ABSTRACT
Personality theories often lack an appreciation of development, and developmental theories often lack an appreciation of individual differences. Jane Loevinger’s work on ego development bridges the gap between these two domains. “Individual differences in character,” she noted (1976), “have interested men for centuries. Interest in how character is formed in childhood and youth is also ancient. But to see those two phenomena as manifestations of a single developmental continuum is a modern twist. That insight is the origin of ego development as a formal discipline” (p. 3). Loevinger regards ego development as the central dimension of personality, second only to intelligence in its pervasiveness and influence. Her empirically based descriptions of the stages of ego development must be counted amongst the most important achievements of personality and developmental psychology (see Appendix for an overview of the stages of ego development).
