The relationship between psychological well-being and the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs in university students

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the basic psychological needs (need for autonomy, need for competence and need for relatedness) and psychological well-being as described by Self Determination Theory. Participants were 402 university students from different universities in Turkey. The Scale of Psychological Well-Being and Basic Psychological Need Scale were used for data collection. SPSS. 16 package program was used for analyzing of the data. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to examine the data. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that there was a negative significant correlation between the values of psychological well-being and the basic psychological needs. Regression analysis showed that the basic psychological needs significantly explained the 41% of the total variance in psychological well-being. It could be concluded that when need for autonomy, need for competence and need for relatedness are satisfied, well-being of individuals increases; the results of the current study showed clear support to the notions of Self Determination Theory for Turkish University students. Some recommendations for academics were made to increase well-being of university students in the light of the results from this study.