Integrity, Despair and in Between: Toward Construct Validation of Erikson's Eighth Stage
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INTEGRITY, DESPAIR AND IN BETWEEN: TOWARD CONSTRUCT VALIDATION OF ERIKSON'S EIGHTH STAGE by Simon Hearn B.A., University of Toronto, 1977 M.Sc., Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1986 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of PSYCHOLOGY @Richard Simon Fairfax Hearn 1993 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY July 1993 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: R. Simon F. Hearn Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Integrity, Despair, and In Between: Towards Construct Validation for Eriksonts Eighth Stage Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Jean Koepke r . James Marcia , Professor se-ervwr Dr. ~hondKoopman Associate Professor -- Dr. Stephen G.-llidav Adjunct Professor Dr. Elinor Ames, Associate Professor Internal External Examiner - ------ - Dr. Susan K. Whitbourne, Professor Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts External Examiner PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood, that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Integrity, Despair, and In Bet~een: Towards Construct Val idation for Eri kson's Eighth Stage Author: (signature) R. Simon F. Hearn (name) iii ABSTRACT One hundred adults 65 and older participated in a semi- structured psychosocial interview based on Erikson's writings on Integrity versus Despair. Subjects were assigned to one of four Integrity statuses by three raters, who achieved moderate reliabilities using an Integrity Status Rating Manual. Dependent variables were: the Integrity subscale from the Modified Eriksonian Psychosocial Inventory, the Openness to Experience scale from the NEO Personality Inventory, the Competence scale from the California Psychological Inventory, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and a measure of Perceived Health. Covariates were age and education. Four measures and education were significantly linked with status groupings, as were two factor analytically derived variables: 'Integrity' and 'Sophistication.'Among other findings, Integrated subjects were competent; Nonexploratory subjects conventional; Pseudointegrated subjects immature; and Despairing subjects demoralized. Life review, considered central to eighth stage personality development by Erikson, occurred rarely. Rather, lifespan continuity of the known self was the goal of aged subjects. Tortoise: ...I've never had the time to analyze Beauty. It's a Capitalized Essence; and I never seem to have the time for Capitalized Essences. Achilles: Speaking of Capitalized Essences,'Mr. T, have you ever wondered about the Purpose of Life? Tortoise: Oh, heavens, no. ---Douglas Hofstadter: Godel. Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude and respect are due to Dr. Jim Marcia, whose achievements in research on Identity were inspiring, and whose vital involvement, conversation, and all-seeing gaze galvanized completion of this thesis. I thank Dr. Ray Koopman for his approachability, and for the acute and stimulating points he made about both data analyses and other parts of the research. Dr, Steve Holliday was practised, tactful, upbeat, and right on the money in his comments on thesis drafts. Some years ago, Lyn Wool completed a dissertation proposal, which also contained an Integrity Interview, to undertake this same project at Simon Fraser University, before she moved on to other concerns. I thank her for her hospitality and for being willing to share that fine proposal, as well as some useful literature, with me. I express appreciation to Sue Driedger and Jackie Kampman, the two independent raters, for dedicated and effortful work in trying to grasp and use the status categories reliably. I will always owe thanks to Elizabeth Michno for essential, patient and cheerful computing support, most of all during some pressured, last-minute, overtime, hours. Joan Foster was generous with her time, and Malcolm Toms helped smooth the path too. I thank the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University for financial support. I thank my parents for love and inspiration. John Breen helped turn defeatism into optimism. I am grateful to Kathleen Ting for faith, love and encouragement. Much appreciation is due Gary Saulnier for having reliable ears. Lastly, I am very grateful to the subjects of this study, for their generosity, and for their willingness to share their private thoughts and feelings. Appendix C: Integrity subscale from the Modified Eriksonian Psychosocial Inventory ......................,204 Appendix D: Openness to Experience Scale from the NEO Personality Appendix E: Competence Scale from the California Psychological Inventory .......................211 Appendix I?: Perceived Health Measure ........215 Appendix G: Geriatric Depression Scale ......217 Appendix H: Advertisement for subjects ......220 Appendix I: Interview checklist for signs of cognitive impairment ............222 Appendix J: Consent form ....................224 References ..................................... 226 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Percentages of agreement between raters, percentages of agreement expected by chance, and kappa reliability coefficients .............s....e123 2. Means and standard deviations on convergent measures by status group ............................. 126 3. Results from univariate ANOVAs ....................... 127 4. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance, with and without Despairs ............................133 5. Multivariate and univariate analyses of covariance, with Despairs included ............................... 135 6. Multivariate and unviariate analyses of covariance, with Despairs excluded ............................... 136 7. Significant main effects and interactions from ANCOVAS, with sex and self- versus other-referral as additional independent variables: Despairs 8. Significant main effects and interactions from ANCOVAS, with sex and self- versus other-referral as additional independent variables: Despairs not included .........................included.................................included................................included................................included................................included.................................~............140 9. Correlation matrix from factor analysis performed on residual data ..................................... 143 10. Correlation matrix from factor analysis performed on raw data, including covariates ....................147 11. Discriminant analyses on raw data, with hit rates ....152 12. Discriminant analyses on residuals, with hit rates ...154 13. Discriminant analyses of raw data, with prior probabilities entered ............eeeoe................ 155 14. Discriminant analyses on residuals, with prior probabilities entered ................................ 157 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. An Epigenetic Diagram ...........................e......8 2. The Life Cycle ............e.e.es.ee00.................19 Introduction Statement of Pur~ose This study seeks to establish some construct validity for the eighth stage of Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory of the life cycle. Four decades after its publication, Erikson's theory of personality development (1950, 1963, 1980, 1982, 1986) remains one of few schemes whose scope takes in the whole lifespan. Erikson's model is still very widely studied and taught, probably because of its heuristic richness; in addition, research efforts to date which have sought empirical validation for its constructs have succeeded well; they have added considerably to the study of ego development, particularly in adolescence and young adulthood (e.g., see Bourne, 1978a, b; Marcia, 1980; Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Orlofsky, and Archer, in press; Matteson, 1975; and Waterman, 1982, for reviews of over 25 years' publications using Marcia's Identity Status Interview to investigate the fifth psychosocial stage; see Orlofsky [in Marcia, et al., in press] for a review of work using Orlofsky, Marcia and Lesser's (1973) instrument for assessing Intimacy Status). Studies in the comparatively- unknown regions of lifespan personality change must be theory-guided, and Erikson's model quite credibly provides such a theoretical framework (Whitbourne, 1985). The present study, then, tries to find empirical support for his hypotheses about the development of personality in old age, during the last of his eight stages of personality growth. The central conflict of this stage, between Ego Integrity and Despair, belongs to the retirement era, when an active-generative mode of living has mainly been relinquished. Erikson wrote that the ego task at this time is to integrate: One must review one's life honestly, taking stock of disappointments and successes; the goal is an overall perception which compassionately balances an historical understanding of events with larger philosophical understanding. The