The Cyclical Interdependence Theory of Needs: A Dynamic Systems Framework for Understanding Human Motivation

In this paper, I challenge the substance ontology underpinning contemporary theories of human motivation, which treat needs as stable, possessable entities. Dominant frameworks from Maslow’s hierarchy to Self-Determination Theory fail to account for empirical evidence showing needs fluctuate across contexts, cycle nonlinearly over time, and influence one another recursively. I demonstrate that these failures stem from conceptualizing needs as things rather than processes. I adopted dynamic systems as a metatheoretical framework and integrated it with a process ontology (Whitehead’s prehension and Bergson’s durée) to present the Cyclical Interdependence Theory of Needs (CITN). CITN reconceptualizes needs as emergent, temporally embedded events organized through five principles: temporal embeddedness, recursive interdependence, contextual emergence, nonlinear dynamics, and adaptive learning. Theoretically, CITN shifts motivation research from measuring static traits to understanding dynamic processes, reorienting inquiry toward relational, embedded, and temporal phenomena. Methodologically, research grounded in CITN requires intensive longitudinal designs, person-specific modeling, and computational simulation that capture motivational dynamics invisible to cross-sectional approaches. Future research should prioritize crisis contexts where recursive feedback and temporal reorganization are most visible, apply CITN’s methodological implications, and extend the theory to applied domains, including education, healthcare, organizational behavior, and community development.