In pasted weeks I have looked at token economy, planning programs for group populations, how the zone affects you, and serious leisure or specialization. My question to you is what do all of these things have in common? Each of them are determined by a persons personality and outlying factors such as attitude, temperament, and social situations (environment).
The posed question of does your personality fit your recreation is broad and many of the things a person might list about themselves related to their recreation or leisure would not match what others would list. But when considering recreation and programs offered to the public we can break down leisure or recreation participants into groups and then look at their personalities. For example I used a cooking class as a program to design for and discussed knowing who would need each type of program.
A new mother who has little to no cooking experience herself that is taking a class to learn how to provide basic meals to her young children is more likely to join the basic cooking class. Eventually that same mother could be taking the more advanced cooking classes for the same overall reason, to provide meals to her family that taste good and that her family will enjoy. Personality plays a part in everything we do even in the selections of what we choose to spend our time doing. In the case of this mother she chose cooking classes to provided for others a good experience. My thoughts and some might agree with me is that a cook, chef, or provider of food is hoping to provided an enjoyable experience to someone whether that be themselves or others. The basic personality trait of caring about what others think is needed to join a cooking lesson. While some may point out" chefs have an ego that needs to be fanned". I would argue that ego is there because their basic personality and need to provide tasteful meals to others has been met several times. When they fail to provide that experience their other individual personality traits might be brought out that would amplify the "need to fan the ego". While a home cook would instead look at the recipe and adapt it to the audience or mold to fit the particular taste buds of family members. When that try is successful the home cook might feel pride in their ability to provide good meals and continue to make meals that fit their personal audience "family". Within the family the home cook is looking for praise or conformation that their efforts are equal to desired outcome.
To summarize the basic personality factor of the individual in a cooking class is provide tasty meals to self or others. While this one trait I have connected with cooking is my perceived big trait, other traits of the individual will determine how the community perceives the person in the activity.
Through my example I have shown that personality is a determining factor in the recreation an individual participates in. Also underlying factors will determine what others views as personality traits of recreation in general. Based on what individuals experience with the recreation will determine what they view as traits of the recreation and will determine if the recreation will fit the personality of the participant.
The second part of this is the attitude of the person and the environment in which this attitude or temperament is fostered. For example if the environment requires the participant to fight then the participant could sucom to the environment. My example is the youth who participate in less socially acceptable behaviors such as smoking, drinking, drugs, violence, and so forth. While the original personality of a person is not to be active in things that they consider to be risky if they continue to have the influence of the environment in their life that person might begin to change their perspective and personality of the behaviors or recreations. That persons attitude can be strengthened or weakened depending of the reinforcement in the environment and will change that person recreation habits to fit the perceived personality traits of the recreation.
In summary a persons personality can fit the perceived recreation depending on the individuals who is judging experiences. As recreation providers a good rule of thumb is to keep an open mind. Try to see things and people through multiple different lenses and look at your participants thoroughly to see the surface and underlying personalities to plan and program recreation opportunities.
