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A.
Early Classical Theories
1.
Surplus Energy
(Schiller 1873 Spencer
1875)
Play
is the result of surplus energy that exists because the young are freed
from the business of self-preservation through the activities of their
parents. Energy finds its
release in the aimless exuberant activities of play.
(Based
upon postulates: a quantity of energy is available to the child; there is
a tendency to expend energy thought is not necessary for maintenance of
life balance.)
2.
Relaxation Theory (Lazarus
1883 Patrick
1916)
(Recreation)
Play is seen as a mode of dissipating the inhibitions built up
from-fatigue due to tasks that are relatively new to the organism.
Thus, play is found more often in childhood.
Play replenishes energy for as yet unfamiliar cognitive activities
of the child and reflects deep-rooted race habits -- phylogenetically
acquired behaviors that are not therefore new to the organism.
(Phylogenetic
- functions common to the race Ontogenetic - functions specific to the
individual requiring training)
3.
Pre-Exercise Theory- (Groos - 1898)
Play is the necessary practice for behaviors that are essential to later
survival. The playful fighting of animals or the rough and tumble play of
children are essentially the practice of skills that will later aid their
survival.
4.
Recapitulation Theory
(G ' Stanley Hall - 1906
Wundt - 1913)
Play
is seen not as an activity that develops future instinctual skills, but
rather, that it serves to rid the organism of primitive and unnecessary
instinctual skills carried over by hereditary.
Each child passes through a series of play stages corresponding to
and recapitulating the cultural stages in the development of the race.
(Plays roots are in the ritual of the savage and his need for magic)
5. Growth Theories
(Appleton 1919)
Play
Is a response to a generalized drive for growth In the organism.
Play serves to facilitate the mastery of skills necessary to the
function of adult behaviors.
6. Ego Expanding
Theories - (Lange - 1902 Claparde - 1911)
Play
is nature's way of completing the ego an expressive exercising of the
ego and the rest of the personality; an exercising that develops
cognitive skills and aids in the emergence of additional skills.
Current Theories of Play
1. Infantile Dynamics (Lewin)
Play
occurs because the cognitive life space of the child is still
unstructured, resulting in failure to discriminate between real and
unreal. The child passes
into a region of playful unreality where things are changeable and
arbitrary.
(Buytendijk)
The
child plays because he is a child and because his cognitive dynamics do
not allow for any other way of behaving.
Play is an expression of the child's uncoordinated approach to
the environment.
2. Cathartic Theory -
(Freud 1908)
Play
represents an attempt to partially satisfy drives or to resolve
conflicts when the child really doesn’t have the means to do so.
When a child works through a drive through play he has at least
temporarily resolved it.
3. Psychoanalytic Theory -
(Buhler - 1930. Anna Freud
1937)
Play
represents not merely wish-fulfilling tendencies but also mastery -- an
attempt through repetition to cope with overwhelming anxiety-provoking
situations. Play is defensive as well as adaptive in dealing with
anxiety'.
4. Cognitive Theory
(Piaget - 1962)
Play
is derived from the child's working out of two fundamental
characteristics of his mode of experience and development.
These are accommodation and assimilation -- the attempts to
integrate new experiences into the relatively limited number of motor
and cognitive skills available at each age.
Accommodation-
the attempt to imitate and interact physically with the environment.
Assimilation
- the attempt to integrate externally derived
precepts or motor actions in a limited amount of schemata.
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