Loevinger's model and measure of ego development: A critical review.

Hauser, Stuart T.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.83.5.928

Cited by 232 publications

(174 citation statements)

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“…Intellectual capacity, however, may be a necessary but insufficient condition for reaching relatively high levels of maturity. Thus, there may be an asymmetric relationship between intelligence and ego level (Hauser, 1976): A wide range of IQ scores may be present among individuals at the earliest stages of personality (ego) development, whereas a more restricted range of IQ scores (ranging from above average to high) may be present among individuals at the later developmental stages. The current analyses provide tentative support for this hypothesis, but the available data are limited, and additional research is needed to rigorously address the issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intelligence and maturity: Meta-analytic evidence for the incremental and discriminant validity of Loevinger's measure of ego development.

Cohn

Westenberg

2004

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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This review examined whether Loevinger's measure of personality (ego) development is equivalent to the measurement of intelligence. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 52 correlations between ego level scores and intelligence test scores (retrieved from 42 studies involving 5,648 participants). The weighted average correlation between ego level and intelligence ranged from .20 to .34, depending on the intellectual ability assessed (e.g., verbal intelligence). Adjusting for measurement unreliability increased these values only minimally. The authors also reviewed 16 studies that examined the association between ego level and various criterion variables (e.g., aggressive behavior) after statistically controlling for the effects of intelligence. Ninety-four percent of the tests revealed significant relations between ego level and criterion variables after controlling for intelligence, indicating that ego development and intelligence are not interchangeable constructs. These findings do not support recent speculations concerning the limited value of stage models of maturity, social development, and moral reasoning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intelligence and maturity: Meta-analytic evidence for the incremental and discriminant validity of Loevinger's measure of ego development.

Cohn

Westenberg

2004

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…Such children have been described as having high social skills (e.g., Masten et al, in press), with characteristics such as warmth, spontaneity, and expressiveness (Murphy & Moriarty, 1976). In the present study, six variables subsumed within the global construct of social skills were examined; these reflected aspects of emotional as well as social response styles.Ego development, a construct conceptualized by Loevinger (1976), is a "master" trait reflecting character development which is related to various aspects of cognitive and interpersonal development, but which represents more than any of them considered individually (Hauser, 1976). Inclusion of ego development as a moderator variable in this study was based on previous research showing that levels of this construct are negatively related to various indices of coping and maladjustment (Browning & Quinlan, 1985;Frank & Quinlan, 1976;Hauser et al, 1984;Noam et al, 1984).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The item sum score was used to represent level of ego development in the statistical analyses. The Sentence Completion Test has been found to have acceptable levels of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct and discriminant validity (Hauser, 1976;Loevinger, 1979Loevinger, , 1985Redmore & Waldman, 1975 Positive life events-The Life Events Checklist (Johnson & McCutcheon, 1980), described earlier, was used to assess frequency of positive life experiences. …”

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confidence: 99%

Vulnerability and Resilience: A Study of High-Risk Adolescents

Luthar¹

1991

Child Development

556

151

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Factors that allow children to maintain socially competent behaviors despite stress were examined among 144 inner-city ninth-grade students with a mean age of 15.3 years. Stress was operationalized by scores on a negative life events scale, and definitions of social competence were based on peer ratings, teacher ratings, and school grades. Moderator variables examined included intelligence, internal locus of control, social skills, ego development, and positive life events. Following theoretical models by Garmezy and Rutter, distinctions were made between compensatory factors (which are directly related to competence) and protective/vulnerability factors (which interact with stress in influencing competence). Ego development was found to be compensatory against stress. Internality and social skills proved to be protective factors, while intelligence and positive events were involved in vulnerability processes. This study also revealed that children labeled as resilient were significantly more depressed and anxious than were competent children from low stress backgrounds.Faced with life stresses, many children develop psychological difficulties, while others function well. Children in the latter group, labeled "resilient" or "stress resistant," defy expectation by developing into well-adapted individuals. The primary aim of this investigation was to explore variables that promote resilience, that is, that allow children to remain competent despite exposure to stressful life experiences.The phenomenon of resilience was examined among inner-city adolescents. Much of the previous research has been conducted with preadolescent and younger children Garmezy, Masten, & Tellegen, 1984;Masten et al., 1988;Werner & Smith, 1982) or with young adults (Quinton, Rutter, & Liddle, 1984;Werner, 1989). This study sought to determine whether variables identified as being protective at different ages served ameliorative functions during adolescence as well. Selection of an inner-city sample was based on findings of higher rates of adolescent behavior problems (e.g., juvenile delinquency) among underprivileged populations (Farrington, 1987;Snyder & Patterson, 1987). Epidemiological data such as these underscore the need for research on stress resistance among disadvantaged teenagers.Operational definitions of the two central constructs embedded within the major research question, that is, stress and competence, were based on earlier research in the area. Two © 1991 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. Requests for reprints should be directed to Suniya Luthar, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, 27 Sylvan Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519. approaches have commonly been used in operationalizing stress. One of these, termed the "life events method,' involves the use of self-report measures to obtain a count of stressful life events encountered in the recent past O'Grady & Metz, 1987). An alternative strategy has been to examine the separate effects of individual life stresses that are "ob...

