EGO DEVELOPMENT AND PERSONALITY-CHANGE IN ADULTHOOD

At age 43, 90 women in a longitudinal study were classified on the bas is of J. Loevinger's (Loevinger & Wessler, 1970) Sentence Completion T est into 3 levels of ego development: self-aware or below, conscientio us, and individualistic or above. Retrospective multivariate analyses of variance showed that ego level was associated with differential per sonality change on scales of the Califomia Psychological Inventory fro m ages 21-43. In a path analysis, verbal aptitude in high school, psyc hological mindedness in college, and stimulation of life path between ages 21 and 43 each independently predicted-ego level at age 43. Accou nts of difficult times that involved construction of new schemas (acco mmodation rather than assimilation) were associated with high ego leve l.