Looking toward the boundaries ofthe phenomenon of the basic psychological need for relatedness
The article is devoted to clarifying the concept of “relatedness” and determining the boundaries of the phenomenon. For this purpose, two studies were conducted: a focus group and a field survey. The focus group results the largest percentage of responses describe relatedness as the group affiliation. Moreover, three more representations of were identified: involvement - alienation, sense of wholeness - emptiness. The field research shows, confirmed previous results, and revealed two more representations. The subsequent theoretical analysis was aimed to describe the relationship between relatedness and related phenomena: social identity, ego-identity, attachment, dependence and social exclusion.