Well Played: The Origins and Future of Playfulness.

In this article, the author synthesizes research from several disciplines to shed light on play's central role in healthy development. Gordon builds on research in attach- ment theory that correlates secure attachment in infancy with adult well-being to demonstrate how playfulness might be a lifelong outcome of secure attachment and a primary factor in well-being. She discusses infants enacting the two primary attachment behaviors, attachment and exploration, as protosocial and exploratory play, then shows how these form a foundation for lifelong play and development. She reviews several metaphors for world views that arise from different attachment styles and endure throughout life in ways she claims either enhance or inhibit play- fulness. She explores the notion that adults can earn secure attachment through attuned play and restore what she sees as their innate playfulness and well-being. Key words: attachment theory; attuned play; broadening-and-building theory; exploratory play; happiness set point; internal working models (IWM); playful- ness and well-being;Even though scholars first began taking play seriously nearly a century ago, the majority of scientists studying health and well-being have largely ignored the field. Because the study of well-being encompasses the social, economic, psychological, spiritual, and physical state (in other words, the overall condition of an individual or group), the absence of play is a serious omission.This omission becomes even more striking when we consider how much careful research exists establishing the many and varied benefits of play. Natural scientists have identified numerous adaptive advantages for play that include training for the unexpected (Spinka, Newberry, and Bekoff 2001), skills for cooperation (Spinka et al. 2001), and the ability to interpret ambiguous social cues (Pellis 2010; Spinka et al. 2001). In addition, social scientists have identi- fied a host of affective, cognitive, social, and motor capacities that accompany play, including the ability to find meaning in experiences, or meaning making (Bruner 1990); metacommunication, or communication about communication (Bateson 1976); affect-regulation, or emotional stability (Berk, Mann, and Ogan 2006; Vygotsky 1986); self-transformation, or flexible identity and the ability to pretend (Garvey 1977; Schwartzman 1978); symbolic representation (Piaget 1962); the ability to communicate coherent narratives (Nicolopoulou 2005); the ability to be a peaceful, productive member of community (Sutton-Smith 1997); the social competence it takes to get along with others (Connolly and Doyle 1984); divergent thinking (Baer 1993); the ability to express oneself cre- atively (Singer and Singer 1998); and even the origin of culture itself (Huizinga 1955; Winnicott 1972). Yet, despite these impressive credentials, play remains on the margins of the broader professional discourse about health and well-being and, as a result, has remained widely unappreciated, drastically underfunded, and tragically underprioritized. There are many reasons for this situation. Although Western science has been studying well-being since Aristotle first reflected on "the good life" over twenty-five hundred years ago, the topic of play emerged as a serious focus of study only in the last century (Huizinga 1955). As ubiquitous as play is, it remains notoriously difficult to define and although an effective working definition for play behavior does exist (Burghardt 2001, 2005, 2010b), it has yet to be applied very broadly. Because there are so many varied forms of play, it is also difficult to isolate play as a discrete activity with specific and measurable outcomes. For example, while physical activity, social interaction, and creativity can all be aspects of play, they can also be studied separately and not necessar- ily under the rubric of play. Hence, we can easily miss the significance of play.In an attempt to bring an understanding and appreciation of play's con- tribution to well-being to the front of play science and more fully into the discourse on well-being itself, I seek, in this article, to synthesize and build on well-established research on well-being from several disciplines. …