Pang Dandan, Proyer René T
Personality and Assessment, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Personality and Assessment, Department of Psychology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2018 Mar 29;9:421. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00421. eCollection 2018.
Compared with playfulness in infants and children, playfulness in adults is relatively under-studied. Although there is no empirical research comparing differences in adult playfulness across cultures, one might expect variations between Western and Eastern societies such as China. While playfulness is typically seen as a positive trait in Western culture, there are hints in Chinese culture that being playful has negative connotations (e.g., associations with laziness and seeing play as the opposite of work). The aim of this study was to compare expressions of playfulness in one sample from German-speaking countries ( = 143) and two samples from China (Guangzhou: = 176; Beijing: = 100). Participants completed one playfulness scale developed in the West (Short Measure of Adult Playfulness, SMAP) and one from the East (Adult Playfulness Questionnaire, APQ). Additional ratings of the participants were collected to measure: (a) the level of playful behavior expressed by people in different situations (e.g., when being around family members, in public, or on social media), and (b) individuals' perceptions of society's expectations concerning the appropriateness of being playful in the given situations. Overall, the results of the comparisons were mixed. Although SMAP scores did not vary significantly across the three samples, people from German-speaking countries tended to score higher on some facets of the APQ and some situational ratings. Stronger effects were found when comparing only the German-speaking sample and the Guangzhou sample. In addition to the cross-cultural differences that we expected, we also detected Chinese regional variations (North vs. South). We conclude that societal rules and cultural factors may impact expressions of playfulness in a society.
与婴幼儿的嬉戏相比，成年人的嬉戏相对较少受到研究。尽管尚无实证研究比较不同文化中成年人嬉戏的差异，但人们可能会预期西方和东方社会（如中国）之间存在差异。在西方文化中，嬉戏通常被视为一种积极的特质，而在中国文化中，有迹象表明嬉戏具有负面含义（例如，与懒惰相关联，将嬉戏视为工作的对立面）。本研究的目的是比较来自德语国家的一个样本（n = 143）和来自中国的两个样本（广州：n = 176；北京：n = 100）中嬉戏的表现。参与者完成了一份在西方开发的嬉戏量表（成人嬉戏简短量表，SMAP）和一份来自东方的量表（成人嬉戏问卷，APQ）。还收集了参与者的其他评分，以衡量：（a）人们在不同情境（例如，与家庭成员在一起、在公共场合或在社交媒体上）中表现出的嬉戏行为水平，以及（b）个人对社会在给定情境中对嬉戏适当性期望的看法。总体而言，比较结果喜忧参半。尽管SMAP分数在三个样本中没有显著差异，但来自德语国家的人在APQ的某些方面和一些情境评分上往往得分更高。仅比较德语样本和广州样本时发现了更强的影响。除了我们预期的跨文化差异外，我们还发现了中国的地区差异（北方与南方）。我们得出结论，社会规则和文化因素可能会影响一个社会中嬉戏的表现。
