Passion and motivation for studying: predicting academic engagement and burnout in university students

Abstract

Research on the dualistic model of passion has investigated harmonious and obsessive passion in many domains. However, few studies have investigated passion for studying and the role passion for studying plays in student engagement and well‐being. The present study investigated the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion for studying and academic engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy) in 105 university students, controlling for the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation. Both harmonious and obsessive passion explained variance in academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation: harmonious passion predicted higher dedication and lower cynicism, obsessive passion predicted higher absorption, and both harmonious and obsessive passion predicted higher vigour and lower inefficacy. The findings suggest that passion for studying explains individual differences in students’ academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation and thus deserves more attention from educational psychology.

Keywords:

• passion
• academic engagement
• student burnout
• motivation
• self‐concordance theory

Notes

1. Sheldon and Elliot’s model draws closely on Deci and Ryan’s self‐determination theory and their model of motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, there are some important differences. Deci and Ryan suggest a continuum of motivation ranging from amotivation over extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation, differentiating six regulatory styles: non‐regulation (indicative of amotivation), external, introjected, identified and integrated regulation (indicative of extrinsic motivation in ascending order of their degree of internality) and intrinsic regulation (indicative of intrinsic motivation). Consequently, Deci and Ryan’s model regards identified regulation as indicative of extrinsic motivation. In contrast, Sheldon and Elliot’s model regards identified reasons as indicative of autonomous motivation.