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International Journal of Psychology

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Aspirations and wellbeing in Romanian and US undergraduates

Michael J. Stevens
a b c a b

, Petru-Madalin Constantinescu & Andreea Butucescu

Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA School of Sciences, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

School of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

d

Center for Educational and Professional Counseling, Ovidius University of Constanta, Constanta, Romania Available online: 24 May 2011

To cite this article: Michael J. Stevens, Petru-Madalin Constantinescu & Andreea Butucescu (2011): Aspirations and wellbeing in Romanian and US undergraduates, International Journal of Psychology, 46:6, 436-445 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2011.565344

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2011, 46 (6), 436445

Aspirations and wellbeing in Romanian and US undergraduates

Michael J. Stevens1,2, Petru-Madalin Constantinescu3, and Andreea Butucescu4
1

Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA School of Sciences, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania 3 School of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania 4 Center for Educational and Professional Counseling, Ovidius University of Constanta, Constanta, Romania
2

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pdating cross-cultural research of the past decade on the relationship between life aspirations and wellbeing, we compared Romanian (N 69) and US (N 64) undergraduates on the contribution of the importance and likelihood of attaining intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations to psychological maladjustment and life satisfaction, and on the qualitative meaning they assign to financial success. Similarly to prior studies, we found that extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations tended to be either negatively or positively correlated with life satisfaction, respectively; however, wealth predicted life satisfaction for Romanian students. Unlike previous research, we found generally negative relationships between intrinsic aspirations and psychological maladjustment. Although there were no differences between Romanian and US undergraduates on extrinsic and intrinsic orientation, on the overall importance of attaining aspirations, or on specific extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations, Romanian students expressed weaker expectations of fulfilling intrinsic aspirations than did US students. Finally, the groups produced similar rankings of aspirations and assigned similar meaning to financial success. The results favored a social cognitive rather than a self-determination model of psychological wellbeing in that expectations for attaining aspirations were more often predictive of life satisfaction than were their content. We interpret these findings and their convergence and departure from earlier research in terms of political economic, demographic, and cultural factors. We encourage future cross-cultural investigations of the social construction of aspirations, subsidiation of seemingly contradictory aspirations to each other, and cognitive and ecological mediation of the complex relationship of aspirations to psychological functioning. Keywords: Aspirations; Maladjustment; Wellbeing; Cross-cultural.

` jour la recherche multiculturelle de la dernie ` re de cennie portant sur la relation entre les ettant a ` la vie et le bien-e des e tudiants universitaires de premier cycle aspirations face a tre, nous avons compare tats-uniens (N 64) sur la contribution de limportance et de la probabilite datteindre des roumains (N 69) et e ` ques et extrinse ` ques pour linadaptation psychosociale et la satisfaction face a ` la vie, ainsi que aspirations intrinse ` s financier. Similairement aux e tudes ante ce dentes, nous sur la signification qualitative quils attribuent au succe que les aspirations extrinse ` ques et intrinse ` ques tendaient a ` e gativement ou positivement avons trouve tre soit ne le es avec la satisfaction face a ` la vie, respectivement; cependant, la richesse pre disait la satisfaction face a ` la corre tudiants roumains. Contrairement aux e tudes pre ce dentes, nous avons trouve des relations vie chez les e ne ralement ne gatives entre les aspirations intrinse ` ques et linadaptation psychosociale. Quoiquil ny ait pas de ge rence entre les e tudiants roumains et e tats-uniens en regard de lorientation extrinse ` que et intrinse ` que, diffe ne rale des aspirations a ` atteindre ou les aspirations extrinse ` ques et intrinse ` ques concernant limportance ge cifiques, les e tudiants roumains exprimaient de plus faibles attentes quant a ` latteinte des aspirations spe ` ques comparativement aux e tudiants e tats-uniens. Finalement, les groupes ont obtenu des rangs similaires intrinse des significations similaires au succe ` s financier. Les re sultats favorisaient un mode ` le daspirations et ont attribue

Correspondence should be addressed to Michael J. Stevens, Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Campus Box 4620, Normal, IL 61790-4620, USA. (E-mail: mjsteven@ilstu.edu).

