Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy. Two types of passion are proposed: obsessive and harmonious. Obsessive passion (OP) refers to a controlled internalization of an activity in one's identity that creates an internal pressure to engage in the activity that the person likes. Harmonious passion (HP) refers to an autonomous internalization that leads individuals to choose to engage in the activity that they like. HP promotes healthy adaptation whereas OP thwarts it by causing negative affect and rigid persistence. Results from four studies involving more than 900 participants from different populations supported the proposed conceptualization.

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A new measure of motivation toward education has been developed in French, namely the Echelle de Motivation en Education (EME). The EME is based on the tenets of self-determination theory and is composed of 28 items subdivided into seven sub-scales assessing three types of intrinsic motivation (intrinsic motivation to know, to accomplish things, and to experience stimulation), three types of extrinsic motivation (external, introjected, and identified regulation), and a motivation. The purpose of this investigation was to cross-culturally validate in English the EME. The EME was translated in English through appropriate methodological procedures and completed by university students. Results revealed that the English version of the scale renamed the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), has satisfactory levels of internal consistency (mean alpha value = .81) and temporal stability over a one-month period (mean test-retest correlation = .79). In addition, results of a confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL) confirmed the seven-factor structure of the AMS. Finally, gender differences obtained with the EME were basically replicated with the AMS. In sum, the present findings provide adequate support for the factorial validity and reliability of the AMS and support its use in educational research on motivation.

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The aim of this paper is to present a motivational model of the coach-athlete relationship that describes how coaches may influence athletes' motivation. In line with cognitive evaluation theory (Deci and Ryan, 1980, 1985) and the hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Vallerand, 1997, 2000), a motivational sequence is proposed where coaches' personal orientation towards coaching, the context within which they operate, and their perceptions of their athletes' behaviour and motivation influence coaches' behaviours. Also, coaches' behaviours in the form of autonomy-supportive behaviours, provision of structure and involvement have a beneficial impact on athletes' needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which, in turn, nurture athletes' intrinsic motivation and self-determined types of extrinsic motivation. Here, we first review coaches' autonomy-supportive behaviours. We then describe the psychological processes through which coaching behaviours have a positive influence on athletes' intrinsic and self-determined extrinsic motivation. Finally, we identify social and personality processes that determine coaching behaviours.

A new measure of motivation toward sport has been developed in French, namely the Echelle de Motivation vis-à-vis les Sports. Two studies were conducted to translate and validate this new measure in English. The Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) consists of seven subscales that measure three types of Intrinsic Motivation (IM; IM to Know, IM to Accomplish Things, and IM to Experience Stimulation), three forms of regulation for Extrinsic Motivation (Identified, Introjected, and External), and Amotivation. The first study confirmed the factor structure of the scale and revealed a satisfactory level of internal consistency. Correlations among the subscales revealed a simplex pattern confirming the self-determination continuum and the construct validity of the scale. Gender differences were similar to those obtained with the French-Canadian version. The more self-determined forms of motivation were associated with more positive responses on related consequences. In a second study, the SMS was administered on two occasions and revealed adequate test-retest reliability.

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a motivational model of high school dropout. The model posits that teachers, parents, and the school administration's behaviors toward students influence students' perceptions of competence and autonomy. The less autonomy supportive the social agents' behaviors are, the less positive are students' perceptions of competence and autonomy. In turn, the less positive students' perceptions are, the lower their levels of self-determined school motivation are. Finally, low levels of self-determined motivation lead students to develop intentions to drop out of high school, which are later implemented, leading to actual dropout behavior. This model was tested with high school students (N = 4,537) by means of a prospective design. Results from analyses of variance and a structural equation modeling analysis (with LISREL) were found to support the model for all participants and for each gender separately.

RESUMELa validation d'instruments de mesure traduits de l'anglais au francais est un probleme methodologique qui preoccupe un nombre grandissant de chercheurs francophones. Parallelement, les chercheurs en psychologie sont confronted a l'absence d'une methodologie systematique de validation trans-culturelle. Le present article a pour but de combler cette lacune en proposant une methodologie de validation trans-culturelle d'instruments psychologiques fondee sur les ecrits pertinents emanant du secteur de la psychologie trans-culturelle. Ainsi, une approche systematique contenant une serie d'etapes menant a la realisation de traductions fideles et valides en langue francaise est proposee. Ces etapes sont: (1) la preparation d'une version preliminaire, (2) 1'evaluation et la modification de cette version preliminaire, (3) 1'evaluation de la version experimentale par un pretest, (4) 1'evaluation de la validite concomitante et de contenu, (5) 1'evaluation de la fidelite, (6) 1'evaluation de la validite de construit, et (7) l'etablissement de normes. En se referant a des recherches recentes issues du domaine de la psychologie sociale, des applications de la methodologie proposee sont presentees.