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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Ego functions and ego development: defense mechanisms and intelligence as predictors of ego level.

This study considers the contribution of two ego functions--intelligence and defense mechanisms--to ego developmental level. Two independent assessments of ego level were related to IQ and defense mechanism use in a sample of 89 young adults. Whereas IQ and defense were themselves found to be unrelated, both variables predicted ego level: The relation with IQ was linear, whereas the relation with defense was curvilinear. In addition, the relation between defense and ego level varied as a function of IQ level. At low levels of IQ, stronger use of Denial and Projection was associated with higher ego levels. At high IQ levels, strong use of Denial was associated with lower ego levels, whereas moderate use of Projection was associated with higher ego levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

[Deviations from the "fictive normal ego": on the dilemma of the diagnosis of structural ego disorders].

The functional aspect in psychoanalytic ego therapy seems to be especially useful with regard to obtaining diagnostic criteria for the decision of whether and to what extent the patient's ego deviates from a "fictitious normal ego" and whether or not modifications must, therefore, be introduced into the therapeutical procedure. Such criteria are required in particular when psychoanalysis and psychotherapy are concerned with patients suffering from severe structural ego deficiencies. It seems, moreover, that such patients, in obviously increasing numbers, are hospitalized in psychotherapeutic clinics and, even more frequently, taken care of in psychiatric institutions. In the diagnosis of structural ego deficiencies, however, a certain dilemma is observed which has an impact on both single and group therapy with the patients concerned: when, on the one hand, the diagnosis of an 'ego alteration' is inevitable, the diagnosis of functional ego deficiency, because of its so to say impartial mode of reasoning, on the other hand, offers to pronounce as an ego deficiency in the patient much of what has its origins more or less in the counter-transference reactions and the limits of adaptability in the therapist, both qualities being especially in demand when dealing with patients suffering from structural ego deficiencies, as e.g. in psychiatric institutions. It is suggested that the functions of the ego be interpreted as consistent symbolic capacities of the ego which constitute reality. Their diagnosis in each case remains tied to an interpersonal process in the course of which the parties concerned alternate in typefying and interpreting one another.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1996

A California Q-set alexithymia prototype and its relationship to ego-control and ego-resiliency.

The primary purposes of the present study were to use the Q-sort method to develop a measure of alexithymia and to locate the construct within a two-dimensional (ego-control and ego-resiliency) model of personality. Thirteen professional judges described the characteristics of the alexithymic personality with the 100-item California Q-set. Scores from the sorts were aggregated to form the Alexithymia Prototype, which had a Spearman-Brown reliability of 0.99. Alexithymic people were described as having difficulties experiencing and expressing emotion, lacking imagination, and being literal, socially conforming, and utilitarian; they lack insight, are humorless, and experience meaninglessness; and anxiety and tension find outlet in bodily symptoms. This description is consistent, for the most part, with modern formulations of the alexithymia construct. In the language of the two-dimensional personality model, alexithymic individuals appear to be overcontrolling and lacking ego-resiliency (i.e., constricted, anxious, rigid, and withdrawn). We, therefore, compared the Alexithymia Prototype with two independently developed prototypes, Overcontrol and Ego-Resiliency. The Q-correlations between alexithymia and overcontrol and between alexithymia and ego-resiliency were 0.45 and -0.70, respectively. Although item analyses confirmed moderate overlap between alexithymia and overcontrol and considerable overlap between alexithymia and lacking ego-resiliency (ego-brittle), item differences suggest that alexithymia, indeed, is a unique personality construct.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2001

The impact of modified instructions on ego-level scores: a psychometric hazard or indication of optimal ego level?

Various modified instructions have different effects on the Washington University Sentence Completion Test for Ego Development (Loevinger, 1985). These effects were reviewed and 2 alternative explanations were explored: The "measurement unreliability explanation" versus the "optimal level explanation." Both explanations were systematically studied in 2 test-retest experiments with the Sentence Completion Test for Children and Youths (Westenberg, Treffers, & Drewes, 1998). The modified instructions were to make a favorable impression on the tester ("fake good" condition) or to complete the sentences in as adult and mature a manner as one can ("be mature" condition). Both experiments were conducted with 9- to 15-year-old children and adolescents (N = 127, 128). As was anticipated, neither the fake good nor the be mature condition yielded higher (or lower) reliability indexes as compared to the standard instructions, hence discounting the measurement unreliability explanation. Also as expected, the fake good condition did not yield significantly higher ego-level scores, whereas the be mature condition did yield significantly higher ego-level scores. The former instructions did not convey information relevant to the construct or measure of ego development, whereas the latter instructions did convey information relevant for raising ego-level scores. It is argued that the higher scores under the be mature instructions might reflect the respondents' "optimal" ego level (best functioning), whereas the ego-level score under the standard instructions might reflect their "functional" level (normal functioning).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Ego bias, reverse ego bias, and physicians' prognostic.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of "ego bias" on physicians' prognostic judgments. Ego bias is defined as systematic overestimation of the prognosis of one's own patients compared with the expected outcome of a population of similar patients. DESIGN: A prospective study of an inception cohort of critically ill patients followed until death or discharge from the hospital. PATIENTS: Consecutive patients admitted to either an ICU or an intermediate ICU at a teaching hospital during January and February 1987, excluding patients admitted after coronary artery bypass grafting, for elective dialysis, or transferred to the intermediate ICU from another critical care unit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND COMPARISONS: House officers' and critical care attending physicians' assessments of the likelihood of inhospital survival for each patient, and their assessments of the overall survival rate of ICU and intermediate ICU patients were compared with each other and with actual survival rates. RESULTS: The attending physicians' predictions for individual patients were significantly lower than their judgments of the overall survival rate, 79.8% vs. 88.0%, p = .0067, suggesting the presence of a "reverse ego bias." The house officers' predictions for individual patients were significantly higher than their judgments of the overall survival rate, 73.5% vs. 68.9%, p = .018, suggesting the presence of ego bias. The magnitude and directions of these differences varied significantly among the attending physicians (F = 4.3, degrees of freedom = 3, p = .0062 by repeated-measures analysis of variance) and the house officers (F = 6.3, degrees of freedom = 5, p = .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The critical care attending physicians exhibited reverse ego bias that was mainly a function of their optimism about the overall survival rate for critically ill patients. The house officers exhibited ego bias that was mainly a function of their pessimism about the overall survival rate for critically ill patients.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1984

