ABSTRACT
The achievement of ego identity requires the individual to relinquish his claims to infantile sources of gratification and to renounce lingering infantile fantasies of omnipotence. This chapter discusses the hypothesis by employing disguised parallel forms of the self-esteem scale with less than an hour between the 'before' and 'after' administrations, as well as to maximize chances for observing change by employing a second, 'obvious' self-esteem measure. The hypothesis is that Ss high in identity status will be less vulnerable in the face of self-esteem manipulation than Ss low in identity status. The chapter investigates this hypothesis by comparing the statuses on the Welsh Anxiety Scale. If the hypothesis of an underlying dimension of apparent maladjustment characterizes the identity statuses, there should be a significant negative relationship between WAS scores and the identity statuses dichotomized into high and low groups. The chapter explains some findings concerning the foreclosure status' Ss scoring significantly higher on the F Scale.
