Ego identity status in college women'

James E. Marcia and Meredith L Friedman/ State University

of New York at Buffalo

Classic psychoanalytic theory deals with feminme psychology

largely m deficit terms wherem lack of a penis is seen as a major
dynamic Enkson (1968), however, takmg an ego-adaptive pomt
of view, focuses on the unphcation for a woman's identity of her
"productive mner space " That is, for nonneurotic women, more
central than the lack of a penis may be the presence of bmlt-m
"life support systems." How a woman comes to define herself,
takmg mto account the demands and potentials of her biological
structure, constitutes an essential aspect of the ego-identity problem for women
Despite the fact that this problem concerns approximately
half the population, relatively httle scientific work has been done
on it Enkson himself, m numerous works on ego identity, has
devoted only one article to women (1968), no female biography
is found among his sketches of Hitler and Corky (1963), George
Bemard Shaw and WiUiam James (1968), Luther (1962), and
the new Gandhi's Truth (1969) Douvan and Adelson (1966),
m their primarily descriptive approach to "the adolescent expenence," have made ihe valuable suggestion that the psychosocial
crisis mvolving "mtimacy" may be concurrent with, or precede,
the crisis of identity for women. Dignan (1965) has contnbuted
an empincal study mvolvmg construction and some vahdation
for a measure of ego identity Some alternative mterpretations of
these data wdl be discussed later In general, a consistent theoretical formulation and the experimental opemtions necessary to
establish its validity have not been earned out for ego identity
in women The present study is a first step in that direction
This study aims to apply the ego-identity status constructs,
1 The authors express their appreciation to Dr Sheila R Bob and Michael
Moses for their assistance m ratmg mterviews and to Dr James Juhan for his
helpful comments on the manuscnpt
2 Gurrently at the Umveisity of Maryland

250

James E. Marcia and Meredith L Friedman

initially vahdated with college men (Marcia, 1966, 1967), to college women by augmenting the cntena for mdusion m a status.
Specifically, the new area to be added deals with attitudes toward premarital mtercourse The following paragraphs will descnbe the cnteria for the identity statuses and some previously
determmed characteristics, modifications of the critena, and the
hypotheses to be tested
Ego-identity status is a term apphed by Marcia (1966) to
four ways of copmg with the adolescent identity crisis descnbed
by Enkson (1956). An mdividual is located m a particular identity status on the basis of two cntena, crisis and commitment,
employed in two areas, occupation and ideolo^. Cnsis refers to
a penod of decision-^makmg, of choosmg among alternatives of
occupation and ideology, commitment deals with the individual's
personal investment m the alternatives chosen
The four identity statuses, their definmg critena, and some
empincally denved characteristics follow. (Marcia, 1966, 1967,
Podd, Marcia, & Rubm, m press) Identity achievement individuals have experienced a crisis penod and are committed to an
occupation and ideology They perform most efficiently of the
statuses in a stressful concept attamment task, score highest on
a measure of overall ego identity, and are resistant to self-esteem
mampulation. Moratorium mdividuals are currently in "crisis"
with vague commitments They are similar to identity achievement on many measures, distingmshmg charactenstics are their
high Welsh Anxiety Scale scores and tiieir conflicting needs for
both rebelhon and guidance. Those m the foreclosure status have
expenenced no cnsis, yet have firm, usually parentally determmed commitments They perform poorly on a stressful concept
attainment task, set unrealistically high goals on a level of aspiration measure, endorse authontanan values, are vulnerable to selfesteem mampulation, and obtam low WAS scores, mterpreted as
approval-seekmg (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964) Identity diffusions
have no apparent commitments As distinguished from moratonums, they lack both the sense of a struggle and the attempts to
make commitments Identity diffusion subjects, like foreclosures,
do jpoorly on the stressful concept attainment task and are vulnerable to self-esteem manipulation, especially when situational

