Passion and personality: Is passionate behaviour a function of personality ?

Introduction. – Passion as a concept but also as a way of life seems to generate an ever-growing interest among researchers and even employers. The Dualistic model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) has suggested that passion could take two distinct forms: harmonious or obsessive passion. However, the debate still remains open on the factors (contextual or dispositional) that are likely to influence the tendency to develop a passion for an activity. Objective. – This research was designed to explore the relations between passion and personality and to determine the strength of those links. Method. – To this end, 241 participants completed an online questionnaire comprising one measure of passion along with one measure of personality, namely an assessment of the Big Five dimensions. Results. – The results show a pattern of relations between passion and personality that is consistent with previous research which highlighted the more positive/adaptive nature and consequences of harmonious passion, in comparison with obsessive passion. Conclusion. – These outcomes nevertheless remain weak. More research is needed to focus on the contextual factors that could play an important role in the development of passion, mainly in its harmonious form. © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.