The study of basic psychological needs has witnessed a strong revival, in part spurred by Basic Psychological Need Theory (BPNT), one of the six mini-theories within Self-Determination Theory. ...Empirical studies on BPNT have increased exponentially since the millennium turn, leading to refinements and extensions in theory. In this contribution we review these two decades of research in order to introduce two special issues on BPNT. We first discuss key criteria that define and identify a basic need within BPNT. We then review several need-relevant themes, highlighting advancements and trends that characterize contemporary research on BPNT. Specifically, we address potential extensions of the shortlist of basic psychological needs, the role of psychological need frustration in increasing vulnerability to maladjustment, the study of the interface between individuals’ psychological and physical needs (e.g., sleep, sex, hunger), novel insights into critical need-supportive and need-thwarting practices, and the universality (versus variability) of effects of need satisfactions and supports across demographics, psychological characteristics, and cultural contexts. We also situate each of the 19 contributions that appear in this special double-issue on BPNT within these themes, while suggesting avenues for further research on the role of basic psychological needs in motivation, adjustment, and wellness.
Psychological control refers to manipulative parental behavior that intrudes upon the child’s psychological world. During the past decade, socialization research has consistently demonstrated the ...negative effects of psychologically controlling parenting on children’s and adolescents’ development. However, there has been relatively little advance in our conceptual understanding of this parenting construct. The present overview aims to enrich the theoretical background of the concept of psychological control by relating it to concepts used in self-determination theory. It is argued that this theoretical background allows for (a) a clearer definition of the concept of psychological control, (b) a more refined understanding of the dynamics involved in psychologically controlling parenting, and (c) a greater insight regarding its generalization across age and cultures. Directions for future research are formulated with respect to each of these three issues.
Humans have a potential for growth, integration, and well-being, while also being vulnerable to defensiveness, aggression, and ill-being. Self-determination theory (R. M. Ryan & E. L. Deci, 2000, ...Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being, American Psychologist, Vol. 55, pp. 68-78) argues that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness both fosters immediate well-being and strengthens inner resources contributing to subsequent resilience, whereas need frustration evokes ill-being and increased vulnerabilities for defensiveness and psychopathology. We briefly review recent research indicating how contextual need support and the experience of need satisfaction promote well-being and different growth manifestations (e.g., intrinsic motivation, internalization), as well as a rapidly growing body of work relating need thwarting and need frustration to ill-being, pursuit of need substitutes, and various forms of maladaptive functioning. Finally, we discuss research on differences in autonomous self-regulation and mindfulness, which serve as factors of resilience.
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Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers' classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve ...existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers (N = 1332; Mage = 40.9 years) and their students (N = 1735, Mage = 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers' motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
The present study suggests that rather than categorizing secondary school teachers as either motivating or demotivating, this approach reveals that an attuning and guiding approach relate to the most adaptive pattern of teacher and student outcomes, whereas an opposite pattern is found for a domineering and abandoning approach. This greater clarity allows teachers to gain a more precise insight into their own teaching style so that they adopt a more need-supportive style that benefits their students and themselves.
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Although different measures for (de)motivating teaching are available for primary and secondary education, a fine-grained instrument to assess a variety of motivating and demotivating teaching ...practices in higher education is lacking. Adopting a Self-Determination Theory perspective, this study first used the newly developed Situation-in-School Questionnaire—Higher Education to examine in a sample of higher education teachers (
N
= 357;
M
age
= 43.90 years) whether a broad set of need-supportive and need-thwarting teaching practices are organized in a similar circular structure as in secondary education (Aelterman et al. in J Educ Psychol 111:497–521,
2019
). Second, this study addressed the role of higher education teachers’ motivation to teach (i.e., autonomous, controlled, amotivation) and their beliefs about the malleability of students’ intelligence (i.e., fixed and growth mindset) in relation to the various distinguished teaching approaches. Results of multidimensional scaling analyses confirmed the hypothesized circular structure of eight different (de)motivating teaching approaches that differ in their level of need-supportiveness and directiveness. Second, hierarchical regression analyses provided evidence for the fairly independent role of teachers’ motivation and mindsets, with the predictive role of each predictor systematically varying as one moves along the circumplex. Autonomous motivation and a growth mindset related positively to more motivating approaches (e.g., guiding, attuning), while controlled motivation, amotivation and a fixed mindset related positively to more demotivating approaches (e.g., domineering, abandoning). The present findings shed new light on the factors that underlie teacher-reported engagement in (de)motivating practices in higher education.
