Health correlates of having an obsessive versus harmonious passionate love
Catherine F. Ratelle, Geneviève A. Mageau, & Robert J. Vallerand
Laboratoire de recherche sur le comportement social
Département de psychologie
UQAM.
Abstract:
Vallerand et al. (2001) proposed two types of passion: obsessive and harmonious passion. The goal of the study was to examine the health benefits associated with harmonious and obsessive passionate love. Consistent with our hypotheses, harmonious passionate love was associated with more positive health indices than obsessive passionate love.
Text:
Recently, Vallerand et al. (2001) proposed a motivational perspective to the study of passion where there are two distinct types of passion for engaging in an activity. A first type of passion, obsessive passion, refers to "an internal pressure that forces the individual to engage in a passionate activity". Obsessive passion thus refers to feelings of obligation where the individual is controlled by the passion. This type of passionate orientation is compatible with the common perception we have of what passion is. In past research, obsessive passion was found to be associated with a host of deleterious consequences, at both the psychological and physical level. For example, individuals scoring high on obsessive passion were also found to report high levels of stress, depression, physical symptoms, conflicts with other life domains, anxiety, guilt, negative affect, etc. Thus far, results suggest that obsessive passion is associated with poor adjustment in individuals. The second type of passion, harmonious passion, is described as "a motivational tendency that leads the individual to freely choose to engage in the activity". Hence, individuals do not feel obligated to engage in their passionate activity but, rather, do it out of pleasure and choice. In past research, harmonious passion has been associated with positive outcomes, both psychologically and physically. For instance, harmonious passion was positively associated with flow, life satisfaction, and vitality and negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress. In sum, research on passion toward an activity suggests that it is possible to identify two distinct types of passion and that each passionate orientation is associated with distinct consequences such that obsessive passion is usually associated with negative health (physical and psychological) while the opposite pattern appears to be true for harmonious passion. Recently, Ratelle and Vallerand (2001) suggested that the motivational perspective on passion also applies to love relationships. Furthermore, they showed that their conceptualization of passion is different from previous perspectives like the passionate-companionate love distinction. The goal of the present study was thus to examine whether obsessive and harmonious passionate love are differently associated with mental health indicators. We hypothesized that obsessive passionate love would be negatively associated with mental health while harmonious passion would be positively related to mental health. A total of 300 undergraduate university students were surveyed, of which 176 were in a romantic relationship. We administered a questionnaire that included the Passion Scale (Ratelle & Vallerand, 2001) as well as measures of physical and psychological well-being. Well-being was operationalized as life satisfaction, vitality, depression, and physical symptoms. Obtained results provide support for our hypotheses. Thus, harmonious passion is positively associated with life satisfaction, vitality, and negatively associated with depression and physical symptoms. This does not appear to be the case for obsessive passion, where the results are either opposite or non significant. Having a harmonious passion toward one's romantic relationship thus appears to be more beneficial for one's health than having an obsessive passion. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the literature on love and passion.