Ego identity status in college women

251

demands are disguised. They score lowest of the statuses on a

measure of overall ego identity.
The identity statuses were mitially developed and vahdated
usmg only college males. In considenng extension of the statuses
to college women, it was thought that the cntena should mclude
an issue both unique to women and crucial m identity formation.
The choice of "attitudes toward premantal mtercourse" appeared
appropnate and was consistent with Enkson's statement that
"womanhood amves when attractiveness and expenence have
succeeded m selecting what is to be admitted to the welcome of
the mner space 'for keeps'" (1968, p 283). Presence of cnsis was
based upon formulation of some sexual standards, and commitment was determmed accordmg to the degree to which the
standards were adhered to The final identity status mterview for
women mvolved questions concemmg crisis and commitment m
the areas of occupation and ideology, as it had for men, as well
as the issue of attitudes toward premantal mtercourse
Five dependent vanables were employed to validate egoidentity status m women Two new measures, not used previously
m ego-identity status research, were difficulty of coUege major
and perfonnance on the Luchins Einstellung problems. The other
three measures, also used to vahdate ego-identity status with
males, were self-esteem, authontananism, and Welsh Anxiety
Scale scores
Predictions were that identity achievement subjects would
choose significantly more difficult college majors than identity
diffusion subjects and that identity achievement and moratonum
subjects would show more cognitive flexibihty (better performance) on the Luchins test than foreclosure and identity diffusion subjects Both of these hypotheses follow from Marcia's
(1966) earher finding that high-ego-identity males (identity
achievement and moratorium) performed significantly better
than low-ego-identity males (foreclosure and identity diffusion)
on a stressful concept attamment task His results suggested that
conceptual perseverance and flexibility were characteristic of the
better mtegrated high-ego-identity subjects With respect to
choice of a more difficult major, it is not expected that commitment to a difficult area, m itself, is sufficient vahdation for the
identity achievement status What is hypothesized is that the

252

James E. Marcia and Meredith L Friedman

process consequences (e.g, mcreased ego strength) of achievmg

an identity wdl bear some relationship to content issues, so that
those mdividuals who have achieved an identity should be better
able to mamtain the disciplme required for more difficult majors.
Hence proportionately more of them would be found m these
majors.
An mtelhgence measure was mcluded as a control vanable,
no differences among the statuses on this measure would rephcate earher findmgs with males (Marcia, 1966, Bob, 1968, Waterman & Waterman, 1969*).
Foreclosure subjects were expected to obtam significantly
higher self-esteem scores and significantly lower Welsh Anxiety
ScsAe (WAS) scores than subjects m the other statuses The findmg of a lower WAS score had been obtamed in previous studies
with males, and there is evidence to suggest a general tendency
for foreclosures to seek approval from authonty figures by presenting themselves m a good hghte g, their reluctance to admit
to failure experiences (Marcia, 1966). In addition, the self-esteem
scale was to be given m a one-to-one situation, thereby mcreasmg
foreclosures' motivation for favorable self-presentation.
Moratorium subjects, consistent with previous findmgs, were
expected to obtam the highest WAS scores of the statuses.
METHOD

Subjects
Subjects were 49 senior women m residence on the campus of the
State University of New York at Buffalo who had volunteered to participate.
Identity statuses were determmed by means of a 30-mmute semistructured mterview evaluatmg presence or absence of decision-makmg
(cnsis) and extent of a subject's mvestment (commitment) m three
areas occupation, ideology (composed of rehgion and pohtics), and
standards of sexual behavior The sconng cntena for occupation and
ideology were tiie same as previously used for males (Marcia, 1964)
iTiey are outhned m an mterview rating manual contammg both theoretical and empincal guides Usmg the same manual, mterjudge rehabihty m several previous studies has averaged between 65% and 75%
(Marcia, 1966, 1967, Bob, 1968, Podd, Marcia, & Rubm, m press).
3 Personal commumcation

