Loevinger's stages of ego development

Jane Loevinger's stages of ego development “conceptualize a theory of ego development that was based on Erikson's psychosocial model”,as well as on the works of Harry Stack Sullivan, and in which “the ego was theorized to mature and evolve through stages across the lifespan as a result of a dynamic interaction between the inner self and the outer environment”. Her theory is significant in contributing to the delineation of ego development, which goes beyond fragmentation of trait psychology and looks at personalities as meaningful wholes. Jane Loevinger's stages of ego development “conceptualize a theory of ego development that was based on Erikson's psychosocial model”,as well as on the works of Harry Stack Sullivan, and in which “the ego was theorized to mature and evolve through stages across the lifespan as a result of a dynamic interaction between the inner self and the outer environment”. Her theory is significant in contributing to the delineation of ego development, which goes beyond fragmentation of trait psychology and looks at personalities as meaningful wholes. Loevinger conceived of an ego development system that would closely resemble moral development but be both broader in scope and utilize empirical methods of study. Loevinger started by creating an objective test of mothers' attitudes to problems in family life, which she called the Family Problems Scale. This first test did not yield the expected results, but Loevinger noted a strong similarity between authoritarian family ideology and the concept of authoritarian personality being developed at UC Berkeley in the early 1960s. Loevinger noticed that the women who scored at the most extreme ends of the authoritarian scale also tended to be the most immature. These women would tend to agree with such statements as ' mother should be her daughter's best friend' while at the same time endorsing punitive behavior. Additionally, Loevinger observed that a liberal, non-authoritarian personality was not the opposite of a high authoritarian personality. Rather, anomie, a disorganized and detached social style was the opposite of the high authoritarian, evidencing a curvilinear relationship. Loevinger theorized that this was because the Authoritarian Family Ideology' scale was not measuring just authoritarianism but some broader concept which weighed heavily upon all the other constructs she measured. By combining this theoretical framework with Sullivan and Grant's interpersonal maturity continuum, she created the concept of ego development. From this new concept, Loevinger then developed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, which remains the primary method of determining ego development on Loevinger's scale. Loevinger describes the ego as a process rather than a thing. The ego is viewed as the frame of reference (or lens) one uses to construct and interpret one's world. This contains impulse control and character development, with interpersonal relations, and with cognitive preoccupations, including self-concept. Sullivan (1958) 'had proposed four levels of 'interpersonal maturity and interpersonal integration': Impulsive, Conformist, Conscientious, and Autonomous'. Developing over time from that initial framework, Loevinger completed a developmental model including nine sequential stages, each of which represents a progressively more complex way of perceiving oneself in relation to the world. Every stage provides a frame of reference to organize and give meaning to experience over the individual's life course. 'Since each new ego stage or frame of reference builds on the previous one and integrates it, no one can skip a stage...One has not yet acquired the interpersonal logic'. As the adult ego develops, Loevinger considered, a sense of self-awareness emerges in which one becomes aware of discrepancies between conventions and one's own behavior. For some, development reaches a plateau and does not continue. Among others, greater ego integration and differentiation continue. Loevinger proposed eight/nine stages of ego in development, the six which occur in adulthood being conformist, conscientious-conformist, conscientious, individualistic, autonomous, and integrated. The majority of adults are at the conscientious-conformist level. Here the child 'asserts his growing sense of self' and views the world in ego-centric terms. At this stage 'the child is preoccupied with bodily impulses, particularly (age-appropriate) sexual and aggressive ones. The child is too immersed in the moment and view the world solely in terms of how things affect them. Their impulses affirm their sense of self however are 'curbed by the environment'. When someone meets their needs they are considered 'good', and if they do not meet their needs they are considered bad—often resulting in impulsive retaliation such as s/he will run away or run home'. Discipline is viewed by the child as restraints, and 'rewards and punishments' are seen as being 'Nice to Me' or 'Mean to Me'. This is because the Child's 'needs and feelings are experienced mostly in bodily modes', and 'the child's orientation at this stage is almost exclusively to the present rather than to past or future'. The 'Self-Protective' stage represents 'the first step towards self-control of impulses. The Self-Protective person has the notion of blame, but he externalizes it to other people or to circumstances.' At this level, the child 'craves a morally prescribed, rigidly enforced, unchanging order,' and if maintained too long 'an older child or adult who remains here may become opportunistic, deceptive, and preoccupied with control...naive instrumental hedonism'.