Furthermore, research on passion has systematically found that regularly engaging in a meaningful activity out of harmonious passion leads to the experience of positive affect and the protection against negative affect, while obsessive passion leads to negative affect and is either unrelated or weakly related to positive affect during task engagement (e.g., Philippe et al. 2010; Vallerand et al. 2003, Study 1; Vallerand et al. 2006, Studies 2 and 3). In addition, a 2 week-diary study (Mageau & Vallerand 2007) revealed that the positive affect that is experienced during task engagement energized by harmonious passion is still experienced at the end of the day. Conversely, when engagement in the passionate activity is fueled by obsessive passion, not being able to engage in the passionate activity on a given day leads to feeling less positive at the end of that day. Finally, Vallerand et al. (2003, Study 2) even found that football players with a harmonious passion experienced increases in general positive affect over the course of the season while those who had an obsessive passion experienced an increase in negative affect over time.

These results are illustrated in Figure 2

In sum, taking into consideration the fact that harmonious passion leads to regular engagement in the passionate activity that translates into positive affect during activity engagement (e.g., Mageau et al. 2005; Vallerand et al. 2003, Study 1; Vallerand et al. 2006, Studies 2 and 3), that such positive affect seems to endure for a substantial period of time (Mageau & Vallerand 2007; Vallerand et al. 2003, Study 2), and that positive affect positively predicts psychological well-being (Fredrickson 2001; Fredrickson et al. 2008), it would appear that having a harmonious passion can lead people to experience cumulative experiences of positive affect that should facilitate and sustain psychological well-being as well as protect against psychological ill-being. Читать далее →