The Psychology of Passion: A Dualistic Model

by Robert J. Vallerand

The concept of passion is one we regularly use to describe our interests, and yet there is no broad theory that can explain the development and consequences of passion for activities across people's lives. In The Psychology of Passion, Robert J. Vallerand presents the first such theory, providing a complete presentation of the Dualistic Model of Passion and the empirical evidence that supports it. Vallerand conceives of two types of passion: harmonious passion, which remains under the person's control, and obsessive passion, which controls the person. While the first typically leads to adaptive behaviors, the obsessive form of passion leads to less adaptive and, at times, maladaptive behaviors. Vallerand highlights the effects of these two types of passion on a number of psychological phenomena, such as cognition, emotions, performance, relationships, aggression, and violence. He also discusses the development of passion and reviews a range of literature on passion for activities.

Genres: Psychology

416 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2015

About the author

Robert J. Vallerand is Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Comportement Social at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and Fellow of the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University. He is recognized as one of the leading experts on motivational processes and is the author of seven books and over three hundred scientific publications. Professor Vallerand has served as president of the Quebec Society for Research in Psychology, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the International Positive Psychology Association. He is a fellow of over a dozen learned societies, including the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He also is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science from the Canadian Psychological Association and the Sport Science Award from the International Olympic Committee.

Reviews

[Sandeep Gautam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book and takes a cutting edge look at the age old concept of passion, delineating further 2 types of passion: harmonious and obsessive and how they have different priors and outcomes.

Along the way Vellerand explains concepts like hedonic and eudaemonic psychological well-being , flow etc another concepts that fall in positive psychology domain. The book is very well written, although would be better appreciated by those who are into reading/conducting psychological research as it references psychological studies extensively. Its a pity that Vallerand or his work is not as well known as other stalwarts of positive psychology like Marty, Mihaly , Deci & Ryan or Sheldon, because he belongs in that league and that tradition.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and knowing the difference between obsessive and harmonious passion should be a required mandate for all people, more than 80% of which as per his research, are passionate about one thing or the other.

I hope Vallerand's research makes the impact it desereves.