ABSTRACT
Each day, millions, if not billions, of people engage in an activity for which they have a passion. Given the prevalence of the use of the concept of passion in everyday life, it is surprising that so little scientific information exists on its role in people’s life. While passion has generated a great deal of attention from philosophers (see Rony, 1990, for a review), until a few years ago the only research on passion in psychology had focused on romantic passion (Hatfield & Walster, 1978). However, recently Vallerand and his colleagues (Vallerand, 2008, 2010; Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003) have developed a model of passion that focuses on activities and has generated increasing research. The purpose of this chapter is to present this theoretical formulation on passion, the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2003), along with supportive evidence. As we shall see, passion plays an important role in the quality of life one experiences.
