Abstract
Typically, people rate enhancement needs as more important than security needs to their well-being. Two studies tested whether event valence and prior trauma moderate relative need importance. Traumatized (hurricane survivors) and non-traumatized (control) participants recalled the most “distressing” (security-relevant) or “satisfying” (enhancement-relevant) event they had recently experienced and rated the importance of 10 needs in defining the event. In both studies, event valence moderated relative need importance on explicit (salience) and implicit (affect) measures as enhancement needs were more important for enhancement-relevant (satisfying) events whereas security needs were more important for security-relevant (distressing) events. However, results also suggest that differences in traumatic experience across samples moderated the effect of event valence on relative need importance. Unlike non-traumatized (control) participants, traumatized (hurricane survivors) participants did not reassign greater importance to enhancement over security needs when event valence shifted to enhancement-relevant (satisfying) memories. We close by discussing implications for human motivation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Although one could argue that popularity is a basic interpersonal enhancement need, evidence suggests that popularity is not a basic need in itself but, instead, an extrinsic goal that serves more basic needs directly linked to well-being (Kasser and Ryan 1996).
We also re-ran the analyses using the reduced model of negative affect that restricted the predictor terms only to the subset of centered need scores (self-esteem, security, autonomy, competence, and relatedness) directly relevant to our hypotheses regarding changes in relative importance of enhancement vs. security needs across distressing as well as satisfying event memories. For distressing events, the results of the reduced model were consistent with the full model as security deprivation scores accounted for a significant portion of unique variance in negative affect, β = .31 SE = .15, t (1, 55) = 2.11, p < .05, whereas competence, autonomy, relatedness, and self-esteem did not, all βs < .25, all ts (1, 55) < 1.90, all ps > .06. For satisfying events, moreover, the results of the reduced model converged with the full model as self-esteem accounted for a unique portion of the variance in positive affect, β = .69 SE = .18, t (1, 55) = 3.97, p < .05, whereas security, competence, autonomy, and relatedness did not, all βs < .22, all ts (1, 55) < 1.70, all ps > .10.
Unfortunately, we had to exclude the PANAS as well as several other measures from the Study 2 questionnaire as the Red Cross had to impose length constraints on the interview experience to fully protect the already compromised mental state of hurricane survivors. We certainly understood the Red Cross’s position and, ultimately, felt that the convergence of the implicit affect measure with the explicit salience measure in Study 1 and in Sheldon’s prior work did not make the replication of this finding in Study 2 an absolute necessity.
Results showed adequate interrater reliability (Cohen’s κ > .65) between two raters in coding the frequency of specific references made to 1 of the 5 critical needs (security, competence, relatedness, autonomy, and self-esteem) relevant to our predictions.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Amir, N., McNally, R., & Wiegartz, A. (1996). Implicit memory bias for threat in posttraumatic stress disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20(6), 625–663.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment (Attachment and loss, Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Separation: Anxiety and anger (Attachment and loss, Vol. 2). New York: Basic Books.
Brewin, C. R., Christodoulides, J., & Hutchinson, G. (1996a). Intrusive thoughts and intrusive memories in a non-clinical sample. Cognition and Emotion, 10, 107–112.
Brewin, C., Dagliesh, T., & Joseph, S. (1996b). A dual representation theory of post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological Review, 103, 670–686.
Carroll, P. J., Wichman, A. L., & Arkin, R. M. (2006). Security in the aftermath of 9–11. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28(4), 289–290.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
Deci, E. L., Eghrari, H., Patrick, B. C., & Leone, D. R. (1994). Facilitating internalization: The self- determination theory perspective. Journal of Personality, 62, 119–142.
Hart, J., Shaver, P. R., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2005). Attachment, Self-esteem, worldviews, and terror management: Evidence for a tripartite security system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 999–1013.
Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300.
Kasser, T. (1996). Aspirations and well-being in a prison setting. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 1367–1377.
Kasser, T. (2002). Sketches for a self-determination theory of values. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 123–140). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Well-being correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology, 22, 281–288.
Kasser, T., & Sheldon, K. (2008). Psychological threat and extrinsic goal striving. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 37–45.
Markus, H., Cross, S. E., & Wurf, E. (1990). The role of the self-system in competence. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Kolligan Jr. (Eds.), Competence considered (pp. 205–226). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.
McNally, R. J., Luedke, D. L., Beysner, J. K., Peterson, R. A., Bohm, K., & Lips, O. J. (1987). Sensitivity to stress-relevant stimuli in post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 1, 105–116.
McNally, R. J., Aspi, S. P., Reimann, B. C., & Zeitlin, S. B. (1990). Selective processing of threat cues in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99(4), 398–402.
Oishi, S., Diener, E., Suh, E., & Lucas, R. E. (1999). Cross-cultural variations in predictors of life satisfaction: Perspectives from needs and values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 980–990.
Ryan, R. M. (1995). Psychology needs and the facilitation of integrative processes. Journal of Personality, 63, 397–427.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R. M., & Reis, H. (1996). What makes for a good day? Competence and autonomy in the day, and in the person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1270–1279.
Sheldon, K. M., Elliot, A. J., Kim, Y., & Kasser, T. (2001). What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 325–339.
Thrasher, S. M., Dalgleish, T., & Yule, W. (1994). Information processing in post-traumatic stress disorder. Behavior Research & Therapy, 32, 247–254.
Vasey, M. W., Daleiden, E. L., Williams, L. L., & Brown, L. M. (1995). Biased attention in childhood anxiety disorders: A preliminary study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 267–279.
Vasey, M. W., El-Hag, N., & Daleiden, E. L. (1996). Anxiety and the processing of emotionally threatening stimuli: Distinctive patterns of selective attention among high- and low-test-anxious children. Child Development, 67, 1173–1185.
Wahba, M. A., & Bridwell, L. G. (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 15, 212–240.
Watson, D., Clark, L., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Williams, K. D., Shore, W. J., & Grahe, J. E. (1998). The silent treatment: Perceptions of its behaviors and associated feelings. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 1(2), 117–141.
Acknowledgments
The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health. We would like to thank Joann Benigno as well as Johnmarshall Reeve, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This publication was partially supported by Grant No. T32-MH19728 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carroll, P.J., Arkin, R.M., Seidel, S.D. et al. The relative importance of needs among traumatized and non-traumatized samples. Motiv Emot 33, 373–386 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-009-9139-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-009-9139-z