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“…Teens were asked to complete stems such, "I feel sorry …" and "My mother and I.…" There is much evidence for the reliability and validity of this instrument as an index of ego level (e.g., Hauser, 1976), and the validity of using a short form of the latest 36-item measure has been justified elsewhere (Hy & Loevinger, 1996). The 11 items chosen for use in this study were selected based on data from a prior investigation in our lab in which teens were given the full 36-item battery.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Nature of Adolescent Friendships

Marsh

Allen

et al. 2006

The Journal of Early Adolescence

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Although success in managing evolving peer relationships is linked to critical adolescent outcomes, little is known about the specific factors that lead to success or failure in peer relationship development across adolescence. This longitudinal study examines the role of adolescents' level of ego development as a predictor of the future course of several facets of friendship development in early adolescence. Ego development was assessed in a community sample of adolescents at age 13. Several facets of adolescent friendship were also assessed at 13 and then reassessed 1 year later, including adolescent intimate behavior during a supportive interaction with their best friends, adolescent reports of psychological security in their friendships, and peer-rated popularity. As predicted, ego development not only explained concurrent levels of peer functioning but also predicted markers of change over time in each of the assessed domains of peer functioning. Implications for ego development in increasing our understanding of individual differences in adolescent friendship development are discussed.Keywords ego development; adolescence; peer relationships; friendships; development As children enter into adolescence, the nature of their peer relationships undergoes significant change as teens spend increasingly more time in the company of their same-age friends (Larson & Richards, 1991). Adolescent friendships then gradually deepen in terms of levels of commitment, intimacy, and acceptance of differences among friends (Berndt & SavinWilliams, 1993;Buhrmester, 1990;Shulman, Laursen, Kalman, & Karpovsky, 1997). Functioning in these evolving friendships has been linked with both negative sequelae ranging from depression to deviance and positive outcomes including prosocial behavior and academic achievement (e.g., Dishion & Owen, 2002;Granic & Dishion, 2003;Laird, Jordan, Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 2001;Mounts & Steinberg, 1995;Prinstein & La Greca, 2002, 2004Wentzel & Erdley, 1993). We know little, however, about the specific factors that might explain why Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Penny Marsh, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Box 351525, Seattle, WA 98195-1525; e-mail: pennym@u.washington.edu. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript some adolescents succeed whereas others struggle to develop increasingly supportive, adaptive friendships during adolescence (Kelly & de Arma, 1989;Kinney, 1993). This study examines the hypothesis that adolescents' capacities to manage impulses, affect, and cognitions regarding self and others-assessed in terms of adolescent ego level-will be predictive of several distinct dimensions of adolescent friendship development.Ego development as described by Loevinger (1976) reflects the individual's impulsivity, mental preoccupations, and ways of thinking and feeling about the self and others, all of which may influence qualities of deepening social relationships. In early stages of ego d...

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Loevinger's model and measure of ego development: A critical review.

Cited by 232 publications

References 45 publications

Intelligence and maturity: Meta-analytic evidence for the incremental and discriminant validity of Loevinger's measure of ego development.

Intelligence and maturity: Meta-analytic evidence for the incremental and discriminant validity of Loevinger's measure of ego development.

Vulnerability and Resilience: A Study of High-Risk Adolescents

The Changing Nature of Adolescent Friendships

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