Theories of Play

A. Classical Theories

1. Surplus Energy (Schiller 1873 and 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. Further, it proposes that animals and
people have a specific amount of energy that can be used to meet their need to survive –
hunting, defending territory, fighting, and so on. The energy that is left over must be
dispensed with somehow: this is the role of play. People who believe that children who
have been cooped up all day in a classroom need to let off steam support this theory.

2. Relaxation Theory (Lazarus 1883)

(Recreation) Based on the ideas of German poet Moritz Lazarus, the recreation theory
states that play exists to reenergize people. Thus, people who have worked hard all week
need to play hard on the weekend, to recharge their batteries. To be effective, the play
activity must differ greatly from the work activity. To a degree, this theory is the
opposite of the surplus energy theory. People who believe in the need for children’s
days to be broken up into periods of instruction and active play, or recess, would seem
support this theory.

To Play is to Relax...

3. Pre-Exercise Theory or Practice Theory (Groos - 1898)

According to this theory, play provides the opportunity for people and animals to practice
skills and behaviors needed to survive. For example, young animals engaging in play-
fighting are practicing the physical and social skills needed to be effective hunters. For
children, playing in the sociodramatic play area enables them to practice being a doctor,
parent, teacher, and so on,

4. Recapitulation Theory (Granville Stanley Hall – 1906)

This theory argues that children’s play develops through the same stages as the
development of the human race: animal, savage, tribal, member, hunter, and so on.
Climbing trees (primate behavior) occurs before group play (tribal behavior). For Hall,
the purpose of play is for children to experience these primitive stages, thus, eliminating
them from adult behavior.

5. Growth Theories (Appleton, 1919)

Play is a response to a generalized drive for growth in the organism. It serves to facilitate
the mastery of skills necessary to the function of adult behaviors.
B. Current Theories of Play

1. Infantile Dynamics (Lewin and Buytendijk)

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.

According to Buytendijk, the child plays because he is a child and because his cognitive
dynamics do not allow for any other way of behaving. It is the expression of the child’s
uncoordinated approach to the environment.

2. Cathartic Theory or Psychodynamic 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. Freud believed that play enables children to
eliminate the effects of traumatic experiences before that experience is placed in the child’s
subconscious. Thus, a child who has experienced domestic violence, or observed a tragic
accident, should be encouraged to reenact these experiences in a play situation, for as
long as needed to work out the trauma.

3. Psychoanalytic Theories (Buhler, 1920 and Ana 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

Jean Piaget viewed play as central part of his theory of cognitive development. For
Piaget, play enables children to practice and internalize newly acquired skills and concepts.
A child who just learned that a large ball always bounces in the same manner when
dropped on concrete will practice bouncing the ball – play with it – to internalize this new
concept, until the knowledge becomes automatic.

To Lev Vygotsky, play is the way children learn to represent real experiences when those
experiences are not actually present: for instance, girl uses the doll she is playing with to
think about her new baby brother. And play provides a structure, children use to assist in
the social and cognitive development – the scaffolding needed for them to advance.
Playing children can practice good behavior, experiment with new words, and try out
more complex social interactions.

The American Psychologist Jerome Bruner has suggested that because play is not
controlled by the pressure of producing results or trying to meet external goals, it allows
children to develop new, creative, and flexible ways to solve problems. Children use these
methods to solve real-life situations. Bruner believes that play teaches flexibility,
creativity, and outside-the-box thinking strategies.

For Sutton-Smith, play enables children to prepare for adult life – what he calls adaptive
variability, the ability to adapt behavior to meet new situation in adult life.

For the husband-and-wife team of Jerome and Dorothy Singer, play is a positive, creative
force in the total development of children – fostering divergent thinking, self-control, and
empathy. It provides a way for children to control internal (mental) and external
stimulation. Children use this ability to create pleasurable experiences: a child who is
bored at home can go to the back yard and have fun playing with her dog; a child who is
bored waiting for her mother in the dentist’s waiting room can have a pleasurable
daydream.

4. Arousal-Modulation Theory

This was developed by Berlyne (1960) and Ellis (1973). It states that play is the way
humans maintain arousal (stimulation) at an optimal level. Research has shown that
humans need a consistent level of stimulation – not too much and not too little (which
must account for the popularity of commercial TV!). According to this theory, when
children are bored or under stimulated, they seek out play opportunities to raise their
level of stimulation; when they are overstimulated, they use play to reduce the tension.

5. Bateson’s Theory (1955)

Play is a rule-governed activity in which all participants must understand the rules or “play
frames” in order to play. Everyone involved in play-fighting knows that it is not for real.
And if someone forgets, the other children exit the play momentarily to remind the
erroneous player.

References:

Tomlin, C. (n.d.). http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_print.aspx?ArticleId=618

Hamid, K. (2018). Psychology behind learning through play. https://www.pentagonplay.co.uk/news-and-

info/psychology-learning-through-play

https://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/theoriesplay.htm