Psychological Needs Flashcards
What is a psychological need?
-Inherent source of motivation
- Desire to interact with environment to advance personal growth, social development and psychological well-being
What is self-determination theory?
- Individuals are actively engaged, oriented for growth in respective to their social contexts
- Macro theory of human motivation and personality
- Concerns innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs
- Behaviors that are self-motivated and self-determined
What are the three psychological needs in an organism/individual?
- Autonomy
- Competence
- Relatedness
What does the psychological need depend on?
Its environment
- Is it supportive and provide whats needed?
- Organisms need to be flexible and adapt
- Satisfied or frustrated
In what ways can psychological needs benefit people’s life?
- Engagement
Basis for initiative, paying attention or feeling controlled - Personal growth
Going forward in life or regression
A sense of self-growth, sticking to something - Intrinsic motivation
Doing something cuz its fun - Internalization
- Health
- Well-being
What is autonomy?
The psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior
- Choices, decisions, following their own goals
- Freedom
What are the 3 experiential qualities that helps us determine our autonomy?
- Perceived locus of causality
- Volition
- Perceived choice
Perceived locus of causality (PLOC)
- Individuals understanding of the causal source of their motivated action
- A continuum
Personal choice to environmental source
Volition
- Unpressured willingness to engage in an activity
- Free vs coerced while doing it or avoiding it
Subjective feeling
Perceived choice
Subjective experience
- Environment where we have decision-making flexibility that gives us different opportunities vs sense of obligation
What can influence/support one’s sense of autonomy?
- External events
- Environments
Is there a deadline? - Social contexts
- Relationships
Controlling vs free choice?
What are the two motivating styles for autnomy?
- Autonomy support
- Controlling
Autonomy Support style
An interpersonal tone of understanding
- Im your ally
- Here to understand and support you and your strivings
- Take the other person’s perspective
- Develop another’s inner motivational resources
Controlling Motivational Style
Interpersonal tone of pressure
- Im your boss
- Im here to monitor you
- Im here to change and to socialize you
- Uses social influences techniques
- Gives commands, ask controlling questions
What is competence?
The psychological need to be effective in one’s interactions with environment
- Reflects the desire to exercise one’s capacities and skills
- Seek out and master optimal challenges, a willingness
What are the key environmental conditions that satisfy or neglect competence?
- Optimal challenge and flow
- Clear and helpful structure
- High tolerance of failure from others
- Positive feedback
- Perception of progress
Competence - Optimal challenge and flow
Flow
- State of concentration that involves a holistic absorption and deep involvement in an activity
- Pleasurable experience, leads to repeated behavior
Optimal challenge
- Challenge and skills are moderately high (realistically)
- Involve the need for competence and gets feedback )start the subjective experience of a challenge)
Competence - Structure
The amount and clarity of information about
- Environment expectations
- What to do to achieve the desirable outcome
- Support and guidance
Competence - Failure Tolerance
- Feelings of failure can motivate avoidance
- Social context can either tolerate failure and error making, or not
Competence - Feedback
- Feeling competence involves positive feedback of your skills, effort or evaluations of others compared to you
- Performance feedback
- Setting the stage for challenge
What is relatedness?
The psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and attachments with other people
- Looking for opportunities
What is the essence of relatedness?
Desire to be emotionally connected to and interpersonally involved in warm relationship
Why is relatedness an important motivational construct?
- Humans are social beings
- Function better, more resilient to stress and has fewer psychological difficulties
How can the relatedness need be satisifed?
- By bonding with other people
- The other person cares about my welfare and likes me
- Relationships that are caring, liking, accepting (true self) and valuing
