Work and Leisure

188 Seppo E. Iso-Ahola and Roger C. Mannelldocumented that intrinsic motivation and a sense of freedom or selfdeterminationor autonomy is at the heart of leisure (Iso-Ahola 1980;Mannell & Kleiber 1997). It is also known that these psychological factorsare important for human health and mortality (e.g., Langer & Rodin 1976;Rodin & Langer 1977; Schulz 1976). So, motivation for leisure becomessynonymous with motivation for health. Figure 10.1 shows the motivationalfoundations of leisure behaviour. It demonstrates two things about motivation.First, there are ‘ultimate’ (biological predispositions and early socialization),‘distal’ (knowledge and values/attitudes) and ‘proximal’ (constraintsand facilitators) determinants of motivation.Second, motivation for leisure can be both permanent and temporary,permanent in the sense that people have a stable predisposition towardintrinsic motivation for leisure and temporary in the sense that motivationcan fluctuate as a function of situational constraints and facilitators.As for the ‘ultimate’ determinants, Deci and Ryan (1991) have arguedthat infants are born with the ‘innate’ needs for autonomy, competence andrelatedness. They state that ‘from the time of birth, human beings areoriented toward the active exercise of their capacities and interests. Theyseek out optimal challenges, and they attempt to master and integrate newexperiences’ (Deci and Ryan 1991: 238–9). If so, everyone possesses in earlyFigure 10.1 A path-analytic model of motivational determinants of leisure behaviourSource: adapted from Iso-Ahola and St. Clair 2000