Preliminary findings were presented at the 2010 regional meeting of the International Council of Psychologists, Padua, Italy. 2011 International Union of Psychological Science http://www.psypress.com/ijp http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2011.565344

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` le autode termine du bien-e sociocognitif pluto t quun mode tre psychologique, en ce sens que les attentes pour taient plus souvent pre dictives de la satisfaction face a ` la vie que ne le tait leur contenu. atteindre les aspirations e tons ces re sultats, leur convergence et leur orientation a ` partir de la recherche ante rieure en termes Nous interpre conomiques, de mographiques et culturels. Nous encourageons les e tudes multiculturelles de facteurs politiques, e des aspirations apparemment contradictoires futures sur la construction sociale des aspirations, sur la subsidiarite diateur des aspects cognitifs et e cologiques sur la relation les unes par rapport aux autres, ainsi que sur le ro le me complexe entre les aspirations et le fonctionnement psychologique. n de la investigacio n transcultural de la u cada sobre la relacio n entre las modo de una actualizacio ltima de aspiraciones de vida y el bienestar, se compararon estudiantes universitarios rumanos (N 69) y estadounidenses (N 64) en la incidencia de la importancia y la probabilidad de alcanzar aspiraciones intr nsecas gico y la satisfaccio n con la vida, y sobre el significado cualitativo que se le y extr nsecas sobre el desajuste psicolo xito financiero. Al igual que en estudios previos, se encontro que las aspiraciones extr nsecas e asignaba al e n de vida, respectivamente, sin intr nsecas tienden a correlacionarse negativa o positivamente con la satisfaccio xito econo mico predijo satisfaccio n de vida en los estudiantes rumanos. A diferencia de las embargo, el e investigaciones previas, encontramos relaciones generales negativas entre las aspiraciones intr nsecas y el gico. Aunque no hubo diferencias entre los estudiantes rumanos y estadounidenses en la desajuste psicolo n extr nseca e intr nseca, en la importancia global que le asignaban al alcance de las aspiraciones, o en orientacio s de biles las aspiraciones extr nsecas e intr nsecas espec ficas, los estudiantes rumanos expresaron expectativas ma que los estudiantes de los Estados Unidos de cumplimiento de las aspiraciones intr nsecas. Por u ltimo, los grupos xito financiero. Los produjeron un ranking similar de aspiraciones y le asignaron significados similares al e s un modelo de cognicio n social que un modelo de autodeterminacio n del bienestar resultados favorecieron ma gico, en el que eran las expectativas para el logro de las aspiraciones ma s que los contenidos en s los que psicolo s predec an la satisfaccio n con la vida. Interpretamos estos hallazgos y su convergencia y divergencia con las ma rminos de factores pol ticos, econo micos, demogra ficos y culturales. investigaciones anteriores en te n de futuras investigaciones transculturales referidas a la construccio n social de Recomendamos la realizacio n de aspiraciones aparentemente contradictorias entre s y la mediacio n cognitiva las aspiraciones, la subordinacio gica de la compleja relacio n entre las aspiraciones y el funcionamiento psicolo gico. y ecolo

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Aspirations can be viewed as goals or as valuebased means for satisfying human needs (Schwartz, 1994). Organismic self-determination theories (SDTs) hold that the immoderate pursuit of extrinsic aspirations (e.g., financial success, social recognition, attractive appearance) is tied to lower psychological wellbeing, whereas pursuit of intrinsic aspirations (e.g., self-acceptance, affiliation, community feeling) is linked to greater psychological wellbeing (Fromm, 1976; Maslow, 1954; Rogers, 1947). Some have argued that excessive materialism can distract people from their inherent needs, leading to distress and more serious dysfunction (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001). This view contrasts the social cognitive perspective of motivation, which holds that the content of aspirations is less essential to wellbeing than are perceived capabilities of attaining aspirations (Carver & Scheier, 1998; Oishi, Diener, Lucas, & Suh, 1999). The biopsychosocial model of mental health and illness (Schwarzer & Gutierrez-Dona, 2000) places additional relevance on the construct of satisfaction with life, with mental health conceived not only as the absence of dysfunction but also as the presence of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, mental illness may be construed not

only as the presence of dysfunction, but also as the absence of subjective wellbeing. Previous cross-cultural research has established a relationship between healthy functioning and the relative importance and efficacy of aspirations that fulfill organismic tendencies rather than lead to a conferred sense of worth (Frost & Frost, 2000; Grouzet et al., 2005; Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996; Ryan et al., 1999; Schmuck, Kasser, & Ryan, 2000; van den Berg & Pitariu, 2005). Because SDT holds that the pursuit of intrinsic aspirations is tied to organismic functioning (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001), and by implication universal needs, efforts to fulfill such needs should enhance wellbeing across cultures (Schwartz, 1994). SDT has received support in research on US samples (e.g., Kasser & Ryan, 1993) as well as in studies conducted in eastern and western European countries (e.g., Ryan et al., 1999; Schmuck et al., 2000). In a cross-cultural investigation of the relationship between aspirations and wellbeing, Frost and Frost (2000) found that, while Romanian and US students reported greater wellbeing when intrinsic goals (i.e., community feeling) were central to their lives, only US students showed a negative association between extrinsic motivation (i.e., financial success)