Ego ideal and ideal ego.

A genetic and functional differentiation between the ego ideal and the ideal ego is proposed. This differentiation allows for a more precise characterization and interpretation of ego libido in symptoms and transference. These genetic and functional differentiations of ego ideal and ideal ego can be used to clarify the differing severities of the types of narcissistic disorder: psychosis, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, from normal maturity. It can also be put to work in refining one's formulation of the narcissistic complications of the classical transference neurosis. This usefulness has been demonstrated in relation to clinical material. In neurosis the ideal ego is a source of symptoms and inappropriate transference demands; in culture it finds embodiment in aggrandized concepts of human nature; in mature adults it is the comforting memory of a vanished splendour.

Ego↗
PubMed1997

Ego control, Ego resiliency, and the Five-Factor Model as predictors of behavioral and emotional problems in clinic-referred children and adolescents.

The relations of Ego control (EC), Ego resiliency (ER), and the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM) with behavioral and emotional problems were explored among 116 clinic-referred children. Within the EC-ER model, Ego undercontrol was most important in predicting externalizing problems, and both Ego brittleness (the relative absence of ER) and Ego undercontrol made equal contributions to predicting internalizing problems. Within the FFM, Extraversion and Agreeableness were independent predictors of externalizing problems, whereas only Neuroticism predicted internalizing problems. When the EC-ER model was tested against the FFM, the latter model appeared to outperform the former in predicting externalizing but not internalizing problems; when clinical syndrome groups were examined, dimensions from both personality models were differentially salient for children with primary internalizing, externalizing, or comorbid problems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The role of ego-control, ego-resiliency, and IQ in delay of gratification in adolescence.

The delay-of-gratification behavior of 104 14-year-old Ss (54 girls and 50 boys) was assessed in an experiment in which each subject chose between immediate monetary payment and larger, delayed payment on 5 occasions. Personality data were obtained on these adolescents in the form of California Adult Q-Set ratings made by several research examiners who were blind to the subjects' delay behavior. The number of delayed payments chosen was strongly correlated with these personality ratings, within both sexes. Ss who exhibited the most delay of gratification tended to be independently described as responsible, productive, ethically consistent, interested in intellectual matters, and overly controlled. They tended not to be described as unable to delay gratification, rebellious, unpredictable, self-indulgent, or hostile. Delay behavior in both sexes was also correlated positively with IQ and with Q-sort-derived indexes of ego resiliency and ego control. The relationship between ego control and delay behavior was particularly strong after both IQ and ego resiliency were partialled. These results were interpreted as reflecting the fundamental importance of both cognitive skillfulness and impulse control for adaptive delay behavior in situations that contain strong motivational inducements.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Adopted children's problem behavior is significantly related to their ego resiliency, ego control, and sociometric status.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have documented that adopted children are at higher risk for behavior problems, but less is known about the correlates of their problem behavior. METHOD: The correlates of parent-reported and teacher-reported problem behavior in 7-year-old internationally adopted children (N = 176) were investigated by examining these children's ego resiliency, ego control, and sociometric status, and exploring possible risks factors in the home and racial influences. RESULTS: Using the 25th percentiles lowest and highest scores on ego resiliency and ego control as cut-off criteria, we found that: (1) resilient children were almost free of behavior problems; (2) overcontrolling children showed predominantly internalizing behavior problems (33% at school, and 28% at home); (3) undercontrolling children showed high rates of externalizing behavior problems (50% at school, and 34% at home), and an elevated rate of comorbidity (21% at school, and 21% at home). Adopted children identified by peer report as controversial or rejected had significantly higher externalizing problem scores than popular, average or neglected adopted children. The adopted children did not experience much (racial) discrimination. Nevertheless, children who wished to be white (46%) presented more mother-reported behavior problems. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings replicate R.W. Robins et al.'s (1996) work on three types of personality functioning: resilients, overcontrollers and undercontrollers (identified by J. Block, 1971), extending the model from adolescent boys to school-aged boys and girls, adopted from Asia and South America. The wish to identify with white parents and white peers may constitute a potential risk factor for internationally adopted children in middle childhood.

