The relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation: The role of individual differences and special educational needs

A within-person perspective with several measurement points per individual allows to analyse relations between variables within individuals. Such an approach is still scarce in research from a self-determination theory perspective. Therefore, this study measured basic psychological need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation in real-time and at several lessons with the experience sampling method. In this way, the relationship between need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation was investigated from both a group level and within-person perspective. The sample consisted of 146 students in pre-vocational secondary education, who completed 4128 diary questionnaires. At the group level, positive relationships between satisfaction of the needs and motivation were found. However, individual differences in the strength and direction of these relationships exist. This marks the importance of taking a within-person perspective, and studying both concepts at several lessons and individually. Students’ special educational needs play a role in the strength of the relationship: compared to typically developing students, satisfaction of autonomy is less important, while satisfaction of competence and relatedness with the teacher are more important for the intrinsic motivation of students with special educational needs. However, students’ special educational needs do not explain all differences between individual students. Future research may investigate other student characteristics to explore where individual differences in the importance of the basic psychological needs come from.