Bonus Challenge: Basic Psychological Needs
In Self-Determination Theory, there are three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. What should people do when their basic psychological needs are not met? One thing that people can do is to seek out supportive people and groups that would better meet their basic psychological needs. However, we can also choose to intentionally engage in activities that meet those basic psychological needs.
Challenge: take the challenge described in Behzadnia and FatahModares (2023) where you choose an activity that meets one of the basic needs each day for a week (see the instructions in Table 2 on page 70). This challenge will work best if you are in a situation where your basic psychological needs are not being met. Track whether your well-being, motivation, and need satisfaction improve by intentionally engaging in those activities.
Read More
A brief introduction to basic psychological needs
https://doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.49.1.14
The Behzadnia and FatahModares task
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09968-9
Basic psychological needs are motives
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00589.x