The relationship between ego development and peer status

Abstract

The relation between ego development and peer status was examined by using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test for Measuring Ego Development and a sociometric test. Eighteen high school girls from the senior class were administered these instruments. A composite ego development level and peer status rating was computed for each girl. These were compared in a simple analysis of variance design where stages of ego development represented the dependent variable and peer status scores were the independent variable. Scheffe's test was then used to isolate significant differences between the means. Analysis of the data confirmed the first hypothesis that those girls with the highest peer status ratings would be found at the conformist level of ego development. The second hypothesis, that the more deviant a person was from the conformist level, the lower would be his peer status, received only partial confirmation. The restricted nature of the present study was stressed and further research was urged, particularly with respect to a larger sample.