Basic Psychological Needs and Flourishing in Filipino University Students

Abstract

Flourishing is a concept in positive psychology that is focused on growth and continued improvement (Fredrickson and Losada, Am Psychol, 60: 678–689, 2008). Using the Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan, Physchol Inquiry 11:227–268, 2000), the experience of flourishing involves meeting and satisfying the basic psychology needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The first aim of this study is to examine how autonomy, competence, and relatedness (the three basic psychological needs) are related to flourishing among Filipino undergraduate students. The second aim is to examine the relative importance of basic psychological needs in predicting flourishing. Filipinos students completed the following measures: (1) Basic Psychological Needs Scale (Deci and Ryan, Physchol Inquiry 11:227–268, 2000), and the (2) Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., Soc Indicat Res 39:247–266, 2009). Results from the regression analysis reveal that competence, autonomy, and relatedness predict flourishing. Dominance analysis reveals that relatedness is the best predictor of flourishing. These findings suggest that learning in the Philippine context takes on more social features, with the satisfaction of relatedness needs extending to learning contexts. Findings are further discussed in the context of the shared identity model of Filipino psychology.