Constructing an interactionist framework for playfulness research: Adding psychological situations and playful states

Psychological studies of playfulness have been deeply shaped by the traditional trait approach that emphasizes assessment of a decontextualized trait. Integrating insights gained from broader social psychology and personality theories, this paper introduces an interactionist framework for playfulness research and provides conceptual and measurement tools for two hitherto neglected components integral to understanding the trait's functioning in the real world: psychological situations for play and playful states. Conceptual development and empirical evaluation were carried out through a sequential multi-study design. Results from focus groups, expert reviews, and a survey study confirmed the proposed theory-based conceptual models and provided corroborating evidence for the validity and reliability of two new scales-the Psychological Situations for Play Scale and the Playful State Scale. Implications for a paradigm shift in playfulness research are discussed as are recommendations for future causal modeling of playfulness-environment interactions.