Clearly, there are many factors that lead people to emphasize certain life goals that may not be need fulfilling. For example, exposure to the commercial media can prompt a locus on materialism (Richins, 1987), which provides only fleeting satisfactions and could actually de- tract from basic need fulfillment and, thus, well-being. Prior deficits in need fulfillment (e.g., from poor caregiv- ing) might also lead individuals to yearn for more extrinsic goals as a substitute or compensatory mechanism. In fact, T. Kasser, Ryan, Zax, and Sameroff (1995) found that teens who had been exposed to cold, controlling maternal care (as assessed with ratings by the teens, mothers, and observ- ers) were more likely to develop materialistic orientations, compared with better nurtured teens who more strongly valued the intrinsic goals of personal growth, relationships, and community. In short, cultural and developmental in- fluences produce variations in the importance of goals, the pursuit of which, in turn, yields different satisfaction of basic needs and different levels of well-being.
Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being (Ryan & Deci,