Ego identity of university males and females as a function of death anxiety and level of self-esteem.

Abstract

Ego identity is measured by the presence of a crisis and/or commitment to vocational choice, and political and religious ideology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between ego-identity status and death anxiety and self-esteem. A second purpose was to confirm the positive relationship of femininity and death anxiety. Undergraduate students, Nz 423. from Introductory Psychology, Developmental, and Applied Psychology classes were used as subjects. There were 157 male and 266 female subjects. Subjects were administered all test materials during regular class periods. Ego-identity statuses were formed according to responses to the Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status (OM-EIS). Death anxiety was measured by the Death Anxiety Scale and self-esteem was measured by the Texas Social Behavior Inventory, Form A. Analyses of variance for unweighted means of independent groups were performed in a 2 X 4 factorial design and the Newman-Keuls procedure was used to investigate significant interactions. Significant differences were found between both gender and status on death anxiety and self-esteem measures, at both E <.05 and p <.01. Male identity achievers were found to have the lowest death anxiety and highest self-esteem scores, E <.01 and p <.05, respectively. Proposed was the consideration of diffusion-moratoriums as a distinct status. The hypothesis that males would have lower death anxiety and higher self-esteem scores than females was confirmed. It was concluded that the OM-EIS is measuring ego identity in much the same was as Marcia's (1966) Incomplete Sentence Interview.