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and wellbeing. In addition, Romanian students reported less satisfaction with life and lower expectations for life satisfaction than US students, perhaps directing them to pursue more self-oriented goals (e.g., personal growth). This partial confirmation of SDT may have reflected differences in the sociohistorical contexts of Romania versus the United States, underscoring the importance of situating the content of aspirations and expectations for their attainment in an ecological framework (Bond et al., 2004; Ingelhart, 1997; Ingelhart & Baker, 2000; Spector et al., 2001). Furthermore, the relatively low expectations of Romanian students for attaining extrinsic goals were tied to a diminished sense of wellbeing, not only supporting a social cognitive explanation of motivation (see Bond et al., 2004) but also suggesting why they may have chosen to pursue more attainable intrinsic goals (e.g., personal growth). This study aimed to: 1. extend the study of the association of extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations to psychological wellbeing in a sample of Romanian and US undergraduates situated in a changed and more interconnected world than that of 10 years agowe anticipated fewer differences between Romanian and US undergraduates on the subjective importance and perceived likelihood of attaining extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations (Cernat, 2010; Condruz-Bacescu & Maftei, 2007) 2. examine the relationship of extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations to psychological maladjustment as well as wellbeing in these samples 3. compare the subjective meaning of a core extrinsic aspiration, financial success, on which these groups had differed previously 4. test SDT against the position that expectations for the attainment of aspirations are more predictive of psychological wellbeing than their content (i.e., likelihood of attainment vs. importance).

of less than the equivalent of US$4100 (73.9%), and majoring in the social sciences (58.0%) or hard sciences (40.6%). Sixty-four US undergraduates (35 women, 28 men) between 18 and 25 years old (M 19.839, SD 1.321) volunteered. Most were ethnically European (80.6%), unmarried (93.7%), Catholic (41.7%), or Protestant (38.3%), with an annual family income above $65,000 (60.7%), and majoring in the social sciences (41.3%) or education (34.9%). Because Levenes test revealed a significant inequality in age variances, t(129) 4.942, p 5 .001, a Mann-Whitney U-test was performed for Romanian and US undergraduates on age, yielding a significant group difference, U(131) 3172.500, z 4.891, p 5 .001; mean rank difference 31.65. Consequently, age was partialed out of all data used in the analyses described below. Measures The following measures were used in this study: background questionnaire, Aspiration Index (AI; Kasser & Ryan, 1993), an open-ended item on the meaning of financial success, College Maladjustment Scale (Mt; Ben-Porath et al., 2000; Kleinmuntz, 1961), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larson, & Griffin, 1985). The methodology used in translating each instrument into Romanian followed the standards of the International Test Commission (Tanzer & Sim, 1999) and other established guidelines for the translation and cross-cultural use of psychological tests (Hambleton & Patsula, 1999). Specifically, we used transliteration and back-translation procedures (Brislin, 1970). Transliteration entailed concern by the authors for preserving the psychological meaning of items as opposed to derivation of a literal translation. Back-translation involved a bilingual doctoral candidate, unfamiliar with the instruments or purpose of the study, retranslating Romanian items into English to ensure their similarity in meaning, form, and readability to the source measures. The equivalence and temporal stability of the Romanian and English versions of the AI and SWLS were established in earlier research (Stevens, Constantinescu, & Lambru, 2006a, 2006b). Background questionnaire The background questionnaire consisted of open-ended and multiple-choice items that inquired about gender, age, ethnicity, marital

METHOD Participants Sixty-nine Romanian undergraduates (38 women, 31 men) between 19 and 60 years old (M 26.101, SD 9.895) volunteered. Most were ethnically Romanian (89.9%), unmarried (63.8%), and Orthodox (79.7%), with an annual family income

