Temporal Organization
Another way to resolve conflicts is to allow each tendency expression at
a different time. By creating—and sticking to—routines, or schedules (as
Murray calls them), we can manage to satisfy all or most of our needson a regular basis. Organizing behavior in time is an essential and dis -
tinctive feature of ego processes.
Consider for a moment the course of a typical day . We get up, eat
breakfast, go to work, apply ourselves to the necessary tasks, takebreaks, talk to our coworkers, eat lunch and perhaps read a book, goback to work, and so on. Trait theorists would be able to make certainpredictions about this collection of behaviors: Introverts are more likelyto read at lunchtime and less likely to spend a good deal of their day insocial conversation; people high in Neuroticism may wake up tired, getangry about the work expected of them, and overeat at lunch; open peo -
ple are more likely to spend their working hours on tasks like writing,
teaching college, or doing research, whereas closed people will morelikely be attending to business and following strict routines.
But although information about traits can be extremely useful in
predicting specifics of behavior, it cannot by itself account for the struc-tured flow or temporal sequence of behavior. These are ego functions,as important in shaping the life course as in managing daily routines. Inaddition to schedules, Murray proposed the notion of serials , programs
of action extended over time and intended to achieve long-range goals.Attending college and law school, working in a law firm, beginningone’s own practice, and running for local office may all be steps towarda political career; only with planned and coordinated efforts, pursueddiligently over a long period of time, could one achieve this end.Murray holds that the selection of realistic goals and their pursuit overextended portions of the lifespan are major tasks of the ego.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN EGO PROCESSES
Trait theory does not deal with the processes—instrumental learning,formal reasoning, creative planning, defensive distortion—by whichbehavior and experience are molded on a moment-to-moment basis.But although ego psychologists make these processes central to their146 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD