However, on various measures of time pressure, Japanese respondents reported lower levels of stress

However, on various measures of time pressure,
Japanese respondents reported lower levels of stress and subjective pressure than US respondents. In
Russia, free time also increased between 1965 and the
1990s, but was still well below US levels. Reports of time pressure in Russia, in contrast, were higher than in the USA.
In all these countries, the correlations of free time and time pressure with demographic factors were rather similar to those in the USA. Women, the more highly educated, and those in theirs reported most time problems.
7.
Summary
The American way of life, which is increasingly emulated in other countries, has created more free time and thus far more opportunity for leisure.
However, people describe their lives as increasingly hectic and remain committed to working longer hours than necessary, presumably to keep up with the culture of consumerism. Work seems to provide more enjoyment for people than is commonly believed, even if it maybe far from the ideals of leisure identified by philosophers and leisure scholars.
What is needed to advance our understanding and levels of argument is more qualitative study of the meaning of various activities in people’s lives. There are several excellent individual studies of this type
(e.g., Viditch and Bensman 1959), but they, too, rarely connect with one another, address issues raised by quantitative research, or are conducted with representative samples. The meaning of free time and leisure could be the ideal focus for studies using the
‘representative ethnography approach described in
Robinson and Meadow (What is it, then, that would represent uses of free time to satisfy criteria for leisure, or the improved quality of life implied by the term leisure Various philosophers and social critics offer alternative criteria and rare unanimity, but one notes some of the following features of experiences or activities that involve the individual developing:
(a) a (non-work) skill or talent for its own sake;
(b) a more discriminating palate or set of tastes;
(c) a personal cosmology or philosophy of life;
(d) spiritual regeneration or insight;
(e) stronger ties to some larger community;
(f ) greater self-actualization; and
(g) elements of play, curiosity, and wonder.
What seems to be called for at this point is the operationalization of a set of reliable and valid leisure indicators based on such concepts, that could be regularly monitored tore ect whether progress is being made on the non-material, as well as the material, quality of non-work time.
See also: Art and Culture, Economics of Art, Sociology of Consumer Culture Consumer Economics;
Consumer Psychology Consumption, Sociology of;
Entertainment; Leisure, Psychology of Leisure, Sociology of Time Use Research Methods.
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