The Anchor Need Profile (ANP): Construct Definition and a Validation Agenda for a Three-Need Model of Interpersonal Sensitivity Under Stress

People differ not only in which social needs matter to them but in which need they return to under stress and in how far that sensitivity distorts their reading of others. Existing frameworks describe social needs without operationalizing this dispositional structure. Self-determination theory specifies three universal needs but treats them as states to be satisfied or frustrated. Attachment measures capture relational anxiety and avoidance, largely in romantic contexts. Social threat models proliferate domains that are difficult to interpret as an individual profile. This paper defines the construct of an anchor need, the social need a person disproportionately returns to under pressure, and situates it within a parsimonious three-need model comprising Belonging, Value, and Agency. It introduces the Anchor Need Profile (ANP), a 48-item self-report instrument that profiles three dimensions: the dominant anchor need, the default response pattern a person shows to others' expressed needs, and the degree to which the anchor intensifies under stress. The model is grounded in self-determination theory, attachment theory, social threat research, and the neurophysiology of threat detection. The instrument is unvalidated. The paper presents construct definitions, a discriminant account distinguishing the ANP from related measures, and a five-phase validation agenda with falsifiable predictions. The contribution is conceptual and methodological: a defined construct and a transparent program for testing it, not a claim of established validity.