Personal Growth Initiative, Need Satisfaction, and Subjective Well Being: Testing a Process Model

Abstract

Personal growth initiative (PGI)—an individual’s internal motivation to grow toward self-actualization (Robitschek, 1998)—is associated with increased subjective well-being (Robitschek et al., 2019). Yet, how it promotes subjective well-being is unknown. I test the hypothesis that PGI increases individuals’ need satisfaction, which leads to increased present life-satisfaction. 143 undergraduate students reported their PGI, current need satisfaction, and life satisfaction at two timepoints, along with demographic information (age, gender, household income, race/ethnicity) and questions about their Covid-19 experiences. Contrary to expectations, PGI and present life satisfaction were unrelated. I tested 2 exploratory models: Model 1) PGI is associated with increases in need satisfaction, which leads to increased future life-satisfaction and Model 2) need satisfaction is associated with increases in PGI, which leads to increased future life-satisfaction. Differences in scores between two timepoints were analyzed via a modified simple partly-mediated model to determine proposed model fit. Model 2—need satisfaction’s effect on future life satisfaction partly mediated by PGI—is the best-fitting model. I also replicated past research of the independent effect of moral need satisfaction via exploratory multiple linear regression. Morality was comparable to other psychological needs, and accounted for additional variance in Past, Present, and Future life satisfaction. Finally, I tested the confirmatory hypothesis that Covid-19 anxiety affects participants’ need satisfaction. I consider the potential impacts of this study’s findings to future research, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on this study.