Intimacy status in a sample of 48 men and 44 women (M age = 25) was investigated in relation to ego-identity status in occupation, religion, politics, and sex role. Orlofsky's intimacy status measure was modified for use with adults and expanded by the addition of the merger status, describing relationships in which one partner dominated the other. There were no significant sex differences in intimacy status or identity status. As predicted by Erikson's theory^ intimacy status was generally related to identity status among males and females.. This relationship was not observed for occupational identity in either sex. It is suggested that Erikson's theory regarding the pattern of identity and intimacy resolutions may be extended from men to women, at least for the type of sample studied in the present investigation.This article was based in part on a dissertation submitted by Stephanie Tesch to the University of Rochester toward fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree.This research was included in a presentation at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, September 1980.We thank Sherri Oden and Harry Reis for their help in the development of the study and thank Sandra Bernasek, Joyce Ebbemeyer, Karen Mackie, and Lucinda Wilcox for their assistance as interviewers and raters.Requests for reprints should be sent to Stephanie
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The formation of ego identity through exploration of alternatives and formation of commitments is a central issue m the transition from adolescence to adulthood (Enkson, 1959, Waterman, 1982 In 59 adults ranging in age from 18 to 30, independent identity scales were found to be positively correlated with age The construct of openness to expenence was hypothesized to account for individual differences m identity development As predicted, openness to expenence was jwsitively correlated with ratmgs of current and past identity exploration, and negatively related to intensity of identity commitment A companson of two methods of measunng ego identity showed that identity ratmg scales provide a more differentiated assessment of psychosocial development than does the identity status sconng method Formation of ego identity is a lifelong process that contnbutes to a sense of continuity with one's past, confidence in the future, and ability to manage mtemal and extemal conflict (Enkson, 1959) Functioning as a crucial link between childhood expenences and adult role expectations, ego identity is a comerstone of Enkson's model ofthe healthy personality and contrasts with identity diffusion, which in extreme cases resembles psychopathology Described by Erikson as a gradual, reciprocal process involving the individual and society, identity formation may reach a crisis phase m late adolescence or early adulthood when the We thank the students in the 1983 and 1984 Assessment Interview courses at Rider College for their assistance in collecting and sconng the data Thanks also to Robert McCrae for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper Correspondence should be sent to Stephanie A Tesch at 1707 Pbabody Street, Appleton, WI 54915Joumalcf Personality 55 4, December 1987 Copynght
A review of research literature indicates that friendship develops from a basis of mutual liking and shared activities in early childhood, to include loyalty and mutual aid in late childhood. Intimate self-disclosure becomes a function of friendship in adolescence with certain aspects of intimacy more typical of females than males. Self-referent elements of friendship such as similarity, power, and acceptance may decrease in importance during adulthood. Friendship in childhood and adolescence has most often been studied in relation to social cognition, whereas friendship in late life has most often been studied in relation to subjective well-being. Further research on individual differences in friendly behavior and longitudinal change in relationships is necessary to develop a life-span theory of friendship.
Though often cited, Erikson's theory has been relatively neglected in empirical studies of adult development, partly because few measures operationalize his psychosocial constructs. The present research examined the internal consistency and construct validity of an expanded version of the Inventory of Psychosocial Development (E-IPD) which included the generativity and ego integrity scales created by Boylin et al. [1]. Participants were seventy-nine adults with a mean age of forty-two and mean educational level of fifteen years. Total E-IPD scores were found to have high internal consistency but many individual stage scales did not. Men's E-IPD scores showed discriminant validity with respect to social desirability and women's E-IPD scores showed convergent validity with a measure of subjective well-being. Psychosocial development scores were largely unrelated to age, indicating that the E-IPD may have little validity as a measure of adult development.
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