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Feelings and cognitions of leisure may not only be dynamic during the course of the total outdoor recreation engagement, they may be dynamic, emergent, and multi-phasic during the on-site phase. Experience Sampling Method data were collected from a sample of wilderness visitors multiple times during a visit to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Four modes of environmental experience (focus on self, others, task, and environment) and four aspects of wilderness experience (a combined oneness/primitiveness/humility variable, timelessness, solitude, and care) were measured. Univariate and multivariate repeated measures analyses demonstrated significant change from the entry, through immersion, to the exit phases of the wilderness experience. This experiential change included greater focus on the environment and on self/introspection at the exit compared to the entry phase, and less focus on others/ social acceptance during the immersion phase. Scores on humility/primitiveness/oneness were higher at both the immersion and exit phases than during entry, and care for the wilderness was higher during the exit phase than during entry. Implications of findings for understanding the complex nature of leisure experiences are provided.
KEYWORDS: Leisure experiences, wilderness recreation, recreation experience phases, human-nature transaction, experience sampling method
Introduction
A recent special issue of JIA devoted to leisure as having multiple phases, noted that leisure might best be viewed as emerging states of mind, as a sequence of transactions between individuals and their environment, as personal stories with temporal and spatial qualities, and as a lived experience (Stewart 1998). Given this perspective on leisure, Stewart cites several disconnections between multiphase leisure and philosophical, theoretical, and methodological traditions within the leisure research community. He then goes on to issue challenges to the leisure research community if it is to embrace the revised perspective.
The study reported here on the multiphasic nature of trips into the Okefenokee Wilderness in southern Georgia begins to address some of Stewart's challenges. The first is that leisure is purported to not simply be a state of mind; it is instead states of mind. These states of mind might, for example, include several types of positive emotions, personal meanings associated with the challenges of leisure environments, and cognitions related to such things as way-finding during leisure travel. Second, these multiple states are dynamic, evolving, and dependent in part on context....