Determining Play and Playfulness

     Last Thursday's (2.26.26) class was incredibly helpful. I felt good about the direction I was heading with "play" in adult lives, and how planting design could abet a sense of "playfulness"; however, I felt wishy-washy about my knowledge on the subject and felt I just kept throwing myself at research articles that pertained to my keywords, but I didn't know what to gain from them. Brian's discussion  and graphic representation on our presentation structure was really helpful in refocusing myself in the research process, especially with the discussion of Strategies and Tactics. Understanding the different strategies involved with a research project and the subsequential tactics helped make my ideas tangible. Further discussion with Lilly about Theory also helped cement my research question in reality. Before, a "theory" seemed like vague idea that I could never quite understand. I understood the definition that a theory is an idea supported by some sort of empirical evidence that worked as the backbone of a research question, but what actually is it. Lilly walked us through our research questions and pointed out the theories that our ideas either directly or indirectly alluded to. I learned that my theory was the "theory of play", which I didn't know could be a theory! I am a "words of affirmation" person in every way possible, and sometimes I just need to be told directly that I am either heading in the right direction or needed to be redirected to just feel confident moving forward. Thankfully, this affirmed that the work I have been doing has been relatively productive in terms of developing my research, and I felt confident to keep chugging along. 

    A research article that stuck out to me over my progress the past couple of days was Play Behavior and Playfulness in Adulthood by Meredith Van Fleet. In the initial step of her research, she discussed previous definitions of play and playfulness and proposed consequent ones. Van Fleet proposed that play "is an activity that is carried out for the purpose of amusement and fun, that is approached with an enthusiastic and in-the-moment attitude, and that is highly-interactive", and playfulness "is a dispositional tendency to engage in play (i.e., an inclination to pursue activities with the goal of amusement or fun, with an enthusiastic and in-the-moment attitude, and that are highly-interactive in nature)." As underlined, the term highly-interactive stuck out to me, she stated that hobbies such as watching television or reading are not play because of their passive nature, where as hobbies like video games or card games are play due to active interaction with the subject. My research question aims to study how urban planting design can increase this "playful disposition" in adults that results in highly-interactive play with the outdoor built environment. 

    My questions for this stage are: 

1. Could I possibly broaden my scope past planting design? 
1. Could I include water features as well? 
2. Or perhaps should I tap on how sensorial built landscapes might increase play and playful behavior? By sensorial, I mean landscapes intentionally built for the five senses. 
2. At the moment I was considering "urban places" as my place, should I narrow that scope?
1. Specific city, college campus, downtown? 
3. Furthermore, this idea initially arose from, what I would describe now as, creating more "playful" interstitial spaces--basically urban walking experiences. Would that be a viable direction to head in?

    At the moment, if I were to fill out Brian's diagram for presentation structure it would be this--

1. Research Question: How can planting design in urban places increase playful behavior between adults and the outdoor built environment?
2. Contextual Purposes
1. Motivation: Creating more interactive, ecologically rich urban environments that promote mental well-being in residents, especially adults
2. Audience: Urban/city planners, landscape architects, planting designers
3. Impact: Increasing mental well-being, physical activity, and ecological diversity and resilience
3. Strategies
1. Qualitative: Conducting surveys and/or focus groups to discuss how adults define "play" and "playfulness" in their everyday lives, and how they view/interact with the natural outdoor built environment in regards to their definitions. Discussing what they would change, keep the same, add, etc. that might increase their "playfulness"
2. Correlational: Survey natural outdoor environments and study how people interact with them and "play" with them, avoid them, etc.
4. Research Purpose: Theory of play and how planting design could possibly induce playful behavior.

IKI