Psychological Needs and Threat to Safety: Implications for Staff and Patients in a Psychiatric Hospital for Youth Martin F. Lynch Jr. University of South Florida Sarasota–Manatee Robert W. Plant Connecticut Department of Children and Families and Yale University School of Medicine Richard M. Ryan University of Rochester For psychiatric care workers and administrators, physical threat from behaviorally dysregulated patients isanimportantissuetiedtomanyothers,includingworkers’jobsatisfaction,motivation,well-being,and attitude toward patients. Yet, the impact of threats to physical safety may be offset by factors in the clinical environment. The authors tested hypotheses derived from self-determination theory concerning the relations of workplace need satisfaction and perceived threat to motivation, attitudes, and well-being among clinical staff within an adolescent psychiatric inpatient hospital. Also tested were relations between need satisfaction and treatment motivation among adolescent patients. To improve the experi- ence of psychiatric workers and their patients, clinical staff and their administrators must attend to the satisfaction of needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. For the worker in a psychiatric inpatient facility, the question “HowsatisfiedamIonthejob?”canhavemultiplemeanings,and its answer can have multiple determinants. Job satisfaction in the traditionalsenseconveysacontentmentwithsalientaspectsofthe job’s demands and rewards, a contentment that in turn may be shapedbytheaffective“climate”oftheworkplace(Brief&Weiss, 2002). Job demands can of course include everyday work-related responsibilities, whereas rewards are often thought of as tangible things like pay and benefits; in an inpatient setting, the work climate may be shaped by, among other things, the risks to safety inherent in working with behaviorally compromised patients. Yet, presumably there are other aspects of such work settings that can contribute to the overall climate in ways that buffer psychiatric employees from the risks of their jobs while providing them a sense of satisfaction in what they do. Thereis,infact,agrowingliteraturethathighlightshowvarious attributes of treatment settings affect the motivation and mental health of care workers. This study extends the literature by apply- ing a model of self-motivation and adjustment derived from self- determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Specifically tested are the relations of worker outcomes (such as “buying into” or acceptance of hospital programs, atti- tudes toward patients, and employee well-being and job satisfac- tion) both with satisfaction of basic psychological needs at work and with the experience of threat to safety on the job. Subsidiary goalsofthisstudyincludedtestingwhetherenjoymentofwork,or intrinsic job satisfaction, accounts for more variance in well-being and motivation than does extrinsic job satisfaction, or satisfaction with pay and benefits. Finally, in a parallel model, we also exam- ined whether the relation between need satisfaction and “buying into”thetreatmentprogramwouldholdforpsychiatricpatients,as we predicted it would for staff. Toexplicatethebasisforthesepredictions,wepresentareview oftheSDTmodelofbasicneedsandtheirimportanceinworkand treatment settings. We review the literature on work environments forpsychiatriccareworkersasitrelatestotheSDTmodelandthen describe the residential treatment context in which the current study took place. Self-Determination Theory: Basic Needs and the Workplace SDTisanempiricallybasedtheorythatisfocusedonhowboth intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and satisfactions affect people’s self-regulation and well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The theory argues that self-motivation and well-being within a given domain MARTIN F. LYNCH JR. earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida Sarasota– Manatee.Hisresearchinterestsincludehumanmotivation,basicneeds,and well-being in cross-cultural perspective. ROBERT W.PLANT earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University ofRochester.Heiscurrentlythedirectorofcommunityprogramsandservices fortheConnecticutDepartmentofChildrenandFamilies,Hartford,CT.Heis also clinical instructor at the Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine. His research interests concern motivation and autonomy support, the therapeutic milieu, promotion of evidenced-based programs, and the de- livery of behavioral health services to children and youth. RICHARD M. RYAN earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the Uni- versity of Rochester. He is currently professor of psychology, psychiatry, andeducationattheUniversityofRochester.Hisareasofresearchinclude human motivation, self-determination theory, mindfulness, vitality, and well-being. THIS WORK WAS SUPPORTED in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59505 to Richard M. Ryan. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should be addressed to Martin F. Lynch Jr., Department of Psychology, University of South Florida Sarasota– Manatee, Sarasota, FL 34243. E-mail: lynch@banshee.sar.usf.edu Professional Psychology: Research and Practice Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association 2005, Vol. 36, No. 4, 415–425 0735-7028/05/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0735-7028.36.4.415 415