Oral Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

How to Foster Harmonious Passion and Optimal Functioning in your Life: Contributions to Positive Psychology (#26)

Robert J. Vallerand 1
  1. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, QUEBEC, Canada

In positive psychology, much is said about the role of positive emotions, flow, well-being, and other constructs in leading a happy and meaningful life. Little is said regarding how to experience these positive psychological outcomes. I address two issues. First, I report data that show that having a passion for a meaningful activity represents one way to experience such positive outcomes. In line with the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand, 2010, 2015) it will be shown that the adaptive outcomes stem mainly from a harmonious passion. Such passion refers to a strong inclination for an activity that one loves, finds meaningful, and engages in regularly but that remains in harmony with other life activities and the person’s sense of self and identity. An obsessive passion leads to less adaptive and at times maladaptive outcomes. Such passion is involved when people feel that they can’t help themselves and have to surrender to their desire to engage in the activity. Secondly, this talk deals with a review of the factors, processes, and conditions that nurture harmonious, and curtail obsessive, passion. This review leads to a blueprint of the conditions that foster harmonious passion and the positive outcomes of importance in positive psychology.