In this article, we analyse the ways school headteachers/principals (HT/Ps) at different stages of adult ego development (AED) make sense of and respond to the organisational complexity of their schools. The AED stage of 20 HT/Ps in England was assessed using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test. HT/Ps in the self-aware,…

The way school principals make sense of the context of their work shapes their actions. As in all adults, principals' sense-making capability is a function of the ego and can change over time. Adult ego development theory describes distinct, qualitatively different stages of sense-making ability. The research reported here assessed the adult ego…

An assumption that immigrant and American-born adolescents experience similar, normal psychological development processes was examined through a two-part research study that: (1) gathered normative data on ego development, identity and moral reasoning; and (2) field-tested an experimental curriculum intended to stimulate development in these…

Adolescents from one inner-city, two suburban, and one private school were tested using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development. Both test-retest correlations and change scores supported the hypothesized sequence of ego development. Significant correlation between ego level and intelligence occurred in two schools.…

Investigates ego development in 32 lower-class and lower-middle class Black students at the sixth and twelfth grade levels. Ego development was measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WU-SCT). (Author/SS)