The Contribution of Ego Development Level to Burnout in School Counselors: Implications for Professional School Counseling

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a national survey study of school counseling professionals to determine if higher ego development contributed to a lower degree of burnout. Although the primary path analysis model tested did not fit the data observed, a significant positive relationship indicated that participants scoring at higher levels of ego functioning also scored at higher levels of personal accomplishment (1 dimension of their level of burnout). Implications of the findings are discussed.

Social‐Cognitive Development, Ethical and Legal Knowledge, and Ethical Decision Making of Counselor Education Students

“…These findings are consistent with the level of ego development of school counseling professionals (Lambie, 2007) and counselor education student-interns (Walter, 2009). The results also supported that counselors-in-training who were older and married scored at higher levels of social-cognitive maturity, suggesting that life experiences such as marriage may potentially influence one's social-cognitive functioning.…”

“…In Loevinger's (1976Loevinger's ( , 1998 developmental theory, the ego is a holistic and comprehensive personality construct that incorporates cognitive, moral, self, interpersonal, and character development (Lambie, 2007;Manners & Durkin, 2001). Noam et al (2006) noted that the ego is the schema for which individuals make meaning of their experiences and emotions.…”

Graduate Counseling Students' Levels of Ego Development, Wellness, and Psychological Disturbance: An Exploratory Investigation

“…As Cook-Greuter and Soulen (2007) noted, individuals at higher levels of ego maturity (Self-Aware [E5] and above) are typically "middle-aged, more educated, and/or more experienced (in life in general), and they achieve higher levels of professional standing than" (p. 185) persons at lower levels of social-cognitive development. Additionally, these findings were consistent with the level of ego development of school counseling professionals (Lambie, 2007), home-based counselors (Lawson & Foster, 2005), and counselor education student interns (Walter, 2009). However, the ego development levels of the counseling students in the present study (M = 5.39, SD = 0.94) were notably higher than those for rehabilitation counseling students (M = 4.80, SD = 1.05; Sheaffer et al, 2008).…”

Ego Development, Ethical Decision-Making, and Legal and Ethical Knowledge in School Counselors

“…The short-forms of the WUSCT (81-1; Hy and Loevinger 1996) was used (18 sentence stems) such as, ''What gets me into trouble is…'' Each sentence stem response is rated as a whole by its level of meaning or what the person is saying, and is not conceptualized in relation to the other 17 responses (Hy and Loevinger). A total protocol rating (TPR) is then calculated using an algorithm reflecting the respondent's assessed place on Loevinger's ego development scheme: (E2) Impulsive-individual functions based on physical needs and impulses, while being dependent on others for control; (E3) Self-Protective-individual is opportunistic and adheres to traditions and rituals; (E4) Conformist-individual accepts rules just because they are rules with absolutist thought and focus energy on being socially accepted; (E5) Self-Aware-individual increases self-awareness and is cognizant of others' individuality, while being able to recognize multiple perspectives; (E6) Conscientious-individual becomes self-evaluative and reflective, while recognizing multiple possibilities and a sense of choice, and is likely to think beyond own concerns; (E7) Individualistic-individual has sense of individuality and greater tolerance of difference, while having increased awareness of own incongruence; (E8) Autonomous-individual has deep respect for others' choices and need for autonomy with a high tolerance for ambiguity; and (E9) Integrated-individual has become congruent and selfactualized, while only a few people ever reach this level (Hy and Loevinger 1996;Lambie 2007). Numerous studies have indicated that the WUSCT is a reliable and valid measure of ego development: extensive research using the WUSCT as a measure of ego development offers substantial confirmation Ego Development, Ethical Decision-Making 53 of its strength as a psychometric assessment of socialcognitive development (Cook-Greuter and Soulen 2007;Lilienfeld et al 2000;Manners and Durkin 2002;Noam et al 2006).…”

“…As counselors' levels of ego development mature, they become increasingly flexible and adaptive to their environment and interpersonal interactions (Lambie 2007;Borders 1998). Additionally, research has identified the relationship between counselors' levels of ego development (as measure by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test [WUSCT], Hy and Loevinger 1998) and other desirable counseling factors, such as (a) the acquisition of counseling skills and abilities (Borders and Fong 1989); (b) counselors' expressed levels of empathy with clients (McIntyre 1985); (c) counselors' perceptions of clients, behavior with clients, and counselor effectiveness (Borders et al 1986;Zinn 1995); (d) counseling students' abilities to cope with stress during their internship experience (Walter 2009); (e) counseling students' levels of wellness ); and (f) counselors' ability to have an accepting and close relationship with persons with disabilities (Sheaffer et al 2008).…”