Men may exhibit greater passion in pursuing their goals, while women often demonstrate strong drive.
Many factors contribute to achieving our goals. Researchers have now examined passion, drive, and the ability to find flow.
“This is the first study to look at these factors together,” says Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) Department of Psychology.
The researchers found differences between the sexes, indicating that each has its own strengths in achieving success.
- Men are more passionate than women when it comes to achieving their goals. They also often have an easier time finding flow.
- Women, on the other hand, often have greater drive than men.
Drive and flow are linked
Sigmundsson and Jonas S.R. Leversen, a PhD research fellow in the Psychology Department, collected responses from 529 people. A total of 323 were women and 204 were men. Their average age was almost 28 years.
“We found something else that is very interesting in this study. There is a strong correlation between drive and flow,” Sigmundsson said.
This may seem strange and contradictory, since men have the most flow, while women have the most drive. But then we should remember that these are average figures, which can be misleading when we look at individuals. Many in the sample therefore have both a lot of drive and the ability to find flow, regardless of gender.
The connection goes both ways
“More drive gives more flow, and vice versa,” Sigmundsson said.
Passion is also related to flow, but not as much as drive.
“This may indicate that drive is a more critical factor in finding flow than passion is,” he said.
Cultivate commitment, give a lot over time
“The study suggests that it is important to cultivate commitment and invest in activities that we really care about. But just as important, and for many even more important, is to make a sustained effort to build habits that strengthen grit. This increases the likelihood of experiencing flow, and thus also of achieving our goals,” Leversen said.
Taken together, this information gives researchers and us more insight into how passion, grit, and flow affect our lives, how we feel, how we learn, and how we succeed.
Reference: “Exploring gender differences in the relations between passion, grit and flow” by Hermundur Sigmundsson and Jonas S.R. Leversen, 14 November 2024, Acta Psychologica.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104551
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2 Comments
What a foolish, shallow, narcissistic measure of “Success”.
Success is doing what you love to do, chose to be as a full fledged LIFE, not being efficient at a cog in someone else’s machine.
Did you even read the article? There is nothing in the article that relates to a “measure” of success. The idea of working in a big company isn’t even mentioned. The exact opposite is the case, for example: “The study suggests that it is important to cultivate commitment and invest in activities that we really care about.”
The article is about the difference in the way men and women achieve success. A really big clue to that was the title of the article “Science Reveals the Key Differences in How Men and Women Achieve Success”