Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale: Validity in aphasia (Nunn et al., 2025)
Purpose: Motivation influences clinical decisions and neurocognitive processes central to aphasia rehabilitation, yet clinicians lack evidence-based frameworks to guide the assessment and management of motivation. Self-determination theory is a well-validated psychological framework that proposes that motivation is supported by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs (BPNs), autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The measurement of these BPNs could improve aphasia treatment outcomes by identifying causes of poor motivation and strategies to enhance motivation. To support the assessment and management of motivation in aphasia rehabilitation, we evaluated the validity of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNS/F) in people with aphasia.
Method: Seventy-seven people with aphasia completed the BPNS/F comprising six 4-item subscales for satisfaction and frustration of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Responses were collected via a 5-point Likert scale. We evaluated validity with respect to the (a) internal structure via confirmatory factor analysis, (b) internal consistency reliability, and (c) relationship to theoretically related constructs.
Results: The BPNS/F’s internal structure was consistent with previous findings in nonaphasic adults. Internal consistency reliability was near or above the acceptable range for group but not individual-level analyses. We found that autonomy and competence were both strongly related to depression. Communication was the only health-related quality of life variable related to BPNS/F factors.
Conclusion: Future research aimed at modifying the BPNS/F to align with the linguistic abilities and experiences of people with aphasia in rehabilitation may offer a means to measure BPNs in people with aphasia and support the integration of motivational theory into aphasia clinical practice and research.
Supplemental Material S1. Final SAQOL measurement model and factor loadings.
Nunn, K., Brancamp, T., Evans, W. S., Hambridge, T., Harmon, T. G., Wallace, S. E., Biel, M., & Hula, W. D. (2025). The Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale: Initial validity evidence in aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_AJSLP-24-00404
Publisher Note: This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers From the 53rd Clinical Aphasiology Conference.
