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23 - Basic Needs, Goals and Motivation

from Part V - Cognitive and Motivational Perspectives: Dynamic Processes of Personality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
James L. Szalma
Edited by
Philip J. Corr  and
Gerald Matthews
Philip J. Corr
Affiliation:
City, University London
Gerald Matthews
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
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Summary

A psychological need is a condition of an organism that must be attained or maintained in order to preserve wellbeing and adaptive psychological functioning. Psychological needs are proactive, in that they promote engagement with the environment to satisfy the needs (Reeve, 2015). Recently, Dweck (2017) proposed two criteria for a “basic” need: (1) The goals that serve to satisfy the needs are high in value and universal in scope; and (2) successful attainment of goals related to a need is important for both immediate and long-term wellbeing. In addition, she identified needs as “basic” only if they are irreducible to other needs, and if they are present at or very soon after birth. Derivative needs develop over the span of early childhood. One problem with this conception is that it is very difficult to clearly establish that a need is “irreducible,” or that it is present at the beginning of life, i.e., that it is not a product of development via person–environment transaction (Lazarus, 1991; Matthews, 2001).

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology , pp. 330 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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