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This paper reports the results of an ongoing study of individuals' ego control and ego resiliency. The study began with 130 subjects in 1969 when the subjects were in nursery school. At the most recent assessment, 104 participants still remained. Ego control is defined as the degree and kind of control individuals exert over their impulses, and ego resiliency as individuals' ability to modify their characteristic level of ego-control. An ego-resilient person tends to be resourceful and adaptive when confronted by new situations. An individual who is not ego-resilient tends to become inflexible when confronted by new situations, and is slow to recoup after stress. The study assessed individuals' ego control and resiliency when the subjects were 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 18, and 23 years old, by means of experimental measures, interactional procedures, self-evaluations, creativity tests, and clinical interviews. Results indicated a consistency in ego resilience across time for boys and a consistency in ego resilience during early childhood and adolescence, but not between these two periods, for girls. Results also indicated a consistency in ego control for both boys and girls. (ME)

This study investigates the parent-child relationship antecedents of a multidimensional model of moral character among late adolescents. The model posits that the configuration of five character dimensions explains the moral behavior displayed by an individual. The dimensions are moral knowledge, socialization, empathy, autonomy and ethical attitudes. Two parent-child dimensions relating to moral development are parental acceptance and parental control. The study hypothesizes that parental acceptance and moderately high control are positively related to character dimensions. The subjects are college students, and the study utilizes self-report and retrospective ratings of parent behavior. Significant correlations were found between the parent-child variables and two dimensions of moral character--socialization and empathy. Although, in general, the results are consistent with current trends, the findings regarding parental control are somewhat divergent. In the studied sample, the more permissive parental transactions with high acceptance and low control seem the most facilitative of moral character development. This is explained developmentally. (NG)

This paper examines some of the aspects of compliance, its antecedents and consequences, that emerged from a sutdy of 136, 2 1/2 year-old boys. The investigation studied parent-child interaction by means of naturalistic home observation, ratings based on observation and interviews, and experimental procedures. Four compliance criterion measures, including a rating of internalized standards (which was significantly associated with overt compliance) were correlated with other child and parent variables. Compliance was found to be positively correlated with child independence and maturity of speech and negatively with a rating of attachment. Multiple regression analyses of the criteria with parent variables indicated that consistently enforced discipline, psychological rewards, encouragement of independence and maternal play contributed importantly to the positive prediction of compliance, whereas material rewards and physical and psychological punishments were negatively associated with it. A weak association between mother's education and compliance was noted. The findings of the correlational analysis support a cognitive theory of moral development and point to the importance of a consistent parental authority role. A sequence analysis, however, demonstrated effectiveness of 'power assertion' in the immediate stimuli controlling compliance. Implications for early development are discussed. (Author)

Using Quay's typology, three equal groups (n=12) of adolescent psychopathic, neurotic, and subcultural delinquent males and a matched nondelinquent control group were individually administered Kohlberg's structured moral dilemmas, two Piagetian tasks of cognitive development (pendulum and balance), and an adaption of Flavell's role-taking task. Psychopathic delinquents were more immature in level of moral development than all other groups which did not differ from one another. Psychopathic delinquents were significantly more concrete in their thinking on cognitive tasks than all other groups who exhibited signs of early formal operational thinking. Psychopathic and to a lesser extent neurotic delinquents were deficient in role taking compared with controls and subculturals who did not differ from one another. The findings provide further evidence against viewing delinquency as a unitary syndrome of deviance. (Author)

The program described is an attempt to create regular classroom learning experiences for teenagers which promote psychological development. Based on concepts from stage theory, the objectives of the classes are to increase the level of psychological maturity of the pupils while teaching particular psychological skills. The course is designed as a practicum and seminar experience in which listening skills and empathy responses are developed through actual peer counseling experience. Practicum sessions consist of sequential training in role playing exercises, examinations of counseling tapes, and counseling of high school peers. Seminar sessions include readings on communication and discussions of counseling films and tapes. Each of the class activities and writing assignments are described. Statistical results from evaluations of skill development confirm counselors' and teachers' impressions of growth and maturity in participating students. It is felt that a series of complimentary courses using this intervention format could expand and enrich the standard academic subject-oriented teaching at the secondary level. (Author/KSM)

