Relationships between the regulation of psychological needs satisfaction and symptomatology

Abstract

Framed by the integrative Paradigmatic Complementarity Model, the present study addresses the relationships between regulation and discrepancy in psychological needs satisfaction, and symptomatology. This Model conceptualizes psychological needs as dialectical polarities, suggesting that disorders essentially stem from the inability to regulate their satisfaction. 848 adults participated in this study. The results showed that the regulation of psychological needs satisfaction correlated negatively with symptomatology, whereas discrepancy correlated positively with it. Moreover, the level of that regulation showed predictive value of symptomatology. Non-disordered individuals displayed higher regulation of psychological needs satisfaction and lower discrepancy than disordered ones. In both groups, subjects with a high degree of regulation of both needs of each dialectical polarity generally displayed less symptoms, in comparison with all the others, with a few and non-significant exceptions. These results suggest the importance of regulation and discrepancy in psychological needs satisfaction as related to symptomatology.