Individualdierences in leisure satisfactions: an investigation of four theories ofleisure motivation Peter Hills a, *, Michael Argyle a , Rachel Reeves b a School of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gypsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK b Nueld College, Oxford, UK Received 29 December 1998; received in revised form 30 April 1999; accepted 25 May 1999 Abstract The applicabilityof severaltheoriesof leisuremotivation to a range of 36 activitiestypically undertaken by younger people has been investigated. The theories were Csikzentmihalyi's theory of ¯ow (theory 1),Bandura'stheory ofself-ecacy (theory 2), Apter's theory of telic and paratelic activity (theory 3) and a general theory of social motivation (theory 4). Participants were 183 young men and women in secondary and tertiary education who completed self-report questionnaires containing scales for the frequency,enjoyment,purpose,social satisfaction,skill, ability and challengewhich they associated with activities they had personally experienced. The balancebetween skilland challenge implied by theory 1 wasfound to be characteristic of all activities,whetheror not they could be expected to generate ¯ow. The data collected in the study provided little support for theory 2.It was possible to distinguish telic and paratelic activities according to theory 3 and to show that the latter were more enjoyable and less purposive. Although theory 4 was not relevant to solitary activities, it was still the most generally applicable and even appeared to account for most of the enjoyment derived from highly purposive activities, which were not otherwise greatly enjoyed. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Leisure may be conceptualised in dierent ways. Leisure has been de®ned as what people do when they are not working. Activities become leisure primarily because they are carried out in a period designated as free-time (Brightbill, 1960;Smigel,1963).This approach may have its Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 763±779 0191-8869/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 1 - 8 8 6 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 3 7 - 3 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid * Corresponding author.