"Fuelled by Passion": Obsessive Passion Amplifies Positive and Negative Feelings Throughout a Hockey Playoff Series.

Previous research has shown that the highs and lows of sport fandom are more extreme for fans with strong levels of obsessive passion. The authors tested if this amplification effect applied to how hockey fans felt throughout a National Hockey League (NHL) playoff series. Fans of the Winnipeg Jets (N = 57) reported levels of harmonious and obsessive passion prior to the start of the 2019 NHL playoffs and then reported their feelings the day after each game of the first playoff round. The results supported the amplification hypothesis by showing that the impact of game result on both positive and negative feelings the day after a game was more extreme for fans with high obsessive passion. This moderating effect, however, appeared to be driven primarily by responses to losses.

The Two Dimensions of Passion for Sport: A New Look Using a Quadripartite Approach.

Research relying on the dualistic model of passion has consistently found that harmonious passion for sport is positively associated with adaptive outcomes and that obsessive passion for sport is positively associated with maladaptive outcomes. In this research, we tested if various sport outcomes were related to within-person combinations of both harmonious and obsessive passion. Three samples of athletes (total N = 1,290) completed online surveys that assessed various sport outcomes (e.g., sport enjoyment, goal attainment), along with harmonious and obsessive passion for their sport. We found that athletes were best served by having either high harmonious passion or low obsessive passion or, in many cases, high harmonious passion that was combined with low obsessive passion. These results add to our understanding of passion by showing that combinations of harmonious and obsessive passion for sport are differentially associated with indicators of a positive sport experience.

A longitudinal investigation of trait-goal concordance on goal progress: The mediating role of autonomous goal motivation.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the benefits of matching personality traits with goal type (i.e., agentic or communal) for goal progress. Autonomous motivation was examined as a mediator. METHODS: A multi-wave prospective longitudinal design was employed to track the progress that 935 university students made in their personal goal pursuits over an academic year. Participants set three personal goals at baseline and completed measures of personality and goal motivation. Participants' goals were coded as being either agentic or communal. Goal progress was assessed mid-year (T2) and at the end of the academic year (T3). Goal motivation was reassessed mid-year (T2). RESULTS: Conscientiousness was significantly related to making better progress on agentic, but not communal, goals. Conversely, Extraversion was related to making communal, but not agentic, goal progress. These trait-goal matching effects on progress were partially mediated by goal-specific motivation, suggesting that the selection of goals that matched one's traits resulted in higher autonomous motivation at the start of the academic year. CONCLUSIONS: The selection of trait concordant personal goals is associated with autonomous goal motivation and greater goal progress. This research integrates Self-Determination Theory with trait theories of personality to enhance our understanding of variations in goal success.

We Are the Champions, But How Do We Respond? Savoring and Dampening in Response to Championship Victories Among Passionate Sports Fans.

The aim of this research was to test if the ways passionate sport fans respond immediately after an important team victory depend on the extent to which passion is harmonious or obsessive. Fans of Liverpool F.C. (n = 299) and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (n = 334) completed online surveys shortly after their teams had won an important championship game. Fans answered questions assessing passion and the extent to which they engaged in savoring (i.e., attempting to maintain, augment, or prolong positive emotions) and dampening (i.e., attempting to stifle positive emotions) after the victory. In both samples, the authors found that both harmonious and obsessive passion predicted greater savoring, but only obsessive passion predicted greater dampening. These findings build on previous research and suggest an additional reason for which harmonious and obsessive passion among sport fans tend to predict more and less adaptive outcomes, respectively.

Testing the dualistic model of passion using a novel quadripartite approach: A look at physical and psychological well-being.

OBJECTIVE: Passion research has focused extensively on the unique effects of both harmonious passion and obsessive passion (Vallerand, 2015). We adopted a quadripartite approach (Gaudreau & Thompson, 2010) to test whether physical and psychological well-being are distinctly related to subtypes of passion with varying within-person passion combinations: pure harmonious passion, pure obsessive passion, mixed passion, and non-passion. METHOD: In four studies (total N = 3,122), we tested whether passion subtypes were differentially associated with self-reported general health (Study 1; N = 1,218 undergraduates), health symptoms in video gamers (Study 2; N = 269 video game players), global psychological well-being (Study 3; N = 1,192 undergraduates), and academic burnout (Study 4; N = 443 undergraduates) using latent moderated structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Pure harmonious passion was generally associated with more positive levels of physical health and psychological well-being compared to pure obsessive passion, mixed passion, and non-passion. In contrast, outcomes were more negative for pure obsessive passion compared to both mixed passion and non-passion subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: This research underscores the theoretical and empirical usefulness of a quadripartite approach for the study of passion. Overall, the results demonstrate the benefits of having harmonious passion, even when obsessive passion is also high (i.e., mixed passion), and highlight the costs associated with a pure obsessive passion.

