In Pursuit of Transition: Some Aspects of the Role of Passion and Motivation in the Transition Movement
Project Dates
September, 2014 - April, 2015
Summary
This project explores participation in the Transition Movement, a collection of grassroots community initiatives seeking to build more resilient and self-reliant communities in response to peak oil and climate change. It examines this movement through the lens of the notion of passion and the Reasonable Person Model (RPM). The research started with the broad question of what motivates people to join, and subsequently stay involved as active participants in the local Transition initiatives that constitute the broader Transition Movement. This led to the hypothesis that active participants in Transition were likely to be passionate about the goals and underlying activities of the movement. This research builds on established psychology of passion work to understand what role passion plays in motivating people to commit to a lifestyle change implicit in joining (and staying involved in) a Transition initiative. To test this hypothesis, questions were adapted from Vallerand et al.’s Passion Scale (Vallerand, 2003) into an online survey distributed through Transition initiatives across the United States. The survey results, in addition to follow-up phone interviews, did provide insight into the role of passion, but also revealed the prominence of the Reasonable Person Model (S. Kaplan, 2000; S. Kaplan & Kaplan, 2009) as a motivating force in thriving Transition Initiatives.
September, 2014 - April, 2015
Summary
This project explores participation in the Transition Movement, a collection of grassroots community initiatives seeking to build more resilient and self-reliant communities in response to peak oil and climate change. It examines this movement through the lens of the notion of passion and the Reasonable Person Model (RPM). The research started with the broad question of what motivates people to join, and subsequently stay involved as active participants in the local Transition initiatives that constitute the broader Transition Movement. This led to the hypothesis that active participants in Transition were likely to be passionate about the goals and underlying activities of the movement. This research builds on established psychology of passion work to understand what role passion plays in motivating people to commit to a lifestyle change implicit in joining (and staying involved in) a Transition initiative. To test this hypothesis, questions were adapted from Vallerand et al.’s Passion Scale (Vallerand, 2003) into an online survey distributed through Transition initiatives across the United States. The survey results, in addition to follow-up phone interviews, did provide insight into the role of passion, but also revealed the prominence of the Reasonable Person Model (S. Kaplan, 2000; S. Kaplan & Kaplan, 2009) as a motivating force in thriving Transition Initiatives.
Contacts
Jill Kiepura, jlask [at] umich.edu
Raymond DeYoung, rdeyoung [at] umich.edu
Jill Kiepura, jlask [at] umich.edu
Raymond DeYoung, rdeyoung [at] umich.edu
| kiepura_transition_&_passion_final_report.pdf |