84 I. THEORETICAL  PERSPECTI vES AND  CONCEPT uAL uNITS
More specifically, the basic tenets of the 
theory, as stated in Dweck (2017, p. 689), 
are as follows:
•	Motivation derives from basic human needs, 
including psychological needs.
•	These needs give rise to goals designed to 
meet the needs.
•	As people pursue need-  fulfilling goals, they 
develop mental representations.
•	These representations (consisting of beliefs, 
representations of emotions, and represen -
tations of action tendencies) guide future 
goals.
•	In doing so, they foster characteristic, re -
current patterns of acts and experiences 
(“traits”); indeed, traits can be seen as styles 
of pursuing need-  fulfilling goals.
•	These underlying representations and styles 
of goal pursuit are at the core of personality 
and personality development.
•	Understanding these representations and 
styles of goal pursuit gives us leverage for 
promoting growth and change.
Thus, at its core, the theory proposes 
that we experience needs and pursue need- 
fulfilling goals, and as we do, we develop 
representations of our experiences, which 
come to play a major role in our motivation 
and in the formation of our personality.
In this theory, then, personality is deeply 
motivational. In addition, deeply embedded 
in the motivational processes are mental 
representations, such as the beliefs people 
develop about their world and about them -
selves in that world. In this sense, the theory 
has resonance with past formulations, such 
as those of Beck (1996), Bowlby (1969), 
and Epstein (1990), in which key beliefs are 
formed in rich, motivational contexts and 
then play important roles in motivation, per -
sonality, and well-being.
With the groundwork in place, let us turn 
to the needs that are the foundation of the 
theory.
Basic Needs
What Is a Need and What Is a Basic Need?
The theory begins with psychological needs, 
and with the assumption that psychological 
needs drive goals that promote psychologi -
cal well-being, much as physical needs drive goals that promote physical well-being (see, 
e.g., Reeve, 2005), although, of course, the 
two types of needs and their effects are not 
entirely distinct. What are the important 
psychological needs? A review of the mod -
ern literature on psychological needs (e.g., 
Deci & Ryan, 2000; Higgins, 2012; Pittman 
& Zeigler, 2007; Sheldon, 2011; Stevens 
& Fiske, 1995) yields a group of candidate 
needs, many of which may be grouped to -
gether under the same need (e.g., the need 
for affection, acceptance, and belonging 
may be grouped together).
However, how does one know what truly 
qualifies as a need and, in particular, what 
qualifies as a basic need? Adapting some of 
Baumeister and Leary’s (1995) helpful crite -
ria, I define a need  as having high universal 
value and, if not met, as leading to compro -
mised well-being. However, to be defined as 
a basic need requires, in addition, the Bau -
meister and Leary criterion that the need not 
be reducible to other needs. I also add the re -
quirement that a basic need be evident early 
in life, that is, at or near birth.
Applying these criteria for a basic need 
(having high universal value, being neces -
sary for well-being, not being reducible to 
other needs, and being evident at or near 
birth) yielded three basic needs: the needs 
for acceptance, prediction, and competence. 
Figure 3.1  shows these basic needs, as well 
as the compound needs that are formed later 
in development by the conjunction of the 
basic needs.
I note first that other theories propose dif -
ferent basic needs or more than three basic 
needs. However, most of these theories were 
proposed for adults, and by adulthood, it is 
not clear which needs are basic needs and 
which are simply highly important needs but 
not ones that were there from the earliest pe -
riod of life. Second, looking at adult needs, 
it is hard to fathom which needs are reduc -
ible to other, simpler ones. However, look -
ing at infants and working forward, we can 
more readily see how their basic needs are 
combined to form some of the needs we see 
in older individuals. See Dweck (2017) for 
a comparison of the proposed needs to past 
need taxonomies, such as the closely related 
needs proposed by Stevens and Fiske (1995) 
and by Deci and Ryan (2000).