Engage means to attract and retain an interest in something ("Engage"). Has our digital age, with unprecedented access to information, altered our ability to engage with the world? Have we lost the ability to discern what things we value most? Against the best attention-seeking marketing algorithms, what approaches can we use to regain our agency?

The role of passion in engagement offers a way. According to Robert Vallerand, passion can "fuel motivation, enhance well-being, and provide meaning in everyday life" ("Les Passions" 756). Importantly, it is what kind of passion we choose to entertain. In the dualistic model of passion (DMP) presented by Vallerand, passion takes two forms of engagement ("From Motivation" 47). Our present systems of Western individualism encourage obsessive passion (OP) based on a "controlled internalization of the activity into one’s identity" ("Les Passions" 757). By attaching caveats like the need for interpersonal or intrapersonal acceptance and the desire to control outcomes, obsessive passion controls the individual ("Les Passions"). It is "regulated by motivational processes indicative of self-protection" (Stenseng et al. 1118). Driven by expectations beyond a person's control, obsessive passion will eventually cause conflict. However, the second form, harmonious passion (HP), is created when one pursues a passion by choice, creating "autonomous internalization of the activity into the person's identity" ("Les Passions" 757). Pursuing activities through harmonious passion cultivates a more relaxed experience, a flexible mental state, increased persistence, and better integration of the activity into one's identity over time.

Research by Frode Stenseng supports this perspective. By analyzing sporting events using structural equation modeling, Stenseng demonstrated that harmonious passion increased belongingness among athletes, resulting in positive emotions, suggesting a strong link between belonging and well-being (Stenseng et al. 1120). Obsessive passion, while producing positive emotions, demonstrated no connection with belongingness. Those subjects who pursued sports via harmonious passion felt more connected to their teammates and fulfilled overall than those who engaged obsessively (Stenseng et al. 1120).

Why are we compelled to pursue our passions one way over another? In "The 'What' and 'Why' of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior," Deci and Ryan explain self-determination theory (SDT), the idea that human motivation depends on the intrinsic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness that serve to align the self both internally and within the larger social structure (Deci et al. 227). Social contexts supporting these basic needs maintained intrinsic motivation, increased extrinsic motivation through an increased sense of autonomy, and strengthened life aspirations in subjects (Deci et al. 263). These needs "specify the conditions under which people can most fully realize their human potentials" (Deci et al. 263).

We should also keep our shared experiences fun. In "A Liberating-Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun," Travis Tae Oh explains that fun requires both hedonic engagement (active immersion in a pleasurable experience) and a sense of liberation (from internalized restrictions and stressors; Oh et al. 52). Unlike happiness, which is typically about something separate from subjective experience, fun thrives without expectations. "In fact, the active application of skills in the pursuit of specific goals can be detrimental to the experience of fun" (Oh et al. 52).

While abroad at a Toys R Us in Bangkok, I asked a man in the checkout line next to me if it was okay (as a foreigner) to partake in the upcoming Songkran Festival, Thailand's New Year's celebration (and multi-day, city-wide water fight). Eyeing the water pistol I was about to purchase, he replied: "Not with a little gun like that. You are going to need something a lot bigger!" We had a good laugh, and I left the line, scrounging the shelves for the biggest one they had.

Works cited:

Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. "The 'What' and 'Why' of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior." Psychological Inquiry, vol. 11, no. 4, 2000, pp. 227–68, https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01.

"Engage." Cambridge.org, Accessed 19 Oct. 2024, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/engage.

Oh, Travis Tae, et al. “A Liberating-Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun.” The Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 49, no. 1, 2022, pp. 46–73, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab051.

Stenseng, Frode, et al. "Positive Emotions in Recreational Sport Activities: The Role of Passion and Belongingness." Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 16, no. 5, 2015, pp. 1117–29, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9547-y.

Vallerand, Robert J., et al. “Les Passions de l’Âme: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 85, no. 4, 2003, pp. 756–67, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.4.756.

Vallerand, Robert J, and Martin Drapeau. “From Motivation to Passion: In Search of the Motivational Processes Involved in a Meaningful Life.” Canadian Psychology = Psychologie Canadienne, vol. 53, no. 1, 2012, pp. 42–52, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026377.

Pictured above
Walker, Coire: Photograph of Songkran Festival celebration, Sala Daeng, Bangkok, Thailand. 13 Apr. 2023. Author's personal collection.