Lek är för barn, arbete är för vuxna, eller?

An attempt to assemble play and dissociation through their common base, attachment, is presented. The Adult Playfulness Scale (APS) was given to 60 university students whereby eight with high scores on the APS and nine with low scores on the APS were selected for the second part of the study. The subjects completed the Dissociation Experience Scale C (DES-C), the Depression Anxiety Stress-Scale (DASS) and the Trail Making Test (TMT). The results show that there is a significant difference between the students with high scores on APS and those with low scores on APS, in executive functions. Those with high scores on the APS had a longer reaction time than the group with low scores. There are tendencies to a difference between these groups in absorption, where those with high scores on the APS tend to dissociate more. No difference between the groups was found on the DASS. A correlational analysis between absorption and the APS lead the authors to suggest that playfulness has been operationalized in a very positive manner in previous studies which leaves out other types of playfulness. The results also indicate that there may be several play profiles that serve different functions, where only one part of play is related to absorption, further research in this area is suggested