Thesis (Ed. D.)--Harvard University, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references.

Denna uppsats undersöker förhållandet mellan etnisk identitet och egoidentitet hos vuxna individer. Då Sverige är mångkulturellt är detta förhållande ett viktigt forskningsområde att belysa. En kvalitativ undersökning genomfördes med nio intervjupersoner. Dessa lever i den svenska kulturen samt i en utomeuropeisk kultur. Resultatet visade att kulturen upplevdes vara en mycket viktig del av personligheten på så sätt att den etniska identiteten är en sammansvetsad del av intervjupersonernas egoidentitet. Intervjudeltagarna upplevde sig vara en blandning av de erfarna kulturerna. Majoriteten intervjudeltagare hade en fullbordad identitet, men perioder av förvirring och dilemman förekom som ett resultat av deras bikulturella livssituation. Anpassningsproblem och olika begränsningar var bidragande orsaker till dessa perioder. Studien bidrar till fördjupad kunskap om dubbeletniska vuxnas identitets- och personlighetsutveckling. / This essay examines the relationship between ethnic identity and ego identity among adults. Sweden is a multi cultural country and therefore this relationship is important to examine. A qualitative interview study was conducted with nine interviewees, who live in Sweden and originate from a culture outside Europe. The culture was shown to be an important part of the personality, which indicates that that ethnic identity is a part of ego identity. The interviewees experienced themself to be a mix of two cultures. A majority of the interviewees had an achieved identity, but periods of diffusion occured as a result of adaption problems and limitations. The study contributes with advanced knowledge about identity and personality development of adults.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of participation in a series of five structured group experiences in a modification of the LORS Experiential Technique (Hollis, 1975) on the levels of ego-strength and prejudice of college students. The study was conducted during the Winter Quarter of 1978 at Ball State University in 'Muncie, Indiana. A pool of 96 volunteer subjects were administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The complete battery of three testings was completed by 55 of the original 96 subjects. Subjects were male and female undergraduate students residing in university residence halls, including both coeducational and female residence halls. Most of the subjects were freshmen women.A modification of the quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) was employed. The control group was administered the independent variable following the presentation of the treatment to the experimental group. Specifically, three comparisons were made: 1) between experimental and control groups after the treatment condition was presented to the experimental group, 2) between experimental and control groups after both groups experienced treatment, and 3) between the experimental-group data collected immediately following presentation of the treatment and data collected two weeks later.Two hypotheses, each subdivided into three parts, were tested using a t-test for the differences between proportions (Walpole, 1968). The alpha level was set at .05 for statistical significance. The major operational hypotheses predicted that ego-strength would increase and prejudice would decrease following subject exposure to the experimental treatment. Statistical analysis did not support these hypotheses.In addition to the data gathered from the Ego-strength and Prejudice Scales, subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning of each meeting designed to assess certain effects of the previous meeting. An additional questionnaire was administered three months after the experiment to assess subjects' perceptions of the LORS experience after a lapse of time. Generally, subjects reported that the LORS technique helped increase their (1) awareness of their own and others' values, (2) awareness of "group interactions," and (3) self confidence.The experimental treatment consisted of a series of five situations constructed by the researcher with the editorial assistance of the author of LORS. Each situation was designed to focus on an issue of relevance to college students college student held in the residence halls of the subjects over a two-week Issues were based on theory and research on personality development.Group sessions lasted one hour and a half and were period. Advanced graduate students in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services at Ball State University served as group facilitators.

Prior research provides evidence that people can improve their self-control performance through practice (e.g., Muraven, Baumeister, & Tice, 1999). Building on the Strength Model of self-control (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000), this work assumes that self-control practice operates by increasing the capacity or endurance of a domain-general self-control resource. However, recent developments that highlight the role of motivation in self-control performance (e.g., Clarkson, Hirt, Jia, & Alexander, 2010; Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010) suggest that changes in values, expectations, and beliefs may be driving the improvements over time. In the current study, I adapted a paradigm from the self-control training literature (Muraven, 2010a) in order to examine the possible role of motivational mechanisms in self-control performance improvement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three practice conditions: a self-control task (avoiding sweets) or two control tasks. Self-control performance and potential motivational mechanisms were assessed both before and after the two-week practice period. Consistent with earlier research, self-control practice was associated with improved performance on an initial self-control performance task; however, there was no evidence of improvement in a post-depletion self-control task. Although self-control practice was not strongly associated with changes across potential motivational mechanisms, some exploratory analyses suggested that self-control instrumentality (beliefs that successful self-control is a means to central, self-relevant outcomes) may be an important predictor of self-control performance. I discuss implications for motivational models of self-control.

Prior research provides evidence that people can improve their self-control performance through practice (e.g., Muraven, Baumeister, & Tice, 1999). Building on the Strength Model of self-control (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000), this work assumes that self-control practice operates by increasing the capacity or endurance of a domain-general self-control resource. However, recent developments that highlight the role of motivation in self-control performance (e.g., Clarkson, Hirt, Jia, & Alexander, 2010; Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010) suggest that changes in values, expectations, and beliefs may be driving the improvements over time. In the current study, I adapted a paradigm from the self-control training literature (Muraven, 2010a) in order to examine the possible role of motivational mechanisms in self-control performance improvement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three practice conditions: a self-control task (avoiding sweets) or two control tasks. Self-control performance and potential motivational mechanisms were assessed both before and after the two-week practice period. Consistent with earlier research, self-control practice was associated with improved performance on an initial self-control performance task; however, there was no evidence of improvement in a post-depletion self-control task. Although self-control practice was not strongly associated with changes across potential motivational mechanisms, some exploratory analyses suggested that self-control instrumentality (beliefs that successful self-control is a means to central, self-relevant outcomes) may be an important predictor of self-control performance. I discuss implications for motivational models of self-control.