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status, religious affiliation, annual family income, and academic major. Aspiration Index The AI has been used extensively in research on SDT. It consists of 32 statements designed to measure seven major life goals: wealth, fame, image, personal growth, relationships, community feeling, and good health. Respondents rate each item on two seven-point Likert scales (1 not at all, 7 very) that represent the importance of the aspiration and the likelihood of attaining it. In addition to being internally consistent and stable, factor analyses of the AI on US samples have yielded two factors that correspond to extrinsic (wealth, fame, image) and intrinsic (personal growth, relationships, community feeling) aspirations (Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996). In addition to scoring these six aspirations for their importance and likelihood of attainment, we computed overall importance and likelihood scores by averaging importance and likelihood scores across aspirations, as well as overall extrinsic and intrinsic importance and likelihood scores by averaging importance and likelihood scores across either extrinsic or intrinsic aspirations, respectively. Finally, we calculated respondents relative orientation toward extrinsic versus intrinsic aspirations by subtracting their overall (mean) importance and likelihood scores for extrinsic aspirations from their overall (mean) importance and likelihood scores for intrinsic aspirations, respectively. Financial success The meaning of financial success consisted of a single, open-ended item: Describe in your own words what financial success means to you (i.e., its significance to your life). This item was intended to explore how Romanian and US undergraduates currently construe financial success given prior research suggesting a difference (Frost & Frost, 2000). By adopting a qualitative method to complement our otherwise quantitative approach, we sought to uncover the richer, more nuanced meaning of an important aspirationfinancial successwith the aim of advancing the current perspective on value-based motivation (Alasuutari, 2010; Gilgun, 2005). Concerns about generalizability and subjectivity notwithstanding, our method of coding and analyzing participants open-ended responses conformed to established guidelines for the logico-deductive interpretation of qualitative data (Willig & Stainton-Rogers, 2008). Three Romanian and two American

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judges unitized responses to the meaning of financial success item for the Romanian sample and US sample, respectively. A unit was defined as a word, phrase, or sentence(s) that captures an independent and complete idea. Judges independently assigned each unit to one of 10 distinct value clusters from the Schwartz Value Survey (achievement, benevolence, conformity, hedonism, power, security, self-direction, stimulation, tradition, universalism) (Schwartz & Sagiv, 1995) or to a miscellaneous category if ambiguous or illfitting. Each unit was assigned to one value cluster where it best fit. Intercoder reliability was not determined because coders resolved instances of disagreement by consensus. The Schwartz Value Survey has been used in cross-cultural research of this kind (Bond et al., 2004; Frost & Frost, 2000). College Maladjustment Scale The Mt scale is composed of 41 truefalse items designed to measure psychological difficulties of sufficient severity to motivate university students to seek professional assistance. Responses are scored in the maladjustment direction, with higher scores measuring anxiety, inefficacy, pessimism, somatization, and the experience of life as a strain most of the time. The Mt scale shows acceptable internal consistency, concurrent validity with established indices of general maladjustment, and predictive validity with such criteria as grade-point average and history of psychological treatment (Lauterbach, Garcia, & Gloster, 2002). Satisfaction with Life Scale The SWLS is a five-item measure of subjective wellbeing that requires the evaluation of ones personal circumstances against normative standards. Responses are based on a seven-point Likert scale (1 strongly disagree, 7 strongly agree), with scores above 20 indicating life satisfaction. The SWLS has good internal consistency, and factor analyses have identified a single dimension of subjective wellbeing (Diener et al., 1985; Frost & Frost, 2000). Procedure After giving consent, undergraduates completed in counterbalanced order the background questionnaire, AI, the item on the meaning of financial success, Mt, and SWLS. Undergraduates received extra credit for their participation and were debriefed.

