Relations between the Relational Self-Construal, the Choice of Goals and Psychological Need Satisfaction of University Students

The aim of this study was to explore the role of specific features of the selfconcept that could be associated with the choice of life goals. We developed an adaptation of the RISC (Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal; Cross, Bacon, & Morris 2000) to directly assess the degree to which individuals define themselves in terms of close relationships. The scale was translated into Spanish and its psychometric properties were analyzed with data from a sample of 389 university students (age range 16-47, M= 19.28, ST= 3.15). A set of contrast showed significant differences between men and women (female = 59% y male = 41% effect size d 0.25-0.55). Significant differences appeared also regarding extrinsic and intrinsic goals, interpersonal goals and needs satisfaction when students with a highly relational self-construal were compared with students with a low relational one (d 0.42-0.91). These results have implications for the choice of studies and what students expect in university life.