The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Health and Human Development POSITIVE EMOTIONS IN MATURE ADULTS’ LEISURE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES A Dissertation in Leisure Studies by Ondrej Mitas ! 2010 Ondrej Mitas Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 The dissertation of Ondrej Mitas was reviewed and approved* by the following: Careen Yarnal Associate Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Harry Zinn Associate Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management Reginald Adams Assistant Professor of Psychology Garry Chick Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management Head of the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Research in positive psychology has shown that positive emotions initiate beneficial processes, culminating in quality of life. Tourism research has suggested that leisure travel is a substantial source of positive emotions. These two areas of research have not connected, however, leaving the processes that foster and follow from positive emotions in the leisure travel context relatively unknown. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain positive emotions associated with leisure travel in terms of their development over time and in terms of the processes that link social contexts to positive emotions. The population studied is mature adults (individuals over the age of 45). Mature adults are an important and lucrative travel market, as well as a population segment that enjoys elevated levels of positive emotions. This dissertation uses a mixed-method approach that combines psychographic and ethnographic perspectives to study the positive emotions of mature adults in two leisure travel experiences. The dissertation is formatted as two article manuscripts. The first manuscript focuses on the processes linking mature adult leisure travelers’ social contexts to positive emotions. Socioemotional selectivity theory is the conceptual foundation. This manuscript takes an interpretive ethnographic method approach, using fieldnotes from participant observation of the two experiences studied as well as conversations with key informants. Findings include four processes: amusement from humor, warmth from friendship, interest in activities, and sublime reactions to loss. These findings reveal the importance of social contexts to positive emotions and suggest that norms among communities of leisure travelers and meaningful, personally relevant activities and interpretations foster emotionally positive leisure travel experiences. The second manuscript focuses on the day-to-day development of positive emotions before, during, and after leisure travel. This manuscript uses a psychometric method perspective, modeling overall positive emotions as well as love, joy, interest, and contentment with mixed- effects linear equations based on the peak model of positive emotion in leisure travel. The peak iv model suggests that positive emotions increase before leisure travel, remain elevated during, and decline after. Findings were consistent with the peak model for positive emotions overall, joy, and interest. As a whole, the findings of this dissertation carry several theoretical and practical implications. The findings confirm that leisure travel is emotionally positive and contribute to existing knowledge the specific importance of joy, interest, contentment, awe, and amusement. Also, the findings specific to the processes of friendship form a contrast to socioemotional selectivity theory, showing that mature adults engage new friendships as well as established ones. The findings also suggest that in future intervention studies positive psychologists should pursue leisure travel as a context where individuals’ positive emotions may be increased. Finally, the findings suggest that fostering positive emotions before and after leisure travel may further improve the value of leisure travel experiences. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................vii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................1 Definition of constructs ....................................................................................................3 Leisure travel ............................................................................................................3 Positive emotions, moods, and affect .......................................................................3 Quality of life ............................................................................................................5 Literature review ...............................................................................................................6 The psychology of positive emotions .......................................................................7 Positive emotions build quality of life ..............................................................7 Specific positive emotions are especially important ........................................8 Positive emotions can be increased ...................................................................10 Mature adults automatically increase positive emotions via social context .....12 Summary of positive emotion research ............................................................14 Mature adult leisure travel, positive emotions, and quality of life ...........................15 Mature adults form an important population of leisure travelers .....................15 Positive emotions and leisure travel .................................................................16 Ethnographies of tourists’ social contexts uncover positive emotions .............19 Leisure travel is linked to quality of life ...........................................................22 Summary of tourism research on mature adults, positive emotions, and quality of life .............................................................................................................23 Purpose .....................................................................................................................24 Research design and methods ...........................................................................................25 Mixed method approach ...........................................................................................25 Sample ......................................................................................................................27 War Between the States Learning Tour .....................................................................28 Description of the experience ...........................................................................28 Core activities ...................................................................................................28 Location ............................................................................................................29 Leadership .........................................................................................................30 My position in the group ...................................................................................30 Sandhills Freeflight Model Airplane Competition.................................................... 30 Description of the experience ...........................................................................30 Core activities ...................................................................................................31 Location ............................................................................................................33 Leadership .........................................................................................................33 My position in the group ...................................................................................34 Data collection ..........................................................................................................34 Psychometric procedures ..........................................................................................35 Measuring positive emotions ............................................................................36 Measuring quality of life ...................................................................................37 Measuring between-participant variables .........................................................37 Psychometric analyses ......................................................................................38 vi Ethnographic procedures ..........................................................................................38 Participant observation .....................................................................................40 Conversations with key informants ...................................................................41 Thematic coding analysis ..................................................................................42 Validation ..........................................................................................................43