Ego identity statvis in college women

253

Questions and cntena for the new sexual area were fairly straightforward Each subject was asked what her views of premantal mtercourse were, both m general and specificaUy for herself The purpose
of this question was not to obtam the particular content of the subject's view but to provide a base from which to determme how she
came to hold that view and her degree of commitment to it Hence,
she was asked next whether her views had undergone any change
smce she came to school as a freshman and to what extent they now
corresponded with her parents' The important issue here was whether
any change had occurred, whether she had rethought her position as
a result of her almost mevitable exposure to extrafamihal influences
durmg college This question was used to determme presence or absence of cnsis. The extent to which she adhered to her views and die
conditions under which she would suspend them constituted the final
set of questions The purpose of these questions was to ascertam commitment. If her standards, whether stnct or hberal, seemed qmte m
doubt, or subject to extreme vanabihty m apphcation (unless that
vanabihty itself was a standard apparently firmly adhered to), she
was considered as vaguely committed or uncommitted
Identity achievement subjects were those who had changed their
views (usually, although not necessanly, from a more absolute to a
more relative position) and seemed committed to them Moratonum
subjects were those who had changed somewhat but gave the impression of vagueness Parenthetically, they also often engaged m
philosophical discourse on the nature of lovee g, "Well, I'd have to
be m love with him But sometimes I don't know what I mean by
love A kmd of canng, I guess, but love is more than that, it's
Foreclosures, for the most part, but not imammously, were those who
came m as puntans and were determmed to leave unsulhed, never
havmg senously considered their lmtial premises Identity diflFusion
individuals were those who stated no standards, this did not necessanly
imply promiscmty but simply an apparent lack of any sohd position
Fmal identity status for women was based on a combmation of
three areas occupation, ideology (rehgion and pohtics), and sex (attitudes toward premantal mtercourse). Interjudge rehabihty among
three mdependent judges for the identity statuses of 46 subjects on
the basis of the three areas combmed was 73%, usmg the cntenon of
two-thu^ds agreement or better on any one subject's status That is, if
two of the three judges, or better, agreed on the status, it was scored
as agreement Unanimous agreement was obtamed on 66^ of the subjects If there was disagreement across three judges, the semor author
acted as referee No subjects were dropped

254

James E Marcia and Meredith L Fnedman

Measures of Task Variables

Difficulty cf major area Pnor to the mam study, a list of 28 major
fields of study was rated by 160 sophomore, jumor, and semor women
for both diflSculty and prestige Smce difficulty correlated highly with
prestige (Pearson r's = .91, 89, and 97 for the three classes), scores
for the areas were based on difficulty alone The three classes' ratmgs
were combmed to yield an average level of rated difficulty for eadi
major fleld These levels are hsted m order below
1 o Engmeenng
2 o Chemistry
3 o Biolo^
40 Mathematics
50 Pharmacy
60 Nursmg
7 o Economics
8 5 Physical therapy
8 5 Medical technology
100 History
110 Modem languages
12 o Occupational therapy
13 o Geology
140 Classics

15 o Accountmg
16 o Psychology
17 o Speech pathology
180 Enghsh
190 Music
200 Philosophy
21 o Geography
22 o Social work
23 o Drama-speech
240 Busmess admmistration
25 o Sociology
26 o Anthropology
27 o Education
280 Physical education

Cognitive efficiency and fexibihty Luchins's Water Jars test, as

revised by Bugelski (1962), was used to measure this vanable Of
chief mterest were two measures difference between (a) time taken
to solve problem 7, requirmg a change m set, from mean time to solve
problems 1 through 6 and (fe) mean time to completion for aU 9 problems The former measure was mtended as an mdex of flexibility, the
latter was to be an estimate of overall cogmtive functionmg
Intelligence All subjects were given the 40-item vocabulary recogmtion section of the Shipley-Hartford Scale Lewmski (1946) has reported correlations of 58 between the Wechsler-Bellevue Full Scale
IQ and the Shipley vocabulary, as weU as a 64 correlation between
the Wechsler-BeUevue Verbal Scale and the Shipley vocabulary
Self-esteem''^ Subjects were admmistered a 20-item self-esteem
questionnaire developed by deCharms and Rosenbaum (i960) on
4 Self-esteem, authontananism, and the WAS items had the same format
They were answered along a 3 to -t-3 scale for degree of endorsement, and
some items were reflected m order to avoid a "yea-saymg" response style In
addition, half the self-esteem items were imbedded m the authontananism scale
and half m the WAS to disguise somewhat the general purposes erf the measures

go identity status in college women

255
which the subject mdicated his degree of endorsement of statements
concermng general feelmgs of self-confldence and worthmess
Authoritarianism Subjects were asked to mdicate their degree of
endorsement of statements reflectmg authontanan submission and
conventionahty taken from the Califorma F scale (Adomo, FrenkelBrunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950)
Anxiety or general maladjustment Anxiety, or general maladjustment, was measured by the Welsh Anxiety Scale (Welsh, 1956) Block
(1965) has suggested that this scale is closely related to his "Alpha"
factor obtamed from the MMPI and that it measures a general susceptibihty to anxiety
Procedure

