Prior Help, Ego Development, and Helping Behavior.

The purpose of the study was to investigate in young adolescents the effects of level of ego development and prior help on helping behavior. 79 eighth-grade middle-class boys served as subjects. Each subject completed Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test as a measure of ego development, participated in an experimental situation, and answered interview questions. Amount of prior help was positively related to helping behavior in the experimental situation. Ego development and race were not related to help in the experimental situation or to extracurricular helping behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]