Adoption↗
PubMed1975

Symposium on The Ego and the Id after fifty years. The past and future of ego psychology.

Having six roots in ordinary observation and introspection, ego psychology has a long pre-Freudian history, which influenced Freud's first usages of Ich. His works before 1923 contain much that is substantively ego psychology; The Ego and the Id was not a paradigm change but a consolidation of pre-existing ideas. The structural theory replaced a model (topographic) which Freud actually used very little, especially clinically, and he failed to remedy its gravest methodological faults. The ego-id model is an integral part of metapsychology, and will pass out of use as the latter dies, with no detriment to clinical psychoanalysis.

Cognition↗
PubMed1989

The development of the ego: biological and environmental specificity in the psychopathological developmental process and the selection and construction of ego defenses.

This paper suggests that differences in early sensory processing, integration, and differentiation, contribute, in highly specific ways, to characteristics of the ego, deficits in ego functions, and the ego's tendency to employ certain defenses (when certain pathogenic environmental experiences are present). Specifically (1) auditory-verbal-affective vulnerabilities may be associated with disorders of thought and obsessive-compulsive patterns, especially when coupled with environments that tend to confuse affective meanings at behavioral-gestural and symbolic levels; (2) visual-spatial-affective vulnerabilities may be associated with disorders of affect regulation and hysterical patterns, especially when coupled with environments that lack empathy and/or limit setting; (3) spatial, motor movement (vestibular) vulnerabilities may be associated with phobic and/or counterphobic tendencies. The author contends that these hypotheses are sufficiently specific and testable to lead to new research opportunities.

Child↗
PubMed1982

Heritabilities of ego strength (factor C), super ego strength (factor G), and self-sentiment (factor Q3) by multiple abstract variance analysis.

Tested over 3,000 boys (identical and fraternal twins, ordinary sibs, general population) aged 12-18 on Ego Strength, Super Ego Strength, and Self Sentiment. The Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA) method was used to obtain estimates of abstract (hereditary, environmental) variances and covariances that contribute to total variation in the three traits. Within-family heritabilities for these traits were about .30, .05, and .65. Between-family heritabilities were .60, .08, and .45. Within-family correlations of genetic and environmental deviations were trivial, unusually so among personality variables, but between-family values showed the usual high negative values, consistent with the law of coercion to the biosocial mean.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Ego structuralization in late adolescence as seen through early memories and ego identity status.

This study was undertaken to examine the relationship between ego identity status and early memory themes in an effort to detect possible phases in the process of ego structuralization during late adolescence. Subjects were 73 late adolescents (39 women and 34 men) who had been first year university students two years previously. Each subject was given Marcia's (1966) Identity Status Interview and an Early Memories Interview designed to elicit world view orientation (Gushurst, 1971). Identity achievements most frequently expressed themes of moving contentedly alone or alongside significant others, while themes of moving away from the familiar were most common among moratoriums. Seeking security and support from significant others or familiar settings were most prevalent themes for foreclosures, while desire for relatedness was the most frequently occurring theme for diffusions. Statuses did not differ in frequency of themes expressing conflict. Consistent with observations of Mahler et al., (1975) on subphases of infant differentiation, results of this study point to similar processes as adolescents relinquish, rather than incorporate, parental introjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Ego-strength revised: a comparison of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-1 versions of the Barron Ego-strength scale.

This study evaluated the equivalence of the original MMPI and the shortened MMPI-2 versions of the Barron (1953) Ego-strength scale, an important research scale. Three hundred fifty-five subjects took the MMPI-2 and the 16 MMPI-1 items dropped from the original scale. The omitted items appear to contribute little to the original scale. The revised version compares favorably with the old in terms of internal consistency, and the two versions are highly intercorrelated. Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicates that four of Stein and Chu's (1967) five groupings of the original items provide a reasonably good fit for the MMPI-2 as well. Compared to the original, the new version was slightly more correlated with other paper-and-pencil measures of psychological health and well-being.

Ego↗
PubMed2001

Ego-integrity versus ego-despair: the effect of "accepting the past" on depression in older women.

The relative strength of the later-life personality process of ego-integrity, as operationalized by "accepting the past," was tested as a predictor of depression in a multivariate model containing other well established predictors-age, social support, physical dependency, and positive and negative affectivity. Seventy-three older Australian women living in supported accommodation completed an anonymous, self-report questionnaire. The results showed that "accepting the past" was a significant predictor in the multivariate model, along with social support, physical dependency, and positive affectivity. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of investigating later-life personality processes as potential interventions for alleviating depression in older people.

Adaptation, Psychological↗