The procedure foUowed this sequence

1. The ratmgs of occupational difficulty were collected before the
mam study began
2 Each subject was mterviewed by experimenter 1, the semor
author, to determme her identity status
3 Each subject was then administered the foUowmg measures by
experimenter 2, the jumor author, m a different room
a Luchins's Water Jars Test
b Shipley-Hartford Vocabulary Scale
c deCharms and Rosenbaum self-esteem questionnaire
d Califomia F Scale
e. Welsh Anxiety Scale
4 Interview tapes were rated mdependently by experimenters 1,
3, and 4, the latter two judges bemg tramed graduate students
m clmical psychology
5 The major fleld of concentration was obtamed from the mterviews and a ratmg assigned to it on the basis of the previously
gathered norms
RESULTS

AU measures were mtercorrelated Aside from those found cm

some Water Jars measures, the only significant relationship (r =
.42, df = 40, p < .05) was between occupational difficulty and
an overall measure of Water Jars performance, the mean time
taken to solve aU of the problems This suggests that if a response
style was operatmg on the self-esteem, authontanamsm, and
WAS measures it did not affect aU three measures m any con-

256
Table i

James E. Marcia and Meredith L. Friedman

Compansons of statuses on difficulty of coUege

identity Achievement (A)

Morotorium (M)
Foreciosure (F)
Identity Diffusion (D)

A
A
A
M
M
F

A+M

A-f-F
A
M
F
D

VI.

vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs
vs
vs
vs.
vs.

M
F
D
F
D
D

F+D
M+D

MH-F+D
A+F-l-D
A-f-M-l-D
A+M-l-F

SD

13
8
17
10

5 94
514
8 32
4 90

14 27
21 25
1644
23 55

2 62
1 00
3 82

< 02
< 001

144

as.

1 00
2 37
1 00
3 46
2 25
1 28
1 16
2^1

M.

n.s.

< 05
n.s.

< 01
< 05
as.
n.s.

< 01

sistent way However, this does not rule out a tendency for one
or another status to present itself m a sociaUy desirable way
Neither a one-way analysis of vanance (F = 1.73, df = 3/45,
n s ) nor * tests between the most extreme scores revealed significant differences among statuses on the Shipley vocabulary
measure, which was consistent with expectations and previous
findings.
Difficulty of College Major
Statuses differed significantly on difficulty of coUege major
(F 4So,df = 3/44,"^ p < 01) The t tests' presented m Table 1
support the hypothesis that identity achievement subjects are
found in more difficult coUege majors than are identity diffusions
(* = 3 82, df = 21, p < 001)
Luchins's Water Jars Problems
No significant differences were found among the statuses on
this measure, no F ratios exceeded 100
5 One identity diffusion's mterview was recorded over b^ore the ratmg of
difficulty erf college major was made
6 All significance leveb for t's axe two-tailed

Ego identity status in college women

257

Table 2 Compansons of statuses on self-esteem scores.

N
identity ochievement (A)
Morotonum (M)
Foreciosure (F)
identity diffusion (D)

SO

13
8
17
11

7
4
6
2

76
91
27
80

30.08
34 13
3647
31.27

i
A
A
A
M
M
F
A-l-M
A-l-F
A
M
F
D

vs
vs
vs.
vs
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs
vs
vs.
vs
vs.

M
F
D
F
D
D

F+D
M+D

M+F+D
A+F+D
A+M+D
A+M+F

1 14
2 41
i 00
1 00
i52
2 50
51
00
2 10
1 00
2 72
1 14

P
<

n.s.
05
n.s.
n.s.
n.s.

<

02
n.s.

<

n.s
05
ILS.

<

01
IU.

Self-esteem
Sigmficant differences on the self-esteem measure were found
among the statuses (F = 335, df = 3/45, p < 05) Table 2 presents * tests supportmg the hypothesis of significantly higher selfesteem scores for foreclosure subjects (t 272, df = 47, p<
01). Some unphcations of identity achievements' unexpected
lower self-esteem scores (* = 2.io, df = 47, p < .05) are discussed m the final section
Authontarianism
Authoritananism scores differed significantly among the statuses (F=:634, <i/ = 3/45, p < . o i ) , with foreclosure subjects
obtammg higher scores than subjects m the other statuses, as
hypothesized (t = 370, df = 47, p < .001). Moratonum subjects
scored lowest of the statuses (f = 2 56, d/ = 47, p < 02) (See
Table 3 )
Welsh Anxiety Scale
Identity statuses difFered significantly on WAS scores (F =
338, flf/ = 3/43,'' p < 05), with foreclosure subjects obtammg
7 The lower the mean, the hi^er the difficulty rank.

