lescents. But does maturity increase with age once we have become
adults? Or do older individuals regress to more primitive ways of re -
solving conflicts, dealing with others, and organizing their activities?
If the argument we developed above is correct—if ego characteris -
tics are determined by such traits as anxiety , depression, warmth, and
openness to ideas—it would follow that there ought not to be majorchanges in the functioning of the ego across the adult lifespan, since thetraits that determine it are themselves stable.
Consider the case of ego development. If individuals continue to
mature in the period of adulthood, the ego levels of older individualsshould be higher than those of younger individuals. But we know thatego level is related to the traits of intelligence and Openness and thatboth of these are generally stable in adulthood. Trait psychologistswould predict, then, that there should be no changes in ego level. Andcross-sectional data from the Boston sample clearly confirm that predic-tion (McCrae & Costa, 1980), as do other independent studies (Vaillant& McCullough, 1987). Longitudinal studies have shown that the pre-dicted changes in ego development are seen as individuals move fromchildhood to adolescence, but there is no evidence of change afteradulthood is reached. If ego level is indeed the master trait, this is onemore evidence of stability at all levels of personality .
Conclusions on stability or change in ego processes are perhaps
premature. It is much harder to describe the organization of elementsthan the elements themselves. Additionally , there is no consensus onwhat properties of the ego we should be measuring: Is control of im -
pulses the key , or is it the arrangement of attitudes and beliefs? Should
we be concerned with the normal daily functioning of individuals, withtheir responses to crisis situations, or with their long-range plans? Ormust we develop a battery of tests to consider each of these separately?
And what kind of tests? It may be that individuals, although able to
report adequately on emotional reactions or vocational preferences, areincapable of judging the more profound styles that tie together all thesediscrete elements. Perhaps an analysis of a deeper level of personality isneeded. Projective tests are supposed to give a picture of the deeper lay -
ers of personality , and we will shortly review what they have to tell us
about age and personality . But just as we were compelled to describe therationale and evaluate the efficacy of self-report measures in Chapter 3,so now we must do the same to lay the groundwork for an evaluation ofprojective tests.150 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD