Self-defining memories reflect our enduring concerns (past and present) and our desired future outcomes. One of the important characteristics of self-defining memories is need satisfaction, such that the higher level of satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence in memories positively predicts well-being and relationship satisfaction. Based on past research showing that autonomy supportive environments promote need satisfaction, we hypothesized that autonomy support would lead to greater goal-related need satisfying memories which would in turn promote goal progress. We conducted three prospective studies to test our hypothesis. Participants were asked to list a current goal, and to rate perceived autonomy support from a significant other and their goal progress. They were also asked to select and describe a significant memory related to the goal and rate the extent to which they felt competent, autonomous and related in the memory. We found that changes in need satisfaction in goal-related memories over time mediated the relationship between autonomy support and goal progress. This paper highlights how interpersonal support can influence self-regulation by shaping self-defining memories.

自我定义的记忆反映了我们持久的忧虑（过去和现在）以及我们期望的未来结果。自定义记忆的重要特征之一是需求满足，因此对记忆中的自主性，相关性和能力的需求的较高满意度可以积极预测幸福感和关系满足感。根据过去的研究表明，自主支持环境可以促进需求满足，我们假设自主支持将导致更大的与目标相关的需求满足记忆，从而促进目标的实现。我们进行了三项前瞻性研究，以检验我们的假设。要求参与者列出当前目标，并从其他重要目标及其目标进度中评估感知到的自治支持。他们还被要求选择和描述与目标有关的重要记忆，并评价他们在记忆中感到有能力，自主和相关的程度。我们发现随着时间的推移，与目标相关的记忆中需求满意度的变化介导了自主支持与目标进度之间的关系。本文着重强调人际支持如何通过塑造自我定义的记忆来影响自我调节。