Effective learners are cognizant of their own basic needs and abilities so as to maximize their capabilities, dispositions, as well as potentialities up to become self-actualized individuals. To delve into the process of university students’ self-actualization, we strived to amalgamate this construct with two motivational-associated factors, i.e., mastery goal and intrinsic motivation. To do so, a three-phase mixed-methods study was designed. In the first phase, the reliability and validity of the ‘Measurement of Actualization of Potential (MAP)’ (measuring five sub-scales, namely, openness to self, openness to others, openness to life, adaptability, and autonomy) were determined in the present study via a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In the second phase, our proposed model containing the three constructs was examined using a structural equation modeling (SEM). Eventually, to procure a deeper perception of self-fulfillment valence in actual behaviors, feelings, and assertions of the participants, a semi-structured interview was conducted on seven randomly selected participants from a general sample population of 253 Iranian university students in its first and second phases. The results demonstrated that the proposed model had a good fit with the empirical data.

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