Psychological need satisfaction and
frustration, self-determined and
non-self determined motivation:
mediating processes to identity
stage resolution
Nino Skhirtladze, Nino Javakhishvili
Ilia State University, Georgia
EARA 2016, La Barrosa, Spain
Identity Stage Resolution
• According to Erikson, successful resolution of
personal identity formation stage is associated
with
- developing sense of adult and being
recognized as an adult and
- integration into adult community.
Identity Stage Resolution
• What factors facilitate identity stage
resolution?
- Psychological: agentic traits (self esteem,
purpose in life, locus of control, ego-strength)
(Côté, 2002, Schwartz, 2006), sense of
coherence, higher commitment, lower
rumination (Luyckx et al, 2008)
- Contextual: employment vs student status
(Luyckx, et al, 2008)
Present research
• In present study we focus on psychological
part:
- Basic Psychological needs satisfaction and
frustration and
- self-determined vs non-self-determined
motivation
Basic Psychological Needs
- Autonomy: desire to self organize experience
and behavior and to have activity be concordant
with ones self
- Relatedness: desire to feel connected to
others, to love and care and to be loved and
cared for
- Competence: desire to have an effect on the
environment as well as attain valued outcomes
(Deci & Ryan, 2000)
• Satisfaction of the basic psychological needs
contributes to health and psychological wellbeing while need frustration relate to ill-being
(Ryan, 1995, Chen et al., 2014).
• We propose that psychological need
satisfaction might be a pre-condition for
identity stage resolution while psychological
need frustration might hinder the same
process.
• SDT posits that psychological need
satisfaction foster self-determined motivation
(Deci et al., 1996), which was confirmed by
empirical results in work context (Dysvik,
Kuvaas, Gagne, 2013).
• We propose that self determined motivation
might be a mechanism in the link between
identity stage resolution and basic
psychological need satisfaction and
frustration.
Self determined vs non-self
determined motivation
• Self determined motivation (Internal,
inegrated, identified)
• Non-self determined motivation
- Introjected
- External
- Amotivation
Present Research: Objectives
• Objective 1: To examine the unique
relationships between each of three
psychological need satisfactions and
frustrations to identity resolution
• Objective 2: To examine intervening role of
self-determined vs non-self-determined
motivation in the links between psychological
needs and identity stage resolution
Method:participants
Sample 1
N=353
Age - 17 to 30 (Mean = 22.18)
Gender- 63% Female
41 % employed
71% student
Sample 2
N =433
Age - 16 to 29 (Mean =23.31)
Gender- 61.7% Female
37% employed
52% student
Method: measures
Identity Resolution Scale (Côté & Mizokami,
2016)
- Adult identity resolution (alpha = .82)
“You consider yourself to be an adult”
- Societal identity resolution (alpha = .71)
“You have settled on a lifestyle that you are satisfied with for
the remainder of your life”
Method: measures
Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (Chen et
al., 2014)
- Autonomy satisfaction (alpha = .73)
“I feel a sense of choice and freedom in the things I undertake”
- Relatedness satisfaction (alpha =.74)
“I experience a warm feeling with the people I spend time with”
- Competence satisfaction (alpha = .73)
“I feel I can successfully complete difficult tasks”
- Autonomy frustration (alpha = .75)
“I feel forced to do many things I wouldn’t choose to do”
- Relatedness frustration (alpha =.74)
“I feel the relationships I have are just superficial”
- Competence frustration (alpha =.80)
“I feel disappointed with many of my performance”
Method: measures
Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale
(WEIMS)(Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, Villeneuve,
2009) [only sample 2)
We asked about the reasons why the participants are presently involved in
their primary occupation (work or study):
-Self determined motivation (9 items, alpha =.89)
“Because I derive much pleasure from learning new things”
- Introjected motivation (3 items, alpha=.77)
“Because I want to be very good at this work, otherwise I would be very
disappointed”
- Extrinsic motivation (2 items, alpha=.62)
“Because this type of occupation provides me with security”
- Amotivation (3 items, alpha=.47)
“I don’t know, too much is expected of us”
Results: SEM models (sample 1 & 2)
Standardized Path Coefficients Describing Relationships between Need
Satisfaction and Adult and Societal Identity resolution in combined sample1 and
sample 2
Adult Identity
Societal Identity
Resolution
Resolution
Age
17***
.13***
Autonomy Satisfaction
20***
.20***
Relatedness Satisfaction
.05
.22***
Competence Satisfaction .24***
*p < .05, **p < .01; ***p < .001.
χ2 =176.85(81); p<.001, CFI=.96, RMSEA=.04.
.21***
Results: SEM models (sample 1 & 2)
Standardized Path Coefficients Describing Relationships between Need Frustration
and Adult and Societal Identity resolution and in combined sample1 and sample 2
Adult Identity
Societal Identity
Resolution
Resolution
Age
05***
.04*
Autonomy Frustration
.00
-.10*
Relatedness Frustration
-19*
-.23***
Competence Frustration
-.35***
-.31***
*p < .05, **p < .01; ***p < .001.
χ2 =268.18(81); p<.001, CFI=.93, RMSEA=.05.
Results: mediation (sample 2)
Theoretical model:
Basic psychological need satisfaction (model 1) /frustration (model 2)
Self-determined vs non-self determined motivation
Adult and societal identity resolution
Analytic steps:
(SEM Models separately for need satisfaction and frustration)
- Direct paths
- Full Mediation
- Partial Mediation (Holmbeck, 1997)
Results: mediation (model 1)
Partial Mediation Model: χ2 =222.660 (121); p<.001,
CFI=.95, RMSEA=.04.
Results: mediation (model 2)
Partial Mediation Model: χ2 =256.25 (121); p<.001,
CFI=.94, RMSEA=.05.
Discussion
• Adult identity resolution is associated with both
autonomy and competence need satisfaction.
Relatedness need satisfaction only appear associated
with societal need satisfaction.
• Competence need frustration shows considerably
stronger negative association with adult and societal
identity resolution than the other two.
• It points that while facing developmental task of
identity resolution lack opportunities to experience
one’s effectiveness and attainment of valued outcomes
is especially detrimental.
Discussion
• Self-determined motivation and amotivation
mediate the links between need satisfaction
and identity resolution.
• We can assume that need satisfaction create
preconditions for self determined motivation
which by itself foster personal integration and
acquisition of one’s place in society.
Discussion
• Intervening role of motivation was less
pronounced between need frustration and
identity resolution.
• According to studies need frustration is uniquely
associated with ill-being (Chen, et al., 2014).
• We can propose that different mechanisms might
be involved in the explanation of the link
between need frustration and identity resolution
(e.g. low self-esteem and self-efficacy).
Discussion
• According to Self Determination theory
contextual factors might facilitate or hinder basic
psychological need satisfaction.
• Based on the presented findings we know that
need satisfaction and frustration matter while
identity stage resolution and motivation plays an
intervening role in case of need satisfaction.
• And what about contextual opportunities and
barriers which might be the primary predictors?
This is the direction for future research.
Thank you for your attention!