Two sides of the same coin: The differentiating role of need satisfaction and frustration in passion for screen‐based activities

Abstract

Rooted in Self‐Determination Theory, the present research sought to investigate whether the “bright” and “dark” side of human functioning (need satisfaction and need frustration, respectively) would, as determinants, differentially predict harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) for screen‐based activities such as Facebook use, TV series watching, online gaming, and smartphone gaming. For this purpose, four cross‐sectional studies were carried out (Ntotal = 1,065). Results showed that, across all activities, need satisfaction was negatively related to OP, but not HP. A similar pattern emerged with need frustration: It was positively related to OP, but not HP. Moreover, even after controlling for the self‐reported amount of time spent on the activities, HP predicted adaptive, activity‐specific outcomes, whereas OP predicted maladaptive ones. These findings suggest that general need satisfaction may be a protective factor against the compensatory function of OP, but need frustration may be a potential risk factor of OP and both should be taken into account in the case of passion for screen‐based activities.

A Longitudinal Study of Exercise Addiction and Passion in New Sport Activities: the Impact of Motivational Factors

“…Therefore, new research results show that there is substantial overlap (communality) between REA and passion, especially OP (Szabo 2018). Similar findings were reported in non-sports contexts, too, such as in the field of screen-based online behaviors (Orosz et al 2016;Tóth-Király et al 2019b), gambling (MacKillop et al 2006, and work (Birkeland and Buch 2015).…”

“…Empirical studies within the online gaming literature (Brunborg et al 2013;Charlton and Danforth 2007) supported the distinction of high engagement and addiction with the latter including additional components such as withdrawal symptoms that manifest when the individual cannot engage in the given activity. In addition, while addiction is often associated with negative outcomes, this is not necessarily the case for high engagement (e.g., Deleuze et al 2018;Gillet et al 2018;Tóth-Király et al 2019b). For these reasons, OP might be considered as a potential precursor of addiction.…”

Polish Adaptation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale

“…These findings, which involved selfreported indicators of maladjustment, were corroborated in studies that made use of objective markers, such as athletes' S-IgA (i.e., immunological protein in saliva; Bartholomew et al, 2011) and elevated blood pressure (Weinstein et al, 2011). A flurry of recent studies has further confirmed the multiple costs associated with need frustration beyond ill-being, as indexed by disordered eating (Verstuyf et al, 2013) as well as rigidly and obsessively pursued behaviors (Tóth-Király et al, 2019). Such findings have been established in different age groups, from adolescents (Talwar and Lee, 2011;Vandenkerckhove, 2019) to adults (Van den Broeck et al, 2016) and seniors living in nursing homes (Ferrand et al, 2019).…”

How Passion for Playing World of Warcraft Predicts In-Game Social Capital, Loneliness, and Wellbeing

“…Conversely, obsessive passion has been found to be consistently associated with increased negative outcomes (e.g., overuse of media, academic burnout, negative affect) and there is also some evidence of decreased positive outcomes (e.g., vitality). The positive impacts of harmonious passion and negative impacts of obsessive passion have been found across contexts including series watching, facebook use, music, sport and work (Vallerand et al, 2006;Lalande et al, 2017;Tóth-Király et al, 2019). The pattern has been found to be equivalent with respect to videogames, with harmonious passion associated with positive outcomes including skill development, motivation to relax and recreate, post-play energy, life-satisfaction and mental health (Przybylski et al, 2009;Tóth-Király et al, 2019), and obsessive passion related to problematic use of videogames, motivation to procrastinate, and post-play tension (Przybylski et al, 2009;Tóth-Király et al, 2019).…”