South Korea is a typical representative of strong contrast between high level of objective achievement and low level of subjective well-being. Trying to find a solution, I conducted cross-cultural comparison of grit and passion which expects both of h...
South Korea is a typical representative of strong contrast between high level of objective achievement and low level of subjective well-being. Trying to find a solution, I conducted cross-cultural comparison of grit and passion which expects both of high level of performance and subjective well-being.
Grit is a personality trait to keep efforts and interests to achieve long-term goals despite of adversity. Grit is consisted of two facets: perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Perseverance of effort represents maintained effort toward long-term goals despite of failure or setbacks. Consistency of interests represents continuous commitment toward long-term goals without frequent changing goals and interests. Passion is a strong inclination toward an activity that is liked, important and in which significant time and energy is invested. The dualistic model of passion proposes two distinct types of passion: harmonious passion which is positively related to subjective well-being and obsessive passion which is negatively related to subjective well-being. Duckworth et al. (2007) suggested consistency of interests represents passion because it is the long-term stamina based on one’s interest. However, there are little empirical studies on the relationship between grit and passion. Therefore, this research purposed to examine the discrimination between the construct of grit and passion which only theoretically argued. The Second purpose of this study was to test whether the association between grit and passion is etic as proposed by Duckworth et al. (2007). Finally, this research assesses cross cultural difference and additionally discriminates the construct of grit from passion through test the relationship between grit, passion and subjective well-being.
251 American university students and 208 Korean university students participated in self-report questionnaires. For the collected data, first, Pearson’s correlation analysis and t test was conducted. Second, multiple-group factor analysis was conducted to examine the discrimination between grit and passion. Finally, multiple-group analysis was conducted to compare the influence of grit and passion on subjective well-being and investigate intercultural differences.
The major results of this study were as follows:
First, the result of multiple-group factor analysis supported for the four-factor structure consisting of consistency of interest, perseverance of effort and harmonious passion and obsessive passion. This results show that the construct of grit and passion are well distinguished from each other. However, the cross-cultural difference of the correlation between grit and passion were found. Consistency of interest is positively related to harmonious passion, while being negatively related to obsessive passion in American university student group. On the contrary, there was no significant correlation between consistency of interest and passion in Korean university student group.
Second, the result of multi-group analysis showed that there is the difference of the structural relationship between consistency of interest and subjective well-being among cultures. Consistency of interest positively expected life satisfaction and positive emotion, while negatively expected negative emotion in American university student group. On the contrary, consistency of interest did not significantly expected life satisfaction in Korean university student group. Nevertheless there was no significant difference of path coefficient, obsessive passion negatively expected life satisfaction and positively expected negative emotion in American university student, while obsessive passion did not significantly expected all of life satisfaction, positive emotion, and negative emotion. There was no cultural difference in perseverance of effort model and harmonious passion model. Both of Perseverance of effort and harmonious passion positively expected life satisfaction and positive emotion, while negatively expected negative emotion in both groups.
These results showed that the constructs of grit and passion are well discriminated. However, intercultural differences of the relationship between consistency of interest and passion and the influence of consistency on life satisfaction were found. Findings in this study exhibited Duckworth et al. (2007)’ assertion that consistency of interest is accompanied by passion is supported only in American university student group. Results revealed there can be cross-cultural differences in consistency of interest. This study confirm the importance of cultural context which has not been explored enough. Also, this study provide empirical evidence of discrimination between grit and passion.