The current study evaluated individual differences in factors that both facilitate (narcissism) and inhibit (self-regulation) the expression of aggression upon provocation. The overarching goal of the study was to examine the integration of two models of aggression: the threatened egotism model and the self-regulation model. An undergraduate sample of participants (N=323) were assigned to receive either positive or negative (provocative) feedback from a fictitious opponent. After receipt of the feedback a competitive reaction time task, in which the participant was allowed to subject the ostensible opponent to sound lasts of white noise, was employed as a behavioural measure of aggression. Consistent with previous research, negative feedback elicited aggression compared to positive feedback, especially among narcissistic males compared to females. Self-regulation was assessed using a battery of executive functioning measures. Results indicated that males with higher perseveration were more aggressive in the negative feedback condition. When the influence of narcissism and self-regulation were assessed simultaneously, a moderating model (i.e., narcissism X self-regulation) was not supported but there was evidence in support of an additive model for males only. Self-regulation predicted a unique portion of variance in aggression (7%) over an above the variance accounted for by narcissism (16%) for males who received negative feedback. These results are discussed in terms of a risk factor model for aggression.

This thesis has explored the relationship between egocentric speech and conceptual tempo, and the influence of age, sex, and I.Q. on these variables. Egocentric speech was defined as the individual’s ability to recognize and provide verbal communication which was adequate for over-coming the informational deficiencies of his listeners, and was measured on a referential communication task. Conceptual tempo was defined as the reflective or impulsive cognitive mode of the individual, and was measured by a visual recognition task. It was hypothesized that the variance of referential communication would be influenced by conceptual tempo, with impulsive children being more egocentric. It was also predicted that increased age and I.Q. would decrease egocentric speech.The data was analyzed by multiple regression, and the relationship between conceptual tempo and referential communication was not significant. Age was found to significantly influence egocentric speech with old subjects exhibiting less than young subjects. I.Q. and sex were not found to significantly influence egocentric speech.

This descriptive study was directed toward counselor perceived usefulness of client ego level assessment in the counseling process. The specific intention of the study was to determine if counselors in training would use, and find useful, a differential counseling methodology that proposed specific psychotherapy models correlated to the client's pre-therapy ego level assessment.The subjects for the research were drawn from counselors in training, enrolled in the M.A. and Ed.D. programs at the Ball State University Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services. The sample counselor population consisted of 31 counselors who agreed to participate in the study after being selected randomly.Following a review of literature related to differential counseling research, the Loevinger-Wessler Ego Development Inventory was selected to administer to clients presenting themselves for psychological counseling at the Ball State University Practicum Clinic during Spring Quarter, 1976. This instrument was administered to all clients prior to intake procedures. The results of the client ego level assessment as well as proposed psychotherapy models for the individual client data were made available to the appropriate counselors for treatment of randomly selected clients. During the final week of Spring Quarter, 19?6, the sample counselor population were asked to respond to a researcher designed questionnaire of 22 items, as well as the Loevinger-Wessler Ego Development Inventory. The questionnaire was designed to assess the counselor's perceptions of the use and usefulness of the client ego level data. The Loevinger-Wessler Ego Development Inventory assessment was to determine if any correlation existed between a counselor's ego level assessment and their use or non-use of the client ego level data. Additionally, the Loevinger-Wessler Ego Development Inventory was used to provide one counselor main effect factor for a statistical model using multivariate analysis of qualitative data to identify factors that contribute significantly as being able to predict which counselor variables would cause-counselor use of client ego level data in the counseling process.These data were collected and reported in a descriptive context, with the responses to questionnaire items being reported by number and percentage. The contingency model using multivariate analysis of qualitative data was tested for goodness of fit, and statistical conclusions were drawn. The conclusions drawn from this study included:1. Of the total sample counselor population, 77.4% of the respondents reported using the proposed therapy models at least /4 of the counseling time or more. The counselor population appeared to be willing to use the proposed treatment models, although their preferred psychotherapy orientation may have been other than the proposed therapy models.2. Of the total sample counselor population, 93.5% of the respondents reported the proposed therapy models for their clients as being useful 34 or more of the counseling time, indicating that the sample counselor population viewed the client ego level data and proposed therapy models as being worthwhile methodology for differential counseling. 3. The respondents reported that in comparison to their total client population for whom there was no preassessment data available, 25.9% reported more therapy progress for those clients for whom the client ego level data was available. The majority of the sample counselor population reported about the same progress for their entire client population. The conclusion was reached that a trend exists for this differential counseling strategy as being helpful for client therapy progress. 4. The conclusion was drawn that advanced or beginning client assignment for counselors in training in the sample population was not a significant variable in determining which group of counselors made more use of the client ego level data. 5. The conclusion was drawn that advanced or beginning client assignment for counselors in training in the sample population was not a significant variable in determining which group of counselors perceived the client ego level data as useful. 6. The conclusion was drawn that the variables of counselor ego level or counselor client assignment are equally effective in predicting counselor. 7. The conclusion was drawn that there were no significant differences in use of client ego level data between the two counselor ego level assessment groups.

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Proefschrift Maastricht. / Lit. opg. - Met een samenvatting in het Nederlands.