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RESULTS Similarities between Romanian and US undergraduates For Romanian and US samples, AI scale scores for importance and likelihood dimensions were subjected to separate factor analyses with a forced two-factor solution. Eigenvalues that approached 1 were the criteria for factor extraction. For both samples, two factors emerged for importance scale scores, accounting for 66.242% and 68.690% of the variance for Romanians and Americans, respectively. Factor 1 included three AI extrinsic scales, with loadings on wealth, fame, and image of .810.844 for Romanian undergraduates and .792 .880 for US undergraduates. Factor 2 included three AI intrinsic scales, with loadings on personal growth, relationships, and community feeling of .732.788 and .609810 for Romanian and US students, respectively. For both samples, two factors emerged for likelihood scale scores, explaining 73.642% and 69.539% of the variance for Romanians and Americans, respectively. Factor 1 included three AI extrinsic scales, with loadings on wealth, fame, and image of .715.913 for Romanian undergraduates and .794.828 for US undergraduates. Factor 2 included three AI intrinsic scales, with loadings on personal growth, relationships, and community feeling of .540.918 for Romanian and .771.839 for students, respectively. The results of these factor analyses support the conceptual distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations. For Romanian and US samples, Mt and SWLS scores were negatively correlated, r(67) .520, p 5 .001, 1b .566, and r(62) .561, p 5 .001, 1b .597, respectively. A principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation of Mt and SWLS scores for both samples yielded a single factor that accounted for 77.02% of the variance, confirming these measures to be contrasting yet related aspects of psychological maladjustment and wellbeing. Overall extrinsic importance and likelihood scores were positively correlated for Romanian, r(67) .672, p 5 .001, 1b .784, and for American groups, r(62) .792, p 5 .001, 1 b .876. Overall intrinsic importance and likelihood scores were also positively correlated for Romanian undergraduates, r(67) .458, p 5 .001, 1b .465, and for US undergraduates, r(62) .577, p 5 .001, 1b .621. Overall extrinsic and intrinsic importance scores were positively correlated for Romanian students, r(67) .362, p .002, 1b .315, and for US students,

TABLE 1 Correlations of importance and likelihood AI Centrality Scale scores with Mt and SWLS scores for Romanian and US undergraduates Mt Aspirations Wealth Importance Likelihood Fame Importance Likelihood Image Importance Likelihood Personal growth Importance Likelihood Relationships Importance Likelihood Community feeling Importance Likelihood Romanian US SWLS Romanian US

.046 .150 .077 .088 .016 .080 .071 .283b .114 .109 .008 .067

.130 .033 .172 .186 .061 .114 .090 .234 .219 .291 .084 .124

.053 .226 .144 .128 .064 .244a .096 .270c .209 .010 .031 .060

.095 .216 .194 .220 .010 .079 .161 .412d .167 .231 .077 .004

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a p .044, 1b .168; bp .019, 1b .211; cp .025, 1b .196; dp .001, 1b .381.

r(62) .252, p .047, 1b .166. Overall extrinsic and intrinsic likelihood scores were also positively correlated for Romanian, r(67) .618, p 5 .001, 1b .714, and for American samples, r(62) .483, p 5 .001, 1b .476. Because there were no statistically significant gender differences on overall intrinsic and extrinsic importance and likelihood scores for either group, the remaining analyses were conducted on pooled national samples. Relative orientation scores were correlated with Mt and SWLS scores, with a positive association only for US undergraduates between relative likelihood scores and SWLS scores, r(62) .379, p .002, 1b 319. Correlations for Romanian and US samples between AI centrality scale scores (a description of the calculation of centrality scores appears below) and Mt and SWLS scores are given in Table 1. The only significant correlations at an alpha level of .01 was likelihood of personal growth scores and SWLS scores for US students, r(62) .412, p .001, 1b .367.

Differences between Romanian and US undergraduates Before determining the relationship of aspirational content to psychological maladjustment and

ASPIRATIONS AND WELLBEING TABLE 2 Ranking of importance and likelihood AI Centrality Scale scores for Romanian and US undergraduates Importance Personal growth Relationships Community feeling Wealth Image Fame Likelihood Relationships Personal growth Community feeling Image Wealth Fame Romanian mean (SD) 6.54 6.37 2.53 3.89 4.01 7.54 6.07 5.25 1.93 2.71 4.17 6.36 (3.57) (4.71) (4.37) (4.20) (4.76) (4.75) (4.39) (3.04) (4.07) (4.23) (4.35) (4.11) Importance Relationships Personal growth Community feeling Wealth Image Fame Likelihood Relationships Personal growth Community feeling Image Wealth Fame US mean (SD) 7.88 5.78 3.28 3.20 5.25 8.50 6.28 4.47 3.47 3.08 3.26 7.89 (9.33) (3.65) (4.50) (4.50) (4.80) (4.67) (3.22) (3.22) (4.12) (3.82) (4.03) (3.99)

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wellbeing, it was necessary to control for the potential confound of the tendency to evaluate all aspirations as important or attainable. AI scale scores for each aspiration were centralized by subtracting either mean importance or likelihood scores from raw importance or likelihood scale scores, respectively. Then eight stepwise regressions were performed with centralized AI scale scores as predictors either of Mt or SWLS scores for Romanian and US undergraduates. For Romanian and US samples, the regression of centralized importance scale scores on Mt was not significant. Unlike the results for the American group, the regression of centralized likelihood scale scores on Mt scores was significant for Romanian undergraduates, R2 .080, F(1, 67) 5.811, p .019, f 2 0.087, 1b .686; centralized likelihood of personal growth scores negatively predicted Mt scores, b .283. The regression of centralized likelihood scale scores on SWLS scores was significant for Romanian students, R2 .142, F(2, 66) 5.453, p .006, f 2 .166, 1b .854, and US students, R2 .170, F(1, 60) 12.297, p .001, f 2 0.205, 1b .949. For Romanian participants, SWLS scores were positively predicted by centralized likelihood of personal growth scores, b .304, and centralized likelihood of wealth scores, b .264, DR2 .069, F(1, 66) 5.290, p .025, f 2 0.074, 1b .617. For American participants, centralized likelihood of Personal growth scores positively predicted SWLS scores, b .412. To further identify differences between Romanian and US samples, we conducted t-tests on overall importance and likelihood scores, overall extrinsic and intrinsic importance

scores, overall extrinsic likelihood and intrinsic likelihood scores, centralized importance and likelihood scores for AI extrinsic scales (wealth, fame, image) and AI intrinsic scales (personal growth, relationships, community feeling), and Mt and SWLS scores. Alpha was set at .01 to correct for the accumulation of experiment-wise error. Only one of the t-tests reached significance; Romanian undergraduates produced significantly lower likelihood scores averaged across intrinsic aspirations than did US undergraduates, t(129) 2.849, p .005, d 0.502, 1b .813. The rank order of centralized AI scale scores for Romanian and American groups was virtually the same (Table 2). The 58 Romanian undergraduates who responded to the open-ended item on the meaning of financial success generated 92 units. Units were assigned primarily to eight value clusters, most often to hedonism (e.g., pleasure; 25.0%), miscellaneous (20.0%), security (e.g., family protection; 15.2%), tradition (e.g., moderation; 12.0%), and benevolence (e.g., helpfulness; 10.9%). Achievement (e.g., success), self-direction (e.g., freedom), and power (e.g., authority) each contained less than 10% of all units, with no units assigned to conformity (e.g., obedience), stimulation (e.g., excitement), or universalism (e.g., justice and peace). The 62 US undergraduates who responded generated 168 units on financial success. Units were assigned to all 10 value clusters, most often to tradition (23.8%), benevolence (17.9%), security (17.3%), and hedonism (16.1%). The seven remaining clusters each contained less than 10% of all units. For example, approximately 1% of units linked financial success to power or self-direction.

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DISCUSSION Factor analyses of age-residualized AI scale scores lent additional support to the distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations by Romanian and US undergraduates. Outcomes of the factor analyses are in line with the two-factor solutions for the AI established in prior research on US adolescents and young adults (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Kasser & Ryan, 1996), cross-cultural comparisons of US and German undergraduates (Schmuck et al., 2000), and a large-scale transnational investigation that included a Romanian sample (Grouzet et al., 2005). The single-factor solution and negative relationship between maladjustment and life satisfaction underscores the notion that psychological wellbeing may have individual and cultural dimensions and determinants (Bond et al., 2004; Schwarzer & GutierrezDona, 2000; Spector et al., 2001; van den Berg & Pitariu, 2005). Specifically, the presence of anxiety, cynicism, disagreeableness, inefficacy, externality, somatization, and strain may impede the experience of wellbeing, whereas the absence or opposite of such tendencies may enable a person to experience wellbeing. The organismic perspective (Fromm, 1976; Maslow, 1954; Rogers, 1947) and its progeny, SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001), offer insights into how psychological maladjustment and life satisfaction may co-create each other, which can guide empirical efforts to articulate the construct of psychological wellbeing. Perspectives that feature generalized expectancies (Bond et al., 2004) and personality dispositions (Spector et al., 2001; van den Berg & Pitariu, 2005) represent promising alternative approaches for understanding this relationship. Our primary goal was to replicate the associations of extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations to psychological wellbeing and to examine whether these aspirations would be inversely related to psychological maladjustment among a contemporary sample of Romanian and American undergraduates. We found partial support for the linkages predicted by SDT. Unlike earlier investigations (Frost & Frost, 2000; Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 2006; Ryan et al., 1999; Schmuck et al., 2000), we did not find that relative importance and likelihood of attaining extrinsic aspirations negatively predicted maladjustment or wellbeing, with the exception of attaining wealth. Contrary to SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001), expectations of attaining wealth were positively linked to wellbeing for Romanian undergraduates, perhaps indicating

