| Psychological and sociological literature have recently indicated that adult development may in some way be associated with life experiences in the home and work contexts and/or the complexity of those experiences. However, the differential contributions of these complex life experiences to advanced ego development in adulthood is still not clearly understood. The present study was designed to better elucidate the roles of work and familial complexity as mechanisms in the self development of men and women.;A total of 118 equal number of male and female Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) freshmen and seniors comprised of three age/experience levels: 17-24, 25-34, and 35-44, were administered the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-Vocabulary subtest (WAIS-R), Loevinger's Sentence completion Test (SCT), Hollingshead's index of social class, the Life Complexity Inventory-Shortened (LCI-S), Kohn's substantive work questionnaire, and Olson's Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales III (FACES-III).;Correlational and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relational and predictive properties of ego level, age, formal education, gender, life complexity (work and family) and social status. Results supported the hypothesized greater contribution of the life experience/life complexity variables to the explained variance in ego development level, but did not support the hypothesized gender differential contributions of work and family complexity to the ego development of males and females, respectively. Only level of experienced work complexity and formal education were significantly predictive of advanced ego levels. Age and gender appeared to be associated with, but not predictive of, advanced ego development.;Results of this study suggest that complex work experiences fostering intellectual flexibility and promoting self-directed values and orientations in both sexes will most likely be associated with advanced ego developmental levels in adults. Formal education seems to play a minor but significant role in adult ego development by facilitating the intellectual flexibility necessary for advanced ego levels. The importance of complex work environments on ego development and suggestions for future research to investigate work and family complexity as mechanisms of ego development are discussed. |
