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Lives of women who became autonomous
Author(s) -
Helson Ravenna,
Mitchell Valory,
Hart Barbara
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1985.tb00366.x
Subject(s) - loevinger's stages of ego development , sentence completion tests , psychology , personality , personality psychology , personality development , id, ego and super ego , developmental psychology , erikson's stages of psychosocial development , social psychology
We examine the lives and growth processes of women who have achieved considerable development of personality Subjects of study are seven women in a longitudinal sample who, at ages 42–45, are classified by the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test at the highest ego‐levels As a way of describing their lives, all seven are analyzed in terms of Levinson's model of male development, one case is presented in terms of Gilligan's model of female development, another in terms of Loevinger's general model, and linkages among theories are observed Characteristics of Loevinger's autonomous stage are illustrated and the extent to which they are gender‐related is discussed Findings show that women with very different personalities, problems, and ways of life can attain a high level of ego‐development, that their lives tend not to have been orthodox or easy, and that theories of adult development are useful but uneven in application