that financial success, once perceived as an important but unlikely goal (Frost & Frost, 2000), may now be within reach and, in accordance with social cognitive theory (Carver & Scheier, 1997; Oishi et al., 1999), enhance subjective wellbeing. Because Romania is poorer than the United States (Ingelhart, 1997; Ingelhart & Baker, 2000), as were Romanian undergraduates relative to their American peers, Romanians in general may not be in circumstances in which financial success as a central life aspiration has the same adverse psychological consequences as it does for citizens of wealthier nations (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Grouzet et al., 2005; Kasser, 2002; Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001; Schmuck et al., 2000). Given consistent widespread dissatisfaction with their living standard (Soros Foundation Romania, 2007), it seems reasonable that the lower-order (extrinsic) needs of Romanian students would need to be met materially before organismic (intrinsic) needs could be pursued (Maslow, 1954). In fact, the perceived economic status of Romanians (i.e., goods owned and favorable social comparisons) is tied to their subjective wellbeing (Cernat, 2010). Moreover, related studies on happiness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Myers, 2000) show that a precondition of psychological wellbeing is a modest and stable income, after which less tangible and more meaningful commitments become sources for fulfillment (e.g., personal growth). Recent investigations have advanced the view that financial success, though still belonging to the extrinsic cluster of aspirations, may have a more nuanced connotation for citizens of economically disadvantaged countries than for those of postmaterialistic nations (Cernat, 2010; Grouzet et al., 2005). More so than their US peers, Romanian undergraduates construed financial success as a way to enjoy the pleasures of life with, perhaps, less forbearance toward moderation and selfsacrifice given the economic hardships they continue to experience. However, like the US sample, Romanian students reported that financial success offered them and their families a greater sense of order, security, and opportunity to reciprocate; such pragmatic, survival (Ingelhart & Baker, 2000) values suggest that financial success may not be related either to a sense of conferred worth or to the fulfillment of organismic needs. Given the association between internality and wellbeing (Spector et al., 2001) and evidence that the young and educated believe they are responsible for their happiness (Mungiu-Pippidi, 2010), it is important to explore the cognitive mediation of the

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relationship between wealth and life satisfaction (Bond et al., 2004). As for intrinsic aspirations, the relative likelihood of attaining personal growth positively predicted psychological wellbeing for Romanian and US undergraduates, and negatively predicted maladjustment for Romanians. These findings depart from prior cross-cultural research in which such relationships did not emerge for Romanian students (Frost & Frost, 2000). Personal growth is central to organismic theory, representing a tendency found in individualistic cultures (Draguns & Tanaka-Matsumi, 2003). In collectivistic cultures, increased striving toward personal growth may represent an unintended consequence of globalization (e.g., a decline in traditional authority and rise in secularrational values) (Bond et al., 2004; Ingelhart, 1997; Ingelhart & Baker, 2000), especially among young adults. This interpretation is bolstered by the ranking of community feeling as the least important and attainable organismic need, which was unrelated to psychological maladjustment and wellbeing (cf. Frost & Frost, 2000). Alternatively, the results may simply reflect developmentally appropriate aspirations for undergraduates as they emerge from adolescence into early adulthood, adopting an open stance toward personal and vocational sources of fulfillment (van den Berg & Pitariu, 2005). That the relative likelihood of attaining personal growth positively predicted psychological wellbeing supports a social cognitive interpretation rather than one grounded in SDT. That is, expectations for initiating and sustaining agentic action aimed at fulfilling intrinsic goals rather than the content of these goals are experienced as satisfying and free of discomfort (Carver & Scheier, 1998; Oishi et al., 1999). The link for US students between their stronger orientation toward anticipated goal attainment and psychological wellbeing further supports the social cognitive formulation. Romanian students have come to experience themselves as more capable of attaining their inherent needs, though less efficacious than their American peers, perhaps because they are better educated (Mungiu-Pippidi, 2010) and less thoroughly socialized by communism (Cernat, 2010). However, ordinary Romanians internality is lower than that of Americans (Spector et al., 2001) and their generalized expectancies reflect greater perceived hostility toward citizens by the social system in which they are situated (Bond et al., 2004; Sandu, 1999). Such cognitive apprehension and fatalism imply that even young Romanians may be hampered in fulfilling intrinsic

