Basic Need Satisfaction Intervention for Mainland Chinese International Students’ Adjustment to College

With an increasing number of students pursuing their tertiary studies overseas, ways to improve their adaptation into a new environment become of the utmost importance. By applying self-determination theory, the current research investigated the extent that a basic psychological need intervention can increase need-satisfying experiences and promote the adjustment of Mainland Chinese international students to college. In total, 55 participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. They completed questionnaires on basic need satisfaction and college adjustment before the start of the study, right after the completion of the intervention, and after a 5-week follow-up. Participants who received the intervention had significantly higher need satisfaction and adjustment to college than those in the control condition. The intervention effect was maintained after a 5-week delay. In addition, the results showed that the increases in psychological need satisfaction after the intervention predicted higher levels of students’ adjustment to college. Theoretical implications for the universality of basic need satisfaction to students’ well-being and practical implications for international education are discussed.

Examining the distinction between self-enhancement and self-protection in young adults: The roles of basic need satisfaction and psychological adjustment

The current study explores the distinction between self-enhancement and self-protection as regards basic need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and psychological adjustment (i.e., global and contingent types of self-esteem and intolerance of uncertainty) in young adults. 531 undergraduates (365 females and 166 males) completed questionnaires assessing self-enhancement and self-protection, basic need satisfaction, global self-esteem, contingent self-esteem, and intolerance of uncertainty tendencies. Correlation, partial correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses were used. The results revealed that self-enhancement and self-protection were differently associated with basic need satisfaction and the other indicators of psychological adjustment. Accordingly, self-enhancement was positively predicted by need satisfaction and global self-esteem. However, self-protection was negatively predicted by these variables but positively predicted by the contingent type of self-esteem and intolerance of uncertainty. The results suggest that self-enhancement and self-protection are distinct motives. Self-enhancement is linked to psychological adjustment; whereas, self-protection is related to psychological maladjustment.

Distance learning in higher education during COVID-19: The role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination–a multi-country study

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher educational institutions worldwide switched to emergency distance learning in early 2020. The less structured environment of distance learning forced students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently. According to self-determination theory (SDT), satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness affects intrinsic motivation, which in turn relates to more active or passive learning behavior. As the social context plays a major role for basic need satisfaction, distance learning may impair basic need satisfaction and thus intrinsic motivation and learning behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic need satisfaction and procrastination and persistence in the context of emergency distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-sectional study. We also investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, to test the universal importance of SDT for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior under these circumstances in different countries, we collected data in Europe, Asia and North America. A total of N = 15,462 participants from Albania, Austria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, North Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, and the US answered questions regarding perceived competence, autonomy, social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, persistence, and sociodemographic background. Our results support SDT’s claim of universality regarding the relation between basic psychological need fulfilment, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, and persistence. However, whereas perceived competence had the highest direct effect on procrastination and persistence, social relatedness was mainly influential via intrinsic motivation.

Optimizing teacher basic need satisfaction in distributed healthcare contexts

Optimizing teacher motivation in distributed learning environments is paramount to ensure high-quality education, as medical education is increasingly becoming the responsibility of a larger variety of healthcare contexts. This study aims to explore teaching-related basic need satisfaction, e.g. teachers’ feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness in teaching, in different healthcare contexts and to provide insight into its relation to contextual factors. We distributed a digital survey among healthcare professionals in university hospitals (UH), district teaching hospitals (DTH), and primary care (PC). We used the Teaching-related Basic Need Satisfaction scale, based on the Self-Determination theory, to measure teachers’ basic needs satisfaction in teaching. We studied relations between basic need satisfaction and perceived presence of contextual factors associated with teacher motivation drawn from the literature. Input from 1407 healthcare professionals was analyzed. PC healthcare professionals felt most autonomous, UH healthcare professionals felt most competent, and DTH healthcare professionals felt most related. Regardless of work context, teachers involved in educational design and who perceived more appreciation and developmental opportunities for teaching reported higher feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in teaching, as did teachers who indicated that teaching was important at their job application. Perceived facilitators for teaching were associated with feeling more autonomous and related. These results can be utilized in a variety of healthcare contexts for improving teaching-related basic need satisfaction. Recommendations for practice include involving different healthcare professionals in educational development and coordination, forming communities of teachers across healthcare contexts, and addressing healthcare professionals’ intentions to be involved in education during job interviews.

Ressource oder Belastung?

