DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

of which represents a more complex representation of the self. They found advances
in the complexity of self-representations as cognitive ability develops. The highest
levels of self-representation were reached around the age of 50. All five levels are
summarised in Table IV.
Table IV. Labouvie-Vief et al.’s developmental levels of self-representation
Level 1 Concrete Presystemic Simple and concrete descriptors. Traits are seen as
global. No references to goals or psychological
processes.
Level 2 Interpersonal Protosystemic Evaluations are made that reflect the values of the
immediate social group. Emphasis on features of the self
that make for in-group acceptance
Level 3 Institutional Intrasystemic Clearer sense of individuality within a group. Traits
become more self-directed and goal-directed.
Conventional goals, roles, values.
Level 4 Contextual Intersystemic Descriptions are critical of convention, involve an
awareness of how traits change, and give a sense of
individuals with their own value system.
Level 5 Dynamic Intersubjective Roles and traits are described at a complex level and
reflect underlying motives that may be unconscious.
Reference is to multiple dimensions of life history and an
emphasis on process, becoming and emergence.
Kegan (1982) also proposed a theory of the developing self which leads to
qualitatively new, more complex, stages of self. In his formulation, the self reaches
six successive new equilibriums, each one bringing a temporary balance to selfhood.
Each successive stage is oriented towards being either independent or attached.
The developmental sequence starts with the incorporative self, which
corresponds to Piaget’s early sensori-motor period. Being prior to a self-world
distinction, it is prior to any preference for being autonomous or attached. Next
emerges the impulsive self, which is oriented towards inclusion in the mother-baby
dyad, and there is no assertion of independence as yet. It is only with the command of
one’s own impulses, through toilet training and early concrete operational thought that
the imperial self is reached. Here we see the first push for independence away from
parents. The imperial self is transcended by the interpersonal self with the onset of
the formal operational period. This brings a new push for inclusion and popularity
with adolescent peers. The interpersonal self then is replaced by the institutional self,
which replaces the malleable interpersonal self with a more solid identity that
maintains coherence across context, and is defined by roles that link the person to
stable institutions. The interindividual self is the following stage, which once again
swings back to inclusion and belonging, but in relationship to, rather than included in,
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