related with both clinical judgments and self-reports of adjustment. In
our study of ego level and Openness to Experience (McCrae & Costa,1980), we examined responses to Loevinger’s sentence completionstems for evidence of Openness (without knowledge of how subjectshad rated themselves). We judged subjects to be open when we found
statements showing flexible views of rules, rejection of traditional sexroles, intrinsic interest in experience, or playfulness. When we com -
pared our judgments with the self-reports of Openness the same sub -
jects had given us, we found agreement in 78% of the cases.
But projective assessments that make inferences about unconscious
processes are more likely to fail to agree with self-reports. In these cases,there is usually also little agreement with any other external criterion ofimportance, such as suicide, sexual orientation, or improvement intherapy . Fascinating as the symbolic interpretations of the Freudiansare, there is simply no good evidence that they are correct.
What all of this suggests to us is that the unconscious level of per-
sonality either cannot be measured by projective techniques or does nothave much influence on human conduct. No one who has read Freud orJung could fail to appreciate the marvelous insight that there are levelsof the mind that operate by a logic different from that of our wakingconsciousness; that these are more characteristic of children than ofadults; that they appear in dreams, in artistic productions, in psychoticdelusions, and in culturally shared myths; and that the primitive waysof thinking we have inherited from our evolutionary ancestors often ap-pear in them in undisguised form. The data collected over the past 70years, however, have convinced us that these curious relics of our pasthave relatively little to do with our daily life or with such importantoutcomes as happiness, response to stress, or political beliefs.
PROJECTIVE TESTING AND THE STABILITY
OF PERSONALITY
Let us summarize the argument so far and then proceed to a more spe -
cific consideration of the relationship between projectively assessed
personality and aging. We have considered the reasons for preferringprojective tests to self-reports and have rejected them. Some projectivetests aim at a deeper level of personality , but that deeper level, if it is in -
deed tapped by such tests, does not appear to have much influence on156 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD