Prediction of meaning of life based on satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs
Abstract
Psychological needs are often cited in the literature, and they are often connected with constructs like happiness or satisfaction, but they are rarely connected with the construct of the meaning of life. Looking from the standpoint of self-determination theory needs like autonomy, competency and relatedness are necessarily related to a man’s well-being, satisfaction in life, and happiness. Considering the importance of satisfying or frustrating the basic psychological needs according to the self-determination theory, the problem of this research is to determine if the basic psychological needs are in relation with the meaning of life in the student population. The sample includes 100 students, a sample which is deemed satisfying for this type of research. The data was collected using a platform for online polling. The participants have, besides the questionnaire on demographic characteristics, filled out the Basic Psychological Needs questionnaire (Deci & Ryan, 2000), and the Life regard index (Battista & Almond, 1973). We can conclude that looking at the results of the research on this sample, the regression analysis has shown that the satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and the frustration of competence show statistical significance as predictors of the meaning of life.
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