[14] Vallerand earned a bachelor's degree in Physical Education with a minor in Psychology from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 1977 followed by a master's degree in Social Psychology of Physical Activity and Health from McGill University in 1979.

[1] Vallerand began his academic career as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph in 1982.

He also served as Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University from 2013 to 2014.

Vallerand has contributed to the field of social psychology by studying the role of motivation and passion in optimal functioning and identity, with a focus on education, work and sports.

[22][23] In addition, with Frédéric Guay and Céline Blanchard, he proposed the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), a measure of state intrinsic motivation, identify introjected, and external regulation, and amotivation across various settings, with the scales being used worldwide.

Thus, he developed a motivational model of high school dropout, linking students' perceptions of competence and autonomy to social agents' behaviors, self-determined school motivation levels, and eventual dropout intentions and behavior.

According to him, passion is defined as a strong inclination for an activity (or object, person, belief) that one loves, values, invests time and energy in, and which is part of identity.