Its good post covering some serious as well as some funny points.. !
-Regards
Lovely Singh
Recruiter Optnation.com
Dreams have been described as dress rehearsals for real life, opportunities to gratify wishes, and a form of nocturnal therapy. A new theory aims to make sense of it all.
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What if, I wonder, playfulness were in fact a survival skill, one more basic to the endurance of the species than even sharper eyes or teeth or claws, stronger muscles, or larger brains? It seems to me that of all the habits of mind and heart that help us adapt to change, none is more powerful than playfulness—because, I surmise, when you are playful, you are more responsive; you are ready to change and change again, to try some different way of being, some other strategy. You are even ready to let go of one goal for the sake of another, or to abandon purpose and seriousness, or to look silly.
And you’re sexier, too.
Garry Chick, Careen Yarnal, and Andrew Purrington wrote an article about playfulness in adults, called "Play and Mate Preference Testing the Signal Theory of Adult Playfulness." The article discusses Chick’s theory:
“... Darwin’s concept of sexual selection ... is not only relevant to adult play and playfulness but also permits the generation of testable hypotheses. Specifically, Chick postulated that play and the personal characteristic of playfulness, among adult humans, sends signals, or messages, to the opposite sex of important information regarding the signaler’s suitability as a long-term mate. Moreover, the content of the signals sent by males and by females differs. Through play and playfulness, males signal their nonaggressiveness while females signal their youth and fecundity.”
The study concludes:
“… adult play is therefore a signal that conveys nonaggressiveness (tameness?) to females when exhibited by males. And, because it is so characteristic of juveniles, female play and playfulness communicate youthfulness, health, and, hence, fecundity to males.”
Perhaps playfulness helps to assure the survival of our species.
My favorite part of the article comes at the very end:
“In an ultimate sense, play has helped make us who we are, as adults; and in a proximate sense, it has made being an adult much more fun than it might have been otherwise.”
The italics are mine. The significance is yours to keep.
Its good post covering some serious as well as some funny points.. !
-Regards
Lovely Singh
Recruiter Optnation.com
I think it's very sexy when a man knows how to be playful. I like it when a guy tickles me to see how I react or after we've
been dating for a while, a playful swat on my behind always
makes me laugh. Light hearted moments of playfulness are
fun and makes me feel closer to my partner.
I am always amazed at how artful this kind of playfulness is - the sensitivity, awareness, empathy required to do something which could so easily be misinterpreted. I think you feel closer to your partner not just because of his playful touch, but because of how aware he is of the boundaries of the relationship. There's an academic article about this which may or may not amuse you. http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/7-2-article-playfulness-in-adults-revisited.pdf
Thank you so much for sharing this.
Play has been studied extensively. In mammals, its most basic form is play fighting among juveniles. This play is rehearsal for actual fighting. Intra-species fighting manifests as male-male competition and female choice for mating. The more complex the behavior of the particular species, the more complex is the play of that species. Humans take their play beyond "horse play" (play fighting) to complex sports rituals and to art (e.g. the "play" of theatre). From an evolutionary point of view, all this play has the function of passing down an individual's genes, i.e. producing viable offspring. So, yes, it is about attracting a mate. Humans exhibit neoteny. We tend to retain juvenile traits longer, play being one of those traits.
Thanks for the great comment, Rick. Play fighting's a big one all right - a complex and quite astonishing ability that we can keep violence in balance like that. I guess if there were such a term "play loving" was part of what I was describing in this article.
I did want to take this opportunity, however, to point out a particular bias of mine - maybe as a warning to other people who are trying to make sense out of this blog: I'm not really interested in justifying play, although such efforts have made my work much easier. I like play. I like to play and to think about play and to think about play with other people. So whether it's a biological imperative or a saving grace doesn't matter as much to me. What I'm most interested in is how deeply fun it can be.
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