Social Class and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction During Leisure and Paid Work

Abstract

This study examined how basic psychological need satisfaction varies within and between leisure and paid work, taking social class into account. Data were collected from 340 super-creative, creative professional, working, and service class employees who worked at least 20 hours per week. Results included (a) autonomy was highly satisfied during leisure for all four classes, but so too was competence for working and service class members; (b) the degree to which autonomy was satisfied during leisure compared to work differed greatly; (c) competence was satisfied much more during work than leisure only for super-creative and creative professional class members; and (d) relatedness was satisfied more during leisure than work only for service class employees. These findings suggest that programs should be developed to improve super-creative and creative professional class members' leisure-based competence.

Keywords:

• Autonomy
• competence
• relatedness
• creative class
• employee