"The Thrill of Victory . . . and the Agony of Defeat": Passion and Emotional Reactions to Success and Failure Among Recreational Golfers.

The dualistic model of passion proposes two distinct forms of passion: obsessive (OP) and harmonious (HP). The purpose of this research was to test if emotional reactivity following athletic successes and failures was related to one's levels of HP and OP for sport. The authors recruited recreational golfers (N = 115) to report how they typically felt after they experienced successes and failures on the golf course. Results of multilevel modeling analyses supported the hypotheses and revealed that OP moderated the effects of success and failure on both positive and negative affect: OP was associated with higher levels of positive affect following success, as well as higher levels of negative affect following failure. These results suggest that OP, but not HP, is associated with greater emotional reactivity to the experience of success and failure in sport.

Obsessive Passion: A Compensatory Response to Unsatisfied Needs.

The present research investigated the role of two sources of psychological need satisfaction (inside and outside a passionate activity) as determinants of harmonious (HP) and obsessive (OP) passion. Four studies were carried out with different samples of young and middle-aged adults (e.g., athletes, musicians; total N = 648). Different research designs (cross-sectional, mixed, longitudinal) were also used. Results showed that only a rigid engagement in a passionate activity (OP) was predicted by low levels of need satisfaction outside the passionate activity (in an important life context or in life in general), whereas both OP and a more favorable and balanced type of passion, HP were positively predicted by need satisfaction inside the passionate activity. Further, OP led to negative outcomes, and HP predicted positive outcomes. These results suggest that OP may represent a form of compensatory striving for psychological need satisfaction. It appears important to consider two distinct sources of need satisfaction, inside and outside the passionate activity, when investigating determinants of optimal and less optimal forms of activity engagement.

When Goal Pursuit Gets Hairy: A Longitudinal Goal Study Examining the Role of Controlled Motivation and Action Crises in Predicting Changes in Hair Cortisol, Perceived Stress, Health, and Depression Symptoms.

The action crisis is a critical phase in goal striving during which the goal pursuer feels conflicted about persevering with the goal or initiating disengagement. Recent research suggests that goal motivation, specifically controlled motivation (i.e., pursuing a goal out of obligation and pressure), increases the likelihood of experiencing action crises. In turn, action crises in goal pursuit have been linked to increases in depression symptoms and cortisol. In the present 8-month longitudinal study, we tracked university students' personal goals to examine whether the pursuit of controlled goals and the experience of action crises was associated with increasing levels of hair cortisol, perceived stress, poor health, and depression symptoms (N = 156). Structural equation modeling suggested that experiencing action crises in goal pursuit was associated with increases in markers of stress, depression, and ill-being. This effect was partially explained by controlled goal motivation. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Haciendo que la vida de la gente merezca ser plenamente vivida: La importancia de la pasión para la Psicología Positiva / Making People's Life Most Worth Living: On the Importance of Passion for Positive Psychology

The purpose of the present paper is to present the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) and show its importance for positive psychology. Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that people like (or love), find important, and in which they invest time and energy. Furthermore, two types of passion (harmonious and obsessive) are proposed. Harmonious passion leads people to choose to engage in the activity that they love. Conversely, obsessive passion creates an internal pressure to engage in the beloved activity. Harmonious passion is hypothesized to lead to more adaptive outcomes than obsessive passion. Results of several studies reveal that passion matters with respect to a number of outcomes deemed important for positive psychology such as flow and positive emotions, psychological well-being, physical health, relationships, and performance. Passion can indeed make people's lives worth living to the extent that it is harmonious in nature.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar el Modelo Dualista de la Pasión (Vallerand et al., 2003) y mostrar su importancia para la psicología positiva. La pasión se define como una fuerte inclinación hacia una actividad que a la gente le gusta (o ama), le parece importante, y en la que invierte tiempo y energía. El modelo plantea la existencia de dos tipos de pasión (armoniosa y obsesiva). La pasión armoniosa conduce a la gente a elegir dedicarse a la actividad que aman. Por el contrario, la pasión obsesiva crea una presión interna para dedicarse a la actividad deseada. Se hipotetiza que la pasión armoniosa conduce a resultados más adaptativos que la pasión obsesiva. Los resultados de diferentes estudios revelan que la pasión es importante en relación a una serie de resultados que se consideran importantes para la Psicología positiva tales como el fluir (flow) y las emociones positivas, el bienestar psicológico, la salud física, las relaciones, y el rendimiento. La pasión realmente puede hacer que la gente tenga vidas que merezcan la pena en la medida en que dicha pasión sea de naturaleza armónica.