Could this be the key to happiness? New research suggests so

A recent study published in the journal Motivation and Emotion sheds light on the role of passion and self-regulation in psychological well-being.

Harmonious passion refers to a balanced, flexible engagement in activities that a person loves and values, where the activity fits harmoniously with other aspects of their life.

Obsessive passion, on the other hand, is a more rigid and uncontrollable drive to engage in an activity.

The researchers recruited 251 American students from Amazon Mechanical Turk to participate in an online experiment that simulated a typical day in a student’s life.

Participants engaged in a series of academic and non-academic tasks, including completing puzzles, reading jokes, emailing friends, and performing a cleaning task.

Participants were asked to report on their current emotions (both positive and negative) and their overall psychological well-being.

“However, because hundreds of studies in various cultures ( Russia , China , Japan , Australia , Brazil , Arabic countries, etc.) have yielded results that are similar to those conducted in North America , we feel very confident that they will replicate.” The study, “ Who’s the Happiest and Why ? The role of passion and self-regulation in psychological well-being,” was authored by Robert J. Vallerand , Jean-Michel Robichaud , Sonia Rahimi , and Jocelyn J. Bélanger ..