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Ego development in anorexia inpatients
Author(s) -
Swift William J.,
Camp Bonnie W.,
Bushnell Nancy J.,
Bargman Gerald J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(198421)3:3<73::aid-eat2260030307>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - sentence completion tests , id, ego and super ego , conformist , loevinger's stages of ego development , psychology , anorexia nervosa , anorexia , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , eating disorders , medicine , politics , political science , law
It is widely held by clinicians that anorexia nervosa patients display a compliant, inhibited, highly conformist ego structure. This hypothesis was tested by the administration of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), a psychometric measure of ego development, to 29 anorexic inpatients. Surprisingly, the results of the WUSCT did not support the hypothesis: The majority of patients demonstrated ego level development beyond the conformist category. There was a trend for higher body weight at admission to be associated with higher levels of ego development, but the correlation was not statistically significant. Clinical and research implications of the findings are discussed.