258

James E. Marcia and Meredith L Friedman

Table 3 Compansons of statuses on audiontanamsm

identity ochievement (A)

Moratorium (M)
Forecbsure (F)
identity diffusion (D)

SD

7
7
8
4

13
8
17
11

84
84
99
24

21
17
30
24

f
A
A
A
M
M
F

vs
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.

M
F
D
F
D
D

A+M vs F+D
A+F vs. M+D
A
vs M+F+D
M
vs. A+F+D
F
vs. A+M+D
D
vs. A+M+F

1 00
2 82
1 27
3 33
2 43
1 88
360

2 56
1 60
2 56
3 70
1 00

31
63
47
82

P
ns

< 01
n.s.

<
<
<
<
<

01
05
10
001
02
n.s.

< 02
< 001
n.s.

the lowest scores, as predicted {t 2 28, df = 47, p < 01). However, contrary to prediction, identity diffusion subjects, rather
than moratonum subjects, scored highest (^ = 2.19, df = 47,
p < 05) These compansons are presented m Table 4.
DiscxrssiON

The significant findmgs obtamed support the general apphcabihty of the ego-identity status constructs to coUege women The
succeedmg paragraphs discuss the lmphcations of some of the
results
The positive results concemmg difficulty of choice of college
major, the negative results of the Luchms Water Jars problems,
ahgned with previous positive and negative findings discussed
below, suggest limits m the range of applicabihty of the identity
status constructs to cognitive activities Two studies, mcludmg
the present one, have demonstrated no differences in mtelhgence
among the statuses, nor did Bob (1968) find clear-cut differences in cogmtive style among the statuses However, Marcia
(1966) found differences m concept attainment under stress,
one element of the stress being the task's supposed relationship

Ego identity status in college women

259

Table 4 Compansons of statuses on WAS scores

identity Achievement {A)

Morotorium (M)
Foreclosure (F)
identity diffusion (D)

13
8
15
11

SD

15 65
11 62
14 67
1818

41 77
AA 00
31 33
50 18

A
A
A
M
M
F
A+M
A+F
A
M
F
D

vs
vs.
vs
vs
vs
vs
vs.
vs
vs
vs.
vs
vs

M
F
D
F
D
D
F+D
M+D
M+F+D
A+F+D
A+M+D
A+M+F

1 00
1 75
1 17
2 02
1 00
2 81
1 00
2 38
1 00
1 00
2 82
219

P
n.s.

< 10
ns

<

10 (p < 05 = 2 07)
n.s.

< 01
ns

< 05
ns
n.s

< 01
< 05

to future "academic success." Combmmg these findmgs, it would

seem tiiat the most hkely areas withm which to expect cogmtive
differences among the identity statuses are those which are fairly broad, mterpersonal, and lifelike, as opposed to those which are
more circumscribed, formal, and laboratory-denved
The results for foreclosureslow WAS scores, high self-esteem
scores, and high F-scale scoresraise mterestmg questions m light
of Dignan's (1965) findmgs that girls who identify closely with
their mothers scored highest on her questionnaire measure of ego
identity Accordmg to the cntena for ego-identity status, a large
proportion of these girls would be foreclosures, a group not considered high m ego identity However, this position is based on
the results of studies with foreclosure men who, even though they
scored similarly highly on the WAS and self-esteem measure,
were found to be more susceptible to self-esteem mampulation
and to perform poorly in concept attainment under stress There
are three ways of reconcilmg the results with Dignan's The first
two mvolve remterpretations of the studies, the third mvolves a
theoretical speculation gomg beyond both studies
Our low WAS scores and high self-esteem scores, as weU as