The major contention of this paper is that the best way to understand an individual's identity is through the story (or stories) that person makes of his or her life. The research looks at the ways in which the performance of business executives is rooted in both: (1) an executive's unique identity as an individual; and (2) a component of personality called agency. The life story of Dodge Morgan, a former chief executive officer of Controlonics Corporation, who, in 1986, sailed the 60-foot sloop American Promise on a record-breaking, nonstop, solo circumnavigation of the world is the focus of the research. The life story of Dodge Morgan is used to support the argument that identity is a psychological framework for both short-term and long-term goals; that it helps to determine how one approaches both tasks and interpersonal relationships; that it also helps determine the way one copes with stress; and that it has the potential for development over the lifespan, thus affording certain developmental opportunities for the executive. A lengthy bibliography is included. (DB)

This report seeks to understand executive leadership by focusing on a character type called "expansive." Expansive character revolves around mastery of tasks and a continual desire to accomplish. In the report, several goals are featured: to define what expansive character is; to discuss its origins; to show how moderate versus extreme degrees of expansiveness affects executive performance, for both good and bad; to consider its effect on the organization; and to discuss implications for development of the expansive executive. The report relies for evidence on executives studied for this research and those studied by others; two particular case studies are utilized. The first describes the research method of the report, and the second discusses subtypes of the expansive executive. Two appendices are included: (1) the research method used for the study; and (2) an explanation of the subtypes of the expansive executive. (DB)

The process by which human beings, as they grow toward maturity, develop values is not an automatic one. The process can be fostered by a number of teaching strategies. The strategies include the techniques of self-discovery, the provision of learning environments that encourage growth, and the practice of specific skills. This volume provides a theoretical basis for an understanding of value development together with practical materials for applying the theory in the lives of individuals and institutions. A model, the Four Phases of Consciousness, was designed that charted a pattern of human moral and intellectual growth in terms of what individuals value in life. The model projected a series of four phases through which all humans pass on their journey toward the fullest possible development. Section 1 focuses on value development theory and identifes the four phases of consciousness in detail; analyzes the factors that enable individuals to move through the phases; explores the relationship between skills and the internalization of values; introduces the classification of instrumental, intrapersonal, imaginal, and system skills; and applies the value theory to the educational system. Section 2 presents a series of exercises in each of the four skill areas because skill development is crucial to making changes in behavior and values. All of the exercises are intended to present the individual with new data about the self and to explore a series of choices crucial to the process of giving direction to one's life. Seven appendices are included: (1) application of value theory; (2) feeling words; (3) value/skill/time list; (4) 125 values and their definitions; (5) glossary; (6) bibliography; and (7) Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values. (DB)

Most personality theories of the aging devote insufficient consideration to the social learning transpiring during the aging period and to the dynamics of the interaction between developmental and social forces. Erikson emphasized the formulation of a philosophical verdict on one's earlier experiences. Similarly, in Neugarten's version of the disengagement theory, primacy is given to developmental intrapsychic changes of middle age, with a secondary role reserved for the later social-factors affecting the elderly. According to the transactional model proposed here, the effects of the environment to which the elderly person is subject are the product of (1) the people and settings comprising that environment, and (2) the manner in which the individual (with his unique personality and cognitive make-up) acts upon and is acted upon by these people and settings. This dynamic interplay continues throughout the aging process. The model highlights the need for research in which present behavioral and environmental events assume as much importance as past ones. (Author)

This presentation focuses on a theory of personality development, conceptual systems theory, as a possible resource for the counselor assisting clients in stress. It describes the results of a factor analysis of four measures of conceptual structure which suggested that the construct of conceptual complexity is different from the construct of conceptual level. A significant multiple correlation was reported between the two variables comprising the conceptual level factor (Tuckman's Interpersonal Topical Inventory and Hunt's Paragraph Completion Test), and an overall index of self-actualization derived from Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory. Both the factor analytic and the regression results were discussed as they related to counseling research and practice. (Author)

The possibility that child behavior could affect parental choice of socialization technique was examined. Girls, age nine, (N=3) were trained to act high and low in person-orientation, and served as confederates. Female college students (N-24), who were unaware that the children were trained, each participated in one session. Results demonstrated that experimentally induced variations did affect adult socialization techniques in a situation involving moral behavior, and that child effects cannot be dismissed as minor influences in the interactive system of adult and child. (Author/KA)

Subjects were 50 17 year-old students from a variety of types of schools (parochial, private, public) in two New England areas were interviewed for moral and faith development according to the theories of Kohlberg and Fowler. Socioeconomic level and IQ were highly correlated with faith and moral scores. Experiences of the death of someone close and/or of life styles and perspectives different from one's own (often missing in the lives of adolescents in the suburbs) seem to foster role-taking, an important element in both faith and moral development. Implications for education are discussed. (Author)