Abstract
In their recent systematic review, van Zyl et al. (2023) summarized contemporary critiques formulated toward the field of positive psychology. Within this research field, considerable differences exist with regard to the rigor of the methodological strategies used in each domain or subfield. These authors have identified six “broad critiques/criticisms” or overarching themes: “(a) positive psychology lacks proper theorizing and conceptual thinking; (b) the measurement of positive psychological constructs and the research methodologies are problematic; (c) positive psychology is a pseudoscience that lacks empirical evidence and shows poor replicability; (d) positive psychology lacks novelty and self-isolates from mainstream and general psychology; (e) positive psychology is a decontextualized neo-liberalist ideology that caused harm; and (f) positive psychology is a capitalistic venture” (van Zyl et al., 2023, p. 7). In this article, we use these six themes to allow us to identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand, 2015), thereby contributing to making recommendations as to how to improve the subfield of passion research. We believe that applying this systematic and critical analysis to other subfields of positive psychology should ultimately contribute to improving the future development of positive psychology as a whole.
Rémi Thériault
PhD Student (Social Psychology)
My research interests include social/implicit cognition, altruism, and dreams.