ZusammenfassungFür viele angehende Lehrkräfte stellt der Einstieg in den Lehrer/innenberuf ein normativ-kritisches Lebensereignis dar, das mit einer erhöhten Beanspruchung einhergehen kann. Um diesen Einstieg – unter anderem hinsichtlich des Beanspruchungserlebens – zu erleichtern, wurde in Deutschland flächendeckend das Praxissemester in das Lehramtsstudium eingeführt, in dem Studierende bei ihren Unterrichtsversuchen von erfahrenen Mentor/innen begleitet werden. Anders als beabsichtigt scheint das Mentoring im Praxissemester aber nicht ausschließlich beanspruchungsabpuffernde Effekte zu haben, sondern ebenfalls beanspruchungsinduzierend wirken zu können. Um diesen differentiellen Effekt des Mentorings aufzuklären, wird im Kontext der allgemeinen Belastungs- und Beanspruchungsmodelle für den Lehrer/innenberuf und aus der Perspektive der Selbstbestimmungstheorie angenommen, dass die Beziehungsform zwischen Mentees und Mentor/innen, wie sie sich unter anderem im transmissiven und konstruktivistischen Mentoring zeigt, einen Effekt auf die positiven und negativen Beanspruchungsreaktionen der Mentees hat, der über die wahrgenommene Basic-Need-Satisfaction vermittelt wird. Zur Untersuchung dieser Annahme wurden 177 Lehramtsstudierende im Praxissemester zu zwei Messzeitpunkten gebeten, sowohl ihre negativen Beanspruchungsreaktionen in Form ihrer emotionalen Erschöpfung als auch ihre positiven Beanspruchungsreaktionen in Form des beruflichen Enthusiasmus einzuschätzen. Außerdem wurde die Basic-Need-Satisfaction der angehenden Lehrkräfte zu beiden Messzeitpunkten sowie das transmissive und konstruktivistische Mentoring aus der Perspektive der Mentees zum zweiten Messzeitpunkt erfasst. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen den angenommenen Mediationseffekt teilweise. So vermittelt zwar die Veränderung der Basic-Need-Satisfaction den Zusammenhang zwischen beiden Mentoringformen und der Veränderung des beruflichen Enthusiasmus vollständig, allerdings zeigt die Veränderung der Basic-Need-Satisfaction keinen Effekt auf die Veränderung der emotionalen Erschöpfung, die ihrerseits jedoch direkt durch das konstruktivistische und transmissive Mentoring vorhergesagt wird.

Stranger, Lover, Friend?

Social exclusion, even from minimal game-based interactions, induces negative consequences. We investigated whether the nature of the relationship with the excluder modulates the effects of ostracism. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game with a stranger and a friend (friend condition) or a stranger and their romantic partner (partner condition) while being fully included, fully excluded, excluded only by the stranger, or excluded only by their close other. Replicating previous findings, full exclusion impaired participants’ basic-need satisfaction and relationship evaluation most severely. While the degree of exclusion mattered, the relationship to the excluder did not: Classic null hypothesis testing and Bayesian statistics showed no modulation of ostracism effects depending on whether participants were excluded by a stranger, a friend, or their partner.

A meta-analytic investigation of the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and affect

Self Determination Theory proposes that psychological needs satisfaction is associated with high positive affect and low negative affect. The present study consolidated effect sizes from previous research on the relationship of satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness needs with positive affect and negative affect, and identified moderators of the relationships. The basic need satisfaction and positive affect meta-analyses included 16 samples for autonomy, 16 for competence, and 16 for relatedness, with 7335, 6832, and 6710 participants, respectively. Across studies, higher positive affect was significantly associated with greater autonomy satisfaction (r=.39), competence satisfaction (r=.45), and relatedness satisfaction (r=.39). The basic need satisfaction and negative affect meta-analyses included 11 samples for autonomy, 13 for competence, and 11 for relatedness, with 5114 participants, 5481 participants, and 5114 participants, respectively. Across studies, lower negative affect was significantly associated with greater autonomy satisfaction (r=-.30), competence satisfaction (r=-.33), and relatedness satisfaction (r=-.30). Moderator analyses found that gender composition, sample type, and basic need satisfaction measure were related to the strength of associations.

Propriedades Psicométricas e Adaptação Cultural da Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale para uma População Brasileira de Usuários de Cadeira de Rodas

RESUMO: Este estudo teve como objetivo a adaptação cultural e a validação da Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale (BNSG) para a sua aplicação no contexto cultural brasileiro. Participaram da pesquisa 133 pessoas com deficiência física, usuárias de cadeira de rodas. A adaptação cultural passou por um grupo focal e por um linguista da área de Letras. Os métodos estatísticos foram sistematicamente empregados para atender aos objetivos de adaptação cultural, estimativa de evidências de validade baseada no conteúdo, na estrutura interna, na relação com variável externa e na precisão para a versão brasileira da BNSG. A Análise Fatorial Exploratória indicou a adequação do modelo composto por um fator com bons indicadores de precisão, coeficiente Alpha de Cronbach igual a 0,916, e ômega de McDonald igual a 0,916. Os resultados desta pesquisa asseguram a adequação do processo de adaptação cultural da BNSG para o contexto brasileiro, resultando em uma nova ferramenta para pesquisas relacionadas a necessidades psicológicas básicas compreendidas no cenário da teoria da autodeterminação.