Kawabata Masato, Mallett Clifford J
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore, 637616 Singapore.
School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia.
Discov Psychol. 2022;2(1):2. doi: 10.1007/s44202-021-00015-1. Epub 2022 Jan 4.
Enjoyment is an important psychological construct in many life domains. Despite the importance of the construct, conceptual clarity in what enjoyment is remains elusive. The elusive understanding of enjoyment is probably caused by conceptual ambiguity of the construct and a confusion in the public usage between hedonic and eudaimonic qualities of positive feelings. The hedonic quality of positive feelings (e.g., fun) reflects the simple attainment of desires; whereas the eudaimonic quality of positive feelings (e.g., joy) reflects fulfilling or realizing one's true nature through full functioning of one's ability. To better understand this important construct of enjoyment, we conducted a focused review of relevant literature. In the first section, relevant literature was reviewed to identify conceptual ambiguities contributing to why enjoyment has remained an elusive construct in research. In the second section, an operational conceptualization of enjoyment was proposed from integrative perspectives to overcome the identified issues. We proposed operationally conceptualizing enjoyment as . In this process, the individual appraises the situation in a positive way and commits oneself to savoring the situation and engaging in the task to have positive feelings of joy and fun. We explained why the operational conceptualization is important and useful from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives. In doing so, we also proposed possible future research directions with the operational conceptualization of enjoyment.
享受是许多生活领域中一个重要的心理概念。尽管该概念很重要，但对于享受的具体定义仍难以明确。对享受难以理解的原因可能是该概念在概念上的模糊性，以及公众在使用中对积极情绪的享乐主义和幸福主义特质的混淆。积极情绪的享乐主义特质（如乐趣）反映了欲望的简单达成；而积极情绪的幸福主义特质（如喜悦）则反映了通过充分发挥自身能力来实现或认识自己的真实本性。为了更好地理解这个重要的享受概念，我们对相关文献进行了重点综述。在第一部分，回顾了相关文献，以确定导致享受在研究中仍是一个难以捉摸的概念的概念模糊性。在第二部分，从综合角度提出了享受的操作性概念化，以克服已确定的问题。我们建议将享受操作性地概念化为……在这个过程中，个体以积极的方式评估情境，并致力于品味情境和参与任务，以产生喜悦和乐趣的积极情绪。我们从理论、实证和实践角度解释了为什么这种操作性概念化是重要且有用的。在此过程中，我们还提出了基于享受操作性概念化的未来可能的研究方向。
