Psychopathology refers to the presence of a mental disorder where an individual involuntarily experiences a serious level of functional impairment and suffering (Widiger, 1997). One of the core tenets of the Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT), one of Self-Determination Theory’s (SDT) mini-theories, is that the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is essential for individuals’ growth, well-being, and adjustment. Whereas, frustration of these needs predicts problem behavior, ill-being, and psychopathology (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan et al., 2016; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020; Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013).

Research has shown that a low level of need satisfaction and a high level of need frustration are linked to several forms of psychopathology (Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013), with most of these studies employing a cross-sectional design. To illustrate, need frustration was found to relate to borderline personality features, including identity problems, affective instability, negative relationships, and self-harm (Van der Kaap-Deeder et al., 2021). More longitudinal and experimental  evidence is needed to shed light on the enduring and causal effects of need-based experiences and on the distinctive effects of need satisfaction and need frustration across time.

There are, however, a growing number of longitudinal studies available that have looked into these issues. For instance, need frustration has been found to predict increases in binge eating symptoms among healthy adolescents, whereas need satisfaction predicted decreases in these symptoms (Boone et al., 2014). Further, need frustration (but not need satisfaction) has been found to predict increased symptoms of somatization, depression, and anxiety among high school students across a nine-month period (Cordeiro et al., 2016).

Although historically research within SDT has focused on the effects of need satisfaction, more recent findings indicate that frustration of these needs is critical in the prediction of ill-being or even psychopathology, with such frustration implying the active obstruction and undermining of psychological needs.

SDT postulates that need-based experiences account for both the “bright” and “dark” side of individuals’ functioning (Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013). Where need satisfaction mainly predicts individuals’ growth and wellness, experienced need frustration is a crucial predictor of malfunctioning and ill-being. This is related to the asymmetrical relation between need satisfaction and need frustration, where low levels of need satisfaction cannot be equated with high levels of need frustration (Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013). To illustrate, experiencing a low level of support from classmates (i.e., low relatedness satisfaction), is not the same as feeling actively excluded by classmates (i.e., high relatedness frustration). Previous studies employing factor analyses indeed showed need satisfaction and need frustration to fall into two distinct factors (e.g., Chen et al., 2015; Sheldon & Gunz, 2009).

Placing need satisfaction and need frustration on two separate dimensions has been fruitful. In one of the earlier studies distinguishing between the effects of need satisfaction and need frustration, it was shown that athletes' need satisfaction related to positive outcomes associated with sport participation (i.e., vitality and positive affect), whereas need frustration was a more consistent predictor of maladaptive outcomes (i.e., disordered eating, burnout, depression, negative affect, and physical symptoms) (Bartholomew et al., 2011). Besides studies looking into the unique role of need-based experiences in symptoms of psychopathology, there has also been a recent interest in the transdiagnostic role of need frustration in the prediction of several types of psychopathologies. That is, Campbell et al. (2018) showed that need frustration not only predicted both depressive symptoms and eating pathology, but also that introducing need frustration as the underlying source of both symptoms resulted in the concurrent relation between depressive symptoms and eating pathology to become statistically non-significant. Given that much of the work on transdiagnostic processes is atheoretical (Dalgleish et al. 2020), there is a need for a theory transcending the current diagnosis-specific frameworks. SDT has the potential to move this recent field forward, by providing a theoretically parsimonious model in the explanation of psychopathology.