The Relation Between Basic Psychological Needs, Novelty, and Transformative Experience: A Cross-Cultural Study

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 3:35 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Race- and Culture-Informed Approaches to Motivation Research (Table 1)

Abstract

The dual purpose of the current research was to investigate novelty as a potential basic psychological need (BPN) and identify individual factors predictive of transformative experience (TE). To this end, we tested a path model of relations between novelty, establish BPNs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), intrinsic motivation, and TE across U.S. and Kuwaiti samples. Evidence for novelty meeting the essentiality and universality criteria of a BPN were found in that novelty predicted the growth and well-being outcomes of intrinsic motivation and TE and these relations were invariant across samples. Competence and relatedness were significant predictors of TE. Autonomy was a significant predictor of TE in the U.S. sample. Intrinsic motivation was not a significant predictor of TE.

Authors

• Yousef Alardhi, Kuwait University

• Kevin J. Pugh, University of Northern Colorado