Ego Development and Personality Change in Adulthood

At age 43, 90 women in a longitudinal study were classified on the basis of J. Loevinger's ( Loevinger & Wessler, 1970 ) Sentence Completion Test into 3 levels of ego development: self-aware or below, conscientious, and individualistic or above. Retrospective multivariate analyses of variance showed that ego level was associated with differential personality change on scales of the California Psychological Inventory from ages 21-43. In a path analysis, verbal aptitude in high school, psychological mindedness in college, and stimulation of life path between ages 21 and 43 each independently predicted ego level at age 43. Accounts of difficult times that involved construction of new schemas (accommodation rather than assimilation) were associated with high ego level.