Basic Psychological Needs Theory: A Conceptual and Empirical Review of Key Criteria

Although the existence of a set of physical needs is well accepted within biology, the question whether humans have a parallel set of psychological needs has been more controversial within the psychological landscape. The identification, characterization, and study of basic needs has been central to the research agenda of Basic Psychological Needs Theory, one of SDT’s six mini-theories. In this chapter, we provide an in-depth characterization of the nine criteria that characterize the basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence: essential, psychological, pervasive, universal, inherent, distinct, content-specific, directional, and explanatory. We elaborate on the theoretical and research implications of these criteria and provide a selective review of this rapidly growing body of empirical work. We conclude that basic needs provide a universal and parsimonious framework to account for people’s growth and flourishing as well as their stagnation and problem behavior, while also accounting for the growth-conducive versus toxic effects of different environments.