The development and validation of an integrated assessment of irrational beliefs concerning basic psychological needs: the rational emotive self-determination scale for workers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new psychological scale that combines cognitive behavioral and humanistic theories to assess irrational beliefs and psychological needs in workers.

Contribution

The novel contribution is the development and validation of the RESD-W scale for assessing irrational beliefs related to psychological needs in work settings.

Findings

The RESD-W demonstrated good psychometric properties across five studies.

Scores on the RESD-W correlated with workplace anxiety, depression, and negative emotions.

The integration of irrational beliefs and psychological needs may predict work-related psychological wellbeing.

Abstract

Recently a new approach to understanding human behaviour has emerged that integrates rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) from the cognitive behavioural tradition, and self-determination theory (SDT) from the humanistic tradition. In the current study, we develop a psychometric that conceptualizes this new approach in organisational settings; the rational emotive self-determination scale for work (RESD-W). The RESD-W assesses respondents’ irrational beliefs (from REBT) concerning the basic psychological needs (from SDT), namely perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness within their work life. The RESD-W builds on initial validations of the RESD in adolescent populations (RESD-A).

In the current paper, the psychometric properties of the 16-item RESD-W were examined across five studies, in which the factor structure, the reliability of the scale, and construct and criterion-oriented validity of the RESD-W were assessed.

Analyses confirmed theoretical expectations and yielded good psychometric properties. Scores in the RESD-W were associated with anxiety and depression, and negative emotions in the workplace.

The results are discussed regarding practice, highlighting that work related psychological wellbeing may be predicated on the integration of irrational beliefs and basic psychological needs.

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