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LIT-1971: The role of need fulfillment in relationship functioning and well-being: A self-determination theory perspective.

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Properties5
StatusActive — read in full 2026-11-03 (NOTE-1515), from the article on the SDT site. Worth reading as the relationship-level test of all three needs: fulfilment by a partner goes with relationship quality, relatedness most, and the partner's fulfilment adds to one's own; but its measure does not separate autonomy from competence (r = .96 corrected), and all three studies are correlational self-report.
Version2
Tagsmotivation, well-being
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1515 — Patrick et al. — Need fulfillment in relationship functioning
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-1347 — In Patrick, Knee, Canevello and Lonsbary's three correlational studies, perceiving that a romantic partner fulfils one's needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness goes with better relationship quality, with relatedness the strongest unique predictor and the partner's fulfilment adding to one's own; but the measure does not separate the needs, its autonomy and competence subscales correlating .96 once corrected for unreliability

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Patrick, H., Knee, C. R., Canevello, A., Lonsbary, C. (2007). The role of need fulfillment in relationship functioning and well-being: A self-determination theory perspective.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(3), 434-457. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.3.434.

Key takeaways

Read in full on 2026-11-03 (NOTE-1515).

  • Need fulfilment by a partner tracks relationship quality; relatedness most.
  • The partner’s fulfilment adds to one’s own (APIM, 66 couples).
  • Autonomous relationship motivation carries the association, in a cross-sectional mediation.
  • The three needs are not separated by the measure (.84–.96 corrected).
  • THEORY-1347.

Standing in the record

Relationships Motivation Theory, with La Guardia et al. 2000.

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