Ego development and marital satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between one's level of ego development and marital satisfaction in an effort to clarify the complex issue of marital dynamics. A total of 50 married couples volunteered for the study and the sample was composed of couples from three geographical regions in Central Texas. Spanier's (1976) Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) was used to assess marital satisfaction in conjunction with Edmonds' (1967) Marital Conventionalization Scale (MC). Loevinger's (1970) Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT) was introduced to measure adult levels of ego development. Results of this study indicated that marital satisfaction and ego development are independent of each other both within the total group of 100 subjects and by sex alone. However, there appears to be a stronger association between ego development and marital satisfaction among the wives in contrast to the husbands. This study also examined how well husbands and wives agreed on marital satisfaction and ego development. With regard to marital satisfaction, a significant relationship was found between the degree of the husband's marital satisfaction and his wife's marital satisfaction. With regard to ego development, analysis of the data indicated that the event of a husband having a certain degree of ego development is independent of his wife having a certain degree of ego development. The relationship between ego development, marital satisfaction, and certain demographic variables was examined. All of the correlations with both variables were found to be non-significant. Results of this study suggest that the relationship between ego development and marital satisfaction warrants further investigation. There is the possibility that more molecular relations exist between ego level and specific areas of marital interaction. However, it is safe to conclude that spouses both similar and dissimilar in ego levels experience marital conflict and satisfaction. The theoretical construct of adult ego development may be deficient in understanding marital dynamics since it is set apart from specific behavioral and affective exchanges that play a significant role in relationships. The role of internal personality traits in marital interaction may have been overestimated.