Dear researchers,
my personal work and passion is about supporting individuals in getting awareness about their personal values in order to enable them to set autonomous goals and to strive for intrinsically rather than extrinsic aspirations. I measure the effects on variables like goal attainment, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and ecological as well as social behaviour.
To measure psychological well-being I use the psychological well-being scale by Ryff (1989). As I read a lot of studies in the area of self-determination theory, I read the very insightful empirical study by Brown & Ryan (2003) about the effects of mindfulness on different well-being scales. In that study they state (Brown & Ryan, p. 828) that they used subscales of Ryff's psych. wb scale to measure the satisfaction of the three psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. I wonder if this is possible with the subscales of Ryffs scale and if so, which subscales can be used to measure the three psychological needs validly.
I ask that question because I did a lot of studies with Ryff's psychological well-being scale and it would be very interesting for me, if I could use the scales also to measure the satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. This could generate more insights.
Kind regards and thank you!
Benedict
Literature:
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(4), 822-848.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1069-1081.
I would be tempted to examine the sub scales for responsiveness rather than picking them a priori. There is often a difference between what we think we are going to achieve and what actually happens!
Thank you.
That is definitely a good point, but my question concerning the possibility to measure the three psychological needs with Ryff's scale remains.
Interesting approach Benedict. I would also reflect on the importance of the physical aspects to develop mindfulness. The proper diet, exercise, and rest, combined with conscious breathing can support a mindful practice. On the other hand, I believe that the physical environment is also a component that facilitates or may potentially block engagement with the present moment.
As I have also translated and used the Ryff Scales in Greek, I was surprised to see it measuring the SDT needs... Judging from the names of the scales only, I would measure need for autonomy with the Autonomy scale, need for relatedness with the Positive relations with others scale, and need for competence with the Environmental mastery scale.
On a conceptual level, however, I would be very cautious to do so and I would prefer a correlational study with some other measure that more explicitly measures the SDT needs. If I remember correctly, Ryff's theoretical background does not include SDT. Does it?
Yes, that is right. The conceptualisation of Ryff's psychological well-being dimensions is different. SDT rather sees psychological/eudaimonic well-being as an output of psychological needs satisfaction. However, I found some additional studies that used Ryff's scale to measure psychological needs satisfaction like Neubauer, Schilling, & Wahl (2015). The reasons seem to be problems with factor validity of the original scale (Johnston & Finnes, 2010; Sheldon & Hilpert, 2012).
The interesting thing I realized is that the autonomy scale by Ryff, which is conceptualized as self-determination and independence includes less items that seem to measure independence as the autonomy items of the scales to measure basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS-S or BMPN). This seems inconsistent to me because Ryan and Deci emphasize that autonomy in the scope of SDT does not represent independence but rather doing what reflects self-endorsed values and authentic interests (doing things that one wholeheartedly is behind at). In my (pretty subjective) opinion, the autonomy scale by Ryff reflects the core of SDT's autonomy better.
It would be interesting to know, whether there are additional opinions about that...
Kind regards,
Benedict
Referenced literature:
Johnston, M. M., & Finney, S. J. (2010). Measuring basic needs satisfaction: Evaluating previous research and conducting new psychometric evaluations of the Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35(4), 280-296.
Neubauer, A. B., Schilling, O. K., & Wahl, H. W. (2015). What do we need at the end of life? Competence, but not autonomy, predicts intraindividual fluctuations in subjective well-being in very old age. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Sheldon, K. M., & Hilpert, J. C. (2012). The balanced measure of psychological needs (BMPN) scale: An alternative domain general measure of need satisfaction. Motivation and Emotion, 36(4), 439-451.
I think you have answered your own question. It would seem a terrific endeavor to use the scales the way you indicated.
I'd like to receive the studies and results. [email protected]
Pratibha Gramann, Ph.D.
I would say that the Psychological well-being scale measures one's satisfaction with life (i.e., subjective wellbeing) as opposed to the three psychological needs proposed by SDT.
A good scale, in my opinion, is the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS) which measures what you are looking for.
It seems workable!
Both concepts represent for Eudaimonic well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2008).
There’re 6 distinct dimensions of psychological well-being (Ryff & Keyes ,1995):
Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Personal Growth, Positive Relations With Others, Purpose in Life, Self-Acceptance
There’re 3 basic needs in SDT. According to the definition, I think:
Autonomy in SDT equal to autonomy + personal growth
Competence in SDT equal to environmental mastery + self-acceptance
Relatedness in SDT equal to positive relations + purpose in life
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69(4), 719.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 1-11.
Article The Structure of Psychological Well-Being Revisited
Article Hedonia, Eudaimonia, and Well-Being: an Introduction
Benedict Heblich et al very interested to understand your conclusions. I am just an OccPsy student on her dissertation and wondered if I could use the ryff scale in survey form to infer both the intrinsic motivation needs and wellbeing needs of a public service office? My angle is homeworking Covid lockdown. Has anyone got a survey they could share for this objective?
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