a minimum of 4 pages and up to a maximum of 6 pages in length and must include a separate title and reference page. (In other words, 4-6 pages plus a title page and a reference page) double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, saved in Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or as a PDF.
Answers to the listed components must be written in complete sentences and paragraphs. Point form will not be accepted.
You are required to utilize a minimum of 1 academic resource (e.g peer-reviewed journal articles, books or book chapters) from the University of Manitoba Libraries or similar source. The resource must connect to 1 or more components of the assignment. For example, leisure philosophy, leisure behaviour, motivations and satisfactions, constraints to participation, stress and/or coping or other various issues or influences relevant to leisure. Be sure to reflect on whether you agree or disagree with the article discussions in relation to the components of the assignment. Electronic peer-reviewed journals (E-journals) can be found at http://umanitoba.ca/libraries
Essays must use the American Psychological Association’s (APA) guidelines for in-text citations and references. Please see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition) for specific details.
The following links provide information about APA format:
Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management’s Library Guide: https://libguides.lib.umanitoba.ca/kinrec
What is APA Format?: http://umanitoba.ca.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/faculties/nursing/students/What_is_APA_format.pdf
Examples of APA Style of Documentation: http://umanitoba.ca.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/dafoe/media/cite_apa.pdf
Other APA Formatting and Style Guide: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Personal Leisure Profile Components
Your Personal Leisure Profile must include the following 7 components. (Please note that the questions provided with each component are to help guide your thinking. It is your decision as to whether to answer the questions and include them in your essay or to address each component from your own understanding as you see fit.
I. Understandings of Leisure and Recreation
What is your understanding of leisure and recreation?
How do you personally define leisure? How do you personally define recreation?
Do your definitions align with the discussions in the text?
Have your personal understandings of recreation and leisure changed from the beginning of the course until now?
II. Current Leisure Behaviours
You may want to list the activities you define as leisure and/or recreation and any details you deem to be relevant (for example, the names of the activities, where you participate, with whom, and how long you have been involved in the activity throughout your life, etc.). You may find it easier to provide this information in a chart or table format, however, a chart or table is not necessary.
How often do you participate in these activities on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis?
You can focus on one leisure activity or you may want to indicate 3-5 activities you participate in the most.
III. Motivations and Satisfaction
What motivates you to participate in your leisure activities?
Which activities are your favourites and why?
What level of satisfaction do you receive from these activities?
What is the difference between motivation and satisfaction? Is there a difference?
IV. Constraints
What are some the constraints that prevent you from participating in these and other leisure activities?
How can you remove these constraints?
V. Stress and Coping
Identify and describe the things in your life that make you feel stressed.
Identify and describe the activities that reduce your stress.
How can you engage in or use leisure in a different way to cope with your stress?
VI. Influences on Leisure Behaviours
What influence does your gender have on your leisure behaviour?
How does your family or cultural background influence your leisure behaviour?
VII. Personal Philosophy of Leisure
Note: you can start your essay with your personal philosophy or include it at the end. It really is up to you!
Your personal philosophy of leisure
How do you personally think about leisure? How does it fit within your life? Does your philosophy align with societal norms?
What is your overall opinion of your current leisure philosophy?
What journal article did you reference and how does it relate to your leisure profile?