260

James E Marcia and Meredith L Friedman

Dignan's "high ego identity" scores, may have been due to approval-seekmg behavior on the part of foreclosure women m both
studies. An earher expenment by Marcia (1966) showed foreclosure men to be unusually unresponsive to failure on a level of
aspiration measure Foreclosure women may simply tend to
answer questionnaire measures (like Dignan's) m the most sociaUy acceptable way.
A second possibility is that our foreclosure women were seekmg approval and that Dignan's were answermg vendically on her
ego-identity questionnaire. Perhaps on the campus of the "midwestem Catholic girls' school" where the Dignan study was run
the women were seldom exposed to identity-challengmg situations, so that they enjoyed relatively high acceptance from peers
and felt realistically secure m their identity However, a woman
commg to the campus of a large, urban, state umversity almost
certainly has to have been exposed to mfiuences dissonant with
her childhood-based identity. In order to remam unaffected by
these mfiuences, the foreclosures may employ defensive maneuvers similar to those associated with a "social desirabihty" response style (Ford & Hersen, 1967) Remammg a foreclosure and
favorable self-presentation on personality tests both may be related to the same defenses Hence, because of a lack of environmental threat, Dignan's women may have obtained "healthy"
scores by answenng nondefensively, whereas our women, defendmg agamst self-exposure, similarly obtained "healthy" scores
A third possibility is that the foreclosure identity status is a
particularly adaptive one for women Whereas the previous suggestion was that Dignan's subjects answered vendically and ours
did not, this conjecture implies that both our women and Dignan's were answenng vendically. Perhaps high social support for
girls' becoming what their parents had mtended them to become
(e g, woman as the "culture-bearer") leads, m fact, to foreclosure
women experiencing less anxiety, higher self-esteem, higher
scores on an "ego identity" questionnaire, and, of course, higher
authontananism As opposed to men, for whom there is practically a social demand that they go through some sort of "identity
crisis," women are expected to adopt a more traditional role of
caretaker It may be qmte threatenmg for most women to confront the problem of decidmg for themselves who or what they

Ego identity status in college women

261

are to be smce this almost mevitably mvolves some breakmg with

their famihes. One explanation for the identity achievements' low
self-esteem scores is that the process of achievmg an identity may
alienate them from their peers, thus leadmg to lower scores on
this measure, the item content of which taps pnmanly discomfort
m social situations Whatever the threat achievmgas opposed to
foreclosmgan identity iposes to women, it would seem from diffusions' high anxiety scale scores that just havmg some identity,
achieved or foreclosed, is better than remammg diffuse
Two findmgs for moratoriums should be noted The failure
to rephcate previous findmgs of significantly higher WAS scores
for this status may have been due to the statisticaUy ovemdmg
effects of the high anxiety experienced by the diffusions It would
be consistent with the reasonmg m the previous paragraph as weU
as our data to suggest that the further a woman is from a stable
identity (diffusion), the more anxiety she reports. A second findmg, that moratonums had significantly lower authontananism
scores, while not predicted, is consistent with results of the Podd,
Marcia, and Rubm (m press) study citmg this status's hypothesized "rebelhousness "
Thus far, it appears that the categorization of women mto the
identity statuses has about the same predictive yield as it did for
men However, this study raises two very important questions,
these mvolve determmmg the necessity for the addition of the
sex question to the identity status mterview and an evaluation of
the adapttveness of a foreclosure status for women The first
question may be answered by a study m progress separatmg the
standard identity status mterview from the sex questions so that
the relative contnbutions of each can be assessed A begmnmg on
tiie second question could be made by observmg the performance
of foreclosure women on tasks similar to those reveahng adaptive
difficulties for foreclosure menviz, vulnerabihty to self-esteem
mampulation and cognitive performance under stress
SUMMARY

Ego-identity status was determmed for 49 coUege women and

related to difficulty of coUege major, self-esteem, authontananism, and Welsh Anxiety Scale (WAS) scores The modified identity status mterview for women mcluded "attitudes toward pre-

262

James E Marcia and Meredith L Friedman

mantal mtercourse" Identity achievements had more difficult

majors than identity diffusions Foreclosures were highest m selfesteem and lowest m WAS scoresmterpreted either as approvalseekmg or as this status's adaptive value for women. They were
also highest m authontananism Moratonums were lowest m
authontananism. Identity diffusions obtamed the highest WAS
scores Failure to find differences on the Luchms Water Jars task
was seen as hmitmg the range of the identity status constructs.
REFERENCES

Adomo, T W , Frenkel-Bnmswik, E , Levinson, D J, & Sanford, R N The

authontarum personahty New York Harper, 1950
Block, J The challenge of response sets Urtconfoundtng meaning, acquiescence,
and soctal destrabtltty tn the MMPI New York Appleton-Century-Crofts,
1965
Bob, S R An mvestigation of the relabonship between identity status, cogmtive
style and stress Doctoral dissertation. State Umversity of New York at Buffalo, 1968
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Manuscript recetved June 23, 1969