Thursday, May 9, 2019

Murray cautions on stereotyping individuals

Continuing this post, another resource relevant to the discussion is Tom Murray's article on sentence completion tests (SCT), the main instrument for measuring ego development. The other developmental models don't use these, instead measuring specific task performance. Murray provides research that shows both internal and external validity with SCTs for measuring ego development. But he also notes some cautions, just a few listed below.

"Though the models describe general patterns, it is important not to pigeon-hole individuals into caricatures—individual differences are as profound as the general trends. One’s developmental level probably has something to say about how one approaches parenting, relationships, work, learning, etc., but does not predict exactly how any individual will think or act in any context."

"Though we might speak of someone’s 'center of gravity' as their most common meaning-making level, people embody a range of levels at different times, depending on the challenges and supports present in any context." 


However Stein and Heikkinen (2009)  noted the following:
"In this preliminary review, it also appears that contemporary uses of sentence completion methods to measure ego development are not justified by peer-reviewed validity and reliability studies, and what studies there are do not address the most important aspects of psychometric concern (i.e., construct validity and internal consistency)" (19).
Now Murray's survey did discuss both construct validity and internal consistency, so I'm curious if Stein read and agreed with the referenced studies when he made this comment?

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