The relationship between life goals, basic psychological needs and wellbeing

Abstract

The main goal of this research was to investigate the relationship between life goals, basic psychological needs and wellbeing – the concepts based on the main assumptions of the Self-determination theory. The sample consisted of 398 college students (168 males and 230 females), aged from 18 to 36 years, and included the students from different faculties from Nis, Kragujevac and Kosovska Mitrovica. Measures of Extrinsic and intrinsic goals were estimated with the Questionnaire of life goals, basic psychological needs were measured with the Scale of basic psychological needs, and wellbeing with the General life satisfaction scale and the Meaning of life scale. The relations were investigated with the method of structural equations with the extrinsic and intrinsic goals as egzogenus variables and psychological needs and wellbeing as endogenus variables. The results showed that the model, which implies the indirect influence, via psychological needs, of intrinsic goals on wellbeing, as the direct and indirect influence of extrinzic goals on wellbeing, has somewhat acceptable concordance with empirical data (?2/df = 4.559; RMSEA = .095; RMSSR = .1354; CFI = .917). But, with the introduction of the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic goals, the theoretical model showed the satisfactory concordance with empirical data (?2/df = 2.963; RMSEA = .070; RMSSR = .0425; CFI = .955). The results obtained here are in congruence with the Self-determination theory.