‘Sexual Assault and Depressive Symptoms in College Students: Do Psychological Needs Account for the Relationship?’ focuses on the correlation between fulfillment of basic psychological needs and how it affects the levels of depression of sexual assault victims in college students. Many studies in the past have found that the reason for higher depressive symptoms in college students was often connected to students with low satisfaction of their basic psychological needs, such as competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Chang, et al., 2015). With this previous information in mind Edward Chang, et al., wanted to figure out how basic psychological needs play a role in connection with depression of sexual assault victims. They hypothesized that low
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The basic psychological needs of the participants were assessed with the General Basic Psychological Needs Scale and made them respond with indicating how much they agreed with a given statement on a scale from 1 to 7. Symptoms of depression were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Here the participants had to indicate how strongly they felt given symptoms of depression using a scale that ranged from zero to three. After analyzing the results of these surveys completed by the participants of this study, the hypothesis of Chang and his colleagues has been proven correct. Victims of sexual assault have all shown higher levels of depression and lower levels of basic psychological needs satisfaction. Additionally, they found out that low competence, relatedness, and autonomy were especially related to sexual assault victims. Further investigation showed that specifically competence and autonomy had a greater influence on depressive symptoms than relatedness did (Chang, et al., …show more content…
With finding the reason and going into detail about it, it is easier to find the correct, most beneficial approach to solving the problem and not using approaches or medication that won’t be as effective as they should be. However, it might also be of advantage to perform studies such as this one in various other countries or cultures to compare how low satisfaction of basic psychological needs is correlated to depression in general and in sexual assault
The basic psychological needs of the participants were assessed with the General Basic Psychological Needs Scale and made them respond with indicating how much they agreed with a given statement on a scale from 1 to 7. Symptoms of depression were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Here the participants had to indicate how strongly they felt given symptoms of depression using a scale that ranged from zero to three. After analyzing the results of these surveys completed by the participants of this study, the hypothesis of Chang and his colleagues has been proven correct. Victims of sexual assault have all shown higher levels of depression and lower levels of basic psychological needs satisfaction. Additionally, they found out that low competence, relatedness, and autonomy were especially related to sexual assault victims. Further investigation showed that specifically competence and autonomy had a greater influence on depressive symptoms than relatedness did (Chang, et al., …show more content…
With finding the reason and going into detail about it, it is easier to find the correct, most beneficial approach to solving the problem and not using approaches or medication that won’t be as effective as they should be. However, it might also be of advantage to perform studies such as this one in various other countries or cultures to compare how low satisfaction of basic psychological needs is correlated to depression in general and in sexual assault