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The question whether we have a set of basic psychological needs whose satisfaction
serves as a nutrient for growth and mental health is intriguing. In everyday language,
the term ‘need’ is used in a rather lose way, thereby referring to specific desired
attributes or outcomes. Children may say that they need a new game or adults that they
need vacation to recover from work. The term need in these cases denotes the
widely between individuals. Yet, when a need is considered basic, only a limited set can
be considered. This is because within Basic Psychological Need Theory, one of the six
in a more specific and narrow way, that is, as a psychological nutrient that is essential
specific desire can only be assigned the more formal status of a basic psychological
need when its satisfaction is essential for individuals’ well-being, while its frustration
increases risk for passivity, ill-being, and defensiveness (Ryan & Deci, 2000a;
Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013). To avoid a proliferation of needs, the list of psychological
needs in BPNT is limited to three: autonomy, relatedness, and competence (Deci &
Ryan, 2000). This shortlist is and has always been open for additions, but any need-
candidate needs to meet a series of nine conceptual and empirical criteria to achieve
the formal status of a psychological need (Vansteenkiste, Ryan, & Soenens, 2020; see
Table 1). Specifically, basic criteria of a need within BPNT involve its psychological,
essential, inherent, distinct, and universal character, while its pervasive, content-
Table 1
Description of the Key Criteria of a Basic Need within Basic Psychological Need
Theory (copied from Vansteenkiste, Ryan, & Soenens, 2020)
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BPNT considers both the satisfaction and frustration of psychological needs, with
frustration representing a stronger and more threatening experience than the mere
integrity as when one’s actions, thoughts, and feelings are self-endorsed and authentic.
When frustrated, one experiences a sense of pressure and often conflict, such as
warmth, bonding, and care, and is satisfied by connecting to and feeling significant to
others. Relatedness frustration can come with a sense of social alienation, exclusion,
for using and extending skills and expertise. When frustrated, one experiences a sense
Since the publication of landmark contributions by Deci and Ryan (2000) and Ryan and
Deci (2000), the empirical study of psychological needs has exponentially grown.
Abundant research, some of which has been summarized in meta-analyses (Ng et al.,
2012; Slemp, Kern, Patrick, & Ryan, 2018; Van den Broeck, Ferris, Chang, & Rosen,
2016; Vasquez et al., 2016; Yu, Levesque-Bristol, & Maeda, 2018), has now
convincingly shown that these three psychological needs play a prominent role in
constitutes a risk for maladjustment and malfunctioning (Ryan, Vansteenkiste, & Deci,
2016).
Advantages of Identifying Basic Psychological Needs
psychological needs yields three advantages. First, the identification of these needs
allows scholars to grabble with the fundamental question what our human nature looks
like. The introduction of these psychological needs is congruent with the meta-
a vulnerable nature. While need satisfaction energizes pro-active, prosocial and growth-
oriented inclinations, need frustration awakens our vulnerabilities for passivity, self-
Second, this parsimonious framework allows for the study of a wide and very diverse
Within SDT, these needs help to connect different phenomena that are studied in
Theory), and healthy and mature relationships (Relationship Motivation Theory). In this
Third, the introduction of these psychological needs has high applied value as need-
considerable correlational and experimental evidence has been gathered which shows
that diverse contextual influences serves as in-roads to the basic psychological needs
and subsequent motivation, engagement, and well-being (e.g., Aelterman et al., 2019).
Also, various interventions have been developed and tested, thereby either training
socializing agents (e.g., teachers; Reeve, XX) to become more skilful in engaging in
broader context (e.g., school cultures; Assor et al., XX), which feed into the way how
Need-supportive socialization
In Practice
Adopt an ABC-mindset to better understand why some individuals flourish and others function
suboptimally or even expert various problem behaviors
Try to adopt a need-supportive style as a socialization figure when interacting with others
Try to create a broader social environment that is conducive to the psychological needs of
socialization figures
Take-Away messages
Three basic psychological needs have been intensively studied: autonomy, competence, and
relatedness
For a desire or preference to acquire the status of a basic psychological need, nine different
criteria have to be met.
While need satisfaction fosters high-quality motivation, resilience, and well-being, need
frustration awakens our vulnerability for demotivation, defensiveness, and ill-being.
context