The present research complements extant variable-centered research that focused on the dimensions of autonomous and controlled motivation through adoption of a person-centered approach for ...identifying motivational profiles. Both in high school students (Study 1) and college students (Study 2), a cluster analysis revealed 4 motivational profiles: a good quality motivation group (i.e., high autonomous, low controlled); a poor quality motivation group (i.e., low autonomous, high controlled); a low quantity motivation group (i.e., low autonomous, low controlled); and a high quantity motivation group (i.e., high autonomous, high controlled). To compare the 4 groups, the authors derived predictions from qualitative and quantitative perspectives on motivation. Findings generally favored the qualitative perspective; compared with the other groups, the good quality motivation group displayed the most optimal learning pattern and scored highest on perceived need-supportive teaching. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
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This research examined whether and how adolescents' personality traits moderate associations between psychologically controlling parenting and problem behaviors. On the basis of self‐determination ...theory, we also examined the mediating role of psychological need frustration in the effects of psychologically controlling parenting. A cross‐sectional study in two samples (N = 423 and 292; Mage = 12.43 and 15.74 years) was conducted. While in Sample 1 both mothers and adolescents provided reports of parenting and problem behavior, Sample 2 relied on adolescent‐reported parenting and mother‐reported problem behavior. Psychologically controlling parenting was related to internalizing and externalizing problems in both samples. Little systematic evidence was obtained for the moderating role of personality, with the exception of a moderating effect of Agreeableness. In both samples, psychological control was unrelated to externalizing problems among adolescents high on Agreeableness. Analyses of Sample 2 showed that associations between psychological control and problem behavior were mediated by psychological need frustration. Adolescent personality plays a modest role as a moderator of associations between psychologically controlling parenting and problem behavior. Frustration of adolescents' basic and universal psychological needs can account for the undermining effects of psychologically controlling parenting. Directions for future research are discussed.
The present study investigated whether satisfaction and frustration of the psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence, as identified within Basic Psychological Need Theory (BPNT; ...Deci and Ryan, Psychol Inquiry 11:227–268,
2000
; Ryan and Deci, Psychol Inquiry 11:319–338,
2000
), contributes to participants’ well-being and ill-being, regardless of their cultural background and interpersonal differences in need strength, as indexed by either need valuation (i.e., the stated importance of the need to the person) or need desire (i.e., the desire to get a need met). In Study 1, involving late adolescents from Belgium and China (total
N
= 685; Mean age = 17 years), autonomy and competence satisfaction had unique associations with well-being and individual differences in need valuation did not moderate these associations. Study 2 involved participants from four culturally diverse nations (Belgium, China, USA, and Peru; total
N
= 1,051; Mean age = 20 years). Results provided evidence for the measurement equivalence of an adapted scale tapping into both need satisfaction and need frustration. Satisfaction of each of the three needs was found to contribute uniquely to the prediction of well-being, whereas frustration of each of the three needs contributed uniquely to the prediction of ill-being. Consistent with Study 1, the effects of need satisfaction and need frustration were found to be equivalent across the four countries and were not moderated by individual differences in the desire for need satisfaction. These findings underscore BPNT’s universality claim, which states that the satisfaction of basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence represent essential nutrients for optimal functioning across cultures and across individual differences in need strength.
On the basis of self-determination theory (
Ryan & Deci, 2000
), the authors examined whether 2 different types of introjected motivation-an avoidant type aimed at avoiding low self-worth and an ...approach type aimed at attaining high self-worth-are both associated with a less positive pattern of correlates relative to identified motivation-acting because one identifies with the value of the action. Two studies focusing on the academic and sports domains (
N
= 1,222) showed that children and adolescents differentiated between the 2 types of introjected motivation. Although introjected avoidance motivation was associated with a more negative pattern of affective and performance correlates than was introjected approach motivation, identified motivation was associated with a much more positive pattern of correlates than both types of introjected motivation. Furthermore, being high on introjected approach motivation did not yield any benefits even when combined with high identified motivation. Results suggest that past findings portraying introjected motivation as being less desirable than identified motivation cannot be ascribed to the avoidance component of introjected motivation. Findings are consistent with the view that even an approach-oriented introjected motivation has very limited benefits when compared with identified motivation.
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In two diary studies, we examined the reciprocal daily association between the satisfaction and frustration of adolescents’ basic psychological needs and sleep, and the role of stress and fatigue in ...these associations. In Study 1 (N = 211; 52% female; Mage = 15.86 years, SD = 1.18 years), daily need experiences were unrelated to daily fluctuations in subjective sleep outcomes. However, shorter daily sleep quantity was related to higher daily fatigue, which in turn related to more daily need frustration and less need satisfaction. Study 2 (N = 51; 49% female; Mage = 15.88 years, SD = 2.88 years) extended these findings by demonstrating that daily need frustration related to shorter objective sleep quantity and longer wake after sleep onset, indirectly through higher symptoms of stress. Poor sleep quality also related to worse need experiences via higher daily fatigue. These findings underscore the dynamic interplay between daily need experiences and adolescent sleep.
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