skip navigation

Not in the United States?
change your preferences.

Personality Development

Theoretical, Empirical, and Clinical Investigations of Loevinger's Conception of Ego Development

• Edited by P. Michiel Westenberg, Augusto Blasi, Lawrence D. Cohn

• Price: $89.95
• Binding: Hardback
• Pages: 400
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 1st February 1998
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-1649-5

About the Book

Jane Loevinger's innovative research methodology, psychometric rigor, and theoretical scope have attracted the attention of numerous scholars and researchers. Empirical investigations employing Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test of ego development (WUSCT) have appeared with increasing frequency and total more than 300 studies. Following the publication of the first comprehensive revision of the scoring manual for the WUSCT, this volume reflects on the strengths and limitations of Loevinger's developmental model.

It is divided into sections that correspond with four broad questions that can be raised about Loevinger's developmental model:
* What is its scope and intellectual tradition?
* What evidence is there for construct validity?
* What is its relationship to other social-developmental models?
* What is its clinical relevance to Loevinger's model of ego development?

This four-part grouping provides a framework for effectively organizing the present material, and frequently, the questions raised in one section are addressed in other sections as well. In the concluding chapter, Loevinger addresses some of the ideas that are proposed by the various authors. She also presents the origin of the ego development concept by recounting its history.

Table of Contents

Contents: P.M. Westenberg, A. Blasi, L.D. Cohn, Introduction: Contributions and Controversies. Part I:The Nature of Ego Development. A. Blasi, Loevinger's Theory of Ego Development and Its Relationship to the Cognitive-Developmental Approach. D.P. McAdams, Ego, Trait, Identity. R. Kegan, L. Lahey, E. Souvaine, From Taxonomy to Ontogeny: Thoughts on Loevinger's Theory in Relation to Subject-Object Psychology. D. Westen, Loevinger's Theory of Ego Development in the Context of Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory. R.R. Holt, Loevinger's Conception of Ego Development and General Systems Theory. Part II:Construct Validity. P.M. Westenberg, J. Jonckheer, P.D.A. Treffers, M.J. Drewes, Ego Development in Children and Adolescents: Another Side of the Impulsive, Self-Protective, and Conformist Ego Levels. J.L. Pals, O.P. John, How Are Dimensions of Adult Personality Related to Ego Development? An Application of the Typological Approach. L.D. Cohn, Age Trends in Personality Development: A Quantitative Review. A.G. Rogers, Understanding Changes in Girls' Relationships and in Ego Development: Three Studies of Adolescent Girls. Part III:Related Developmental Models. J. Snarey, Ego Development and the Ethical Voices of Justice and Care: An Eriksonian Interpretation. L.H. Schultz, R.L. Selman, Ego Development and Interpersonal Development in Young Adulthood: A Between-Model Comparison. S.T. Hauser, E.B. Gerber, J.P. Allen, Ego Development and Attachment: Converging Platforms for Understanding Close Relationships. G. Labouvie-Vief, M. Diehl, The Role of Ego Development in the Adult Self. R. Josselson, On Becoming the Same Age as One's Mother: Ego Development and the Growth of Subject-Subject Relationship. Part IV:Clinical Implications. J. Rierdan, Ego Development, Pubertal Development, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls. G. Noam, Solving the Ego Development--Mental Health Riddle. M. Horowitz, Organizational Levels of Self and Other Schematization. P. Young-Eisendrath, C. Foltz, Interpretive Communities of Self and Psychotherapy. L.D. Borders, Ego Development and Counselor Development. Postscript: J. Loevinger, Completing a Life Sentence.