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First published online May 12, 2011

Satisfying One’s Needs for Competence and Relatedness: Consequent Domain-Specific Well-Being Depends on Strength of Implicit Motives

Jan Hofer [email protected] and Holger BuschView all authors and affiliations

Volume 37, Issue 9

https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211408329

Abstract

Considering the effect of implicit motives, the current study examined the link between well-being in important life domains, that is, job and relationship, and the satisfaction of needs as proposed by self-determination theory. Data on domain-specific well-being, satisfaction of needs for competence and relatedness, and the implicit achievement and affiliation motives were assessed from 259 German and Cameroonian participants. The achievement motive moderated the relation between competence and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the affiliation motive moderated the association between relatedness and relationship satisfaction. Satisfaction of the needs for competence and relatedness is linked to higher levels of job and relationship satisfaction, respectively, among individuals with strong implicit motives. Effects were found regardless of participants’ culture of origin. Findings indicate that implicit motives can be understood as weighting dispositions that affect how far experiences of competence and relatedness are linked with satisfaction in relevant life domains.

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Published In

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volume 37, Issue 9

Pages: 1147 - 1158

Article first published online: May 12, 2011

Issue published: September 2011

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© 2011 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

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PubMed: 21566077

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Jan Hofer

University of Osnabrück, Germany

[email protected]

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Holger Busch

University of Osnabrück, Germany

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Notes

Jan Hofer, Department of Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Artilleriestr. 34, D-49069 Osnabrück, Germany Email: [email protected]

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