Psychology of Passion

<p><em>Winner of the 2017 APA William James Book Award</em></p><p>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 <em>The Psychology of Passion</em> 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.</p>