aspirations by lingering ecological conditions (e.g., lack of a new statecitizenry social contract; Mungiu-Pippidi, 2010). Unlike previous studies that reported differences between US and European samples (Frost & Frost, 2000; Grouzet et al., 2005; Ryan et al., 1999; Schmuck et al., 2000), no significant differences emerged between Romanian and US undergraduates on overall importance scores, on the relative importance and likelihood of attaining extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations, or on indices of psychological functioning; however, Romanian students had lower overall expectations of realizing their intrinsic goals. Ten years ago, Romanian students were generally less fulfilled and confident than American students about meeting their aspirations, particularly those related to financial success, personal growth, relationships, and community feeling (Frost & Frost, 2000). At present, young Romanian and American adults have similar perceptions of the relative importance and anticipated success in attaining their needs, both material and organismic. Our Romanian undergraduate sample suffered fewer years of communist indoctrination (Cernat, 2010), and, owing to their youth at the time, experienced less deprivation and oppression than did undergraduates sampled by Frost and Frost (2000). Moreover, the process of globalization in general and integration into the European Union and NATO specifically may have fostered cultural homogenization (Ingelhart 1997; Ingelhart & Baker, 2000) in which the United States has had a profound impact on the worldview and lifestyle of many Romanians (Condruz-Bacescu & Maftei, 2007). Similarities aside, Romania is a country of unhappy optimists (Soros Foundation Romania, 2007). Ordinary Romanians are less satisfied than Americans (Spector et al., 2001), including younger Romanians privileged by education and perceived economic advantage (Cernat, 2010). Although receptive to pathways for reaching valued intrinsic goals (van den Berg & Pitariu, 2005) and responsible for their happiness (Mungiu-Pippidi, 2010), Romanian undergraduates may lack confidence in their ability to succeed. Their motivational trajectory may ultimately reflect the sclerotic societal dynamics (Sandu, 1999) that undermine internal control beliefs (Spector et al., 2001) and harden expectations of maleficence (Bond et al., 2004). The rank-ordering of aspirations according to their relative importance and likelihood of attainment are consistent with SDT and research suggesting that, because intrinsic aspirations reflect organismic needs, they are perceived as

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inherently more important and attainable than extrinsic goals (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Kasser, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2001). The only discrepancy in ranking was that Romanian undergraduates placed the importance of personal growth first and relationships second, whereas American undergraduates reversed the order of these aspirations. As already noted, personal growth was a priority aspiration for both samples, but the rank ordering further identified relationships as important and within reach, and related to the experience of happiness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Myers, 2000). As Frost and Frost (2000) exhorted, Further research into the study of East European nations is needed in psychology (p. 748), particularly the relationship of value-based motivation to psychological functioning given the multidimensional transition that continues to impact the region (Cernat, 2010; Condruz-Bacescu & Maftei, 2007; Mungiu-Pippidi, 2010; Sandu, 1999). Although our study is constrained by its reliance on relatively small and homogeneous samples of convenience, mixed methods of data collection, and variable effect sizes and power, it provides an informative update to the cross-cultural literature on aspirations and wellbeing. Among the more prominent findings were the link between intrinsic goals, specifically expectations of personal growth, and wellbeing; the lack of association between extrinsic goals and psychological dysfunction; indications that extrinsic aspirations may be subsidiary to pragmatic values; the higher rankings given by Romanian and US undergraduates to intrinsic than extrinsic aspirations and convergence between samples on the importance and likelihood of attaining these goals; and evidence favoring the social cognitive perspective in which expectations of attaining aspirations are more critical in determining wellbeing than their content. Simply put, the aspirations of young Romanians and Americans have become more similar. Future cross-cultural studies should embrace a multidisciplinary framework with which to disentangle the complex relationship between aspirations and wellbeing (e.g., Bond et al., 2004; Grouzet et al., 2005; Spector et al., 2001). In addition to administering more sensitive measures of dysfunction and eudaimonic measures of wellbeing (Ryan & Deci, 2001), we encourage investigators to examine how diverse aspirations are socially constructed, as such studies will clarify the reasons why such goals are pursued and the extent to which they may reflect universally held values (Schwartz, 1994). We further recommend that research on individual and national

differences include promising cognitive and personality variables (e.g., control beliefs, generalized expectancies, Big Five) that may explain more fully the relationship between value-based motivation and psychological functioning.
Manuscript received July 2010 Revised manuscript accepted December 2010 First published online April 2011

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