The Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale: Reliability, validity, and factorial analysis

Preparing a valid instrument to measure the basic psychological needs in Iranian populations is necessary for research purposes. The aim of this study was to examine reliability, validity, and exploratory factor analysis of a Persian version of the Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale (BNSG-S) in a sample of Iranian students. Five hundred and eighty four students (273 males, 311 females) were participated in this study, voluntarily. All participants were asked to complete the BNSG-S (Gagne, 2003), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale (EPQ-RS; Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28; Besharat, 2009). The results of exploratory factor analysis supported a single general factor of basic needs satisfaction in general and a three factor structure including Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness. The convergent and discriminant validity of the BNSG-S were supported by an expected pattern of correlations between the scale and the measures of personality and mental health. All correlation coefficients between the mean scores on the BNSG-S and scores of the extraversion, neuroticism, positive affect, negative affect, psychological well-being, and psychological distress were statistically significant. Coefficient alpha estimates of internal reliability were between. 83 and. 91 for the BNSG-S subscales. Test-retest reliability of the BNSG-S was also calculated at the range of. 67-.77. All correlations were statistically significant. It was concluded that the BNSG-S can be considered as a reliable and valid scale to measure the basic needs satisfaction in Iranian samples.