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Hope, Will, Purpose, Competence, and

Fidelity: Ego Strengths as Predictors of
Career Identity
a
Kristine Anthis
a
Southern Connecticut State University
Published online: 13 May 2014.

To cite this article: Kristine Anthis (2014) Hope, Will, Purpose, Competence, and Fidelity: Ego
Strengths as Predictors of Career Identity, Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research,
14:2, 153-162, DOI: 10.1080/15283488.2014.892001

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 Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14:153–162, 2014
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1528-3488 print=1532-706X online
DOI: 10.1080/15283488.2014.892001

Hope, Will, Purpose, Competence, and Fidelity:

Ego Strengths as Predictors of Career Identity

Kristine Anthis
Southern Connecticut State University
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This correlational study examined the relationships among ego strengths and career identity.
Self-report data were collected from a sample of university undergraduates (N ¼ 239). Participants
completed the Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths and the Vocational Identity Status Assess-
ment. The results revealed gender differences, primarily in career identity. The findings also showed
that the unique variance explained in career identity by each ego strength was modest, indicating that
the best predictor of career identity is the overall level of ego strengths. Suggestions for future
research, such as longitudinal designs to establish ego strengths as developmental precursors of
career identity, are provided.

In general it is primarily the inability to settle on an occupational identity which disturbs young
people. (Erikson, 1959, p. 97)

According to Erikson (1985), ego strengths are the virtues that arise out of positive resolution of
each stage’s crisis. These are: (a) hope arising from experiencing more trust than mistrust in
infancy, (b) will arising from experiencing more autonomy than shame and doubt during toddler-
hood, (c) purpose arising from experiencing more initiative than guilt during the preschool
years, (d) competence arising from experiencing more industry than inferiority during the school
years, (e) fidelity arising from experiencing more identity than identity confusion during the
adolescent years, (f) love arising from experiencing more intimacy than isolation during early
adulthood, (g) care arising from experiencing more generativity than stagnation during
middle adulthood, and (h) wisdom arising from experiencing more integrity than despair during
late adulthood.
The epigenetic principle inherent in Erikson’s theory (1964, 1968) posits that every ego
strength exists in every stage, but that each ego strength reaches its time of special ascendancy
during the stage at which the individual strives to resolve the corresponding crisis. For example,
competence should reach its apex around the end of the school years or the beginning of
adolescence. According to the hierarchical principle in Erikson’s (1985) theory, the successful
resolution of prior stages and acquisition of those stages’ ego strengths increases the likelihood
of the successful resolution of later stages. It may thus be anticipated that ego strengths prior to
adolescence serve as development precursors of career identity.

Address correspondence to Kristine Anthis, Department of Psychology, Southern Connecticut State University, EN
D063, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515, USA. E-mail: anthisk1@southernct.edu
 154 ANTHIS

The purpose of this study was to determine if the ego strengths that arise before or during
adolescence (i.e., hope, will, purpose, competence, and fidelity) predict university students’
career identity. Hope allows individuals to have faith that the future is worthwhile and to be opti-
mistic, even in the face of setbacks, that they can choose a career with the expectation of future
success at it. Will allows individuals to possess determination and drive and involves the belief
that the career choice made is their own rather than one imposed on them by significant others or
happenstance. Purpose allows individuals to visualize and pursue goals—in this instance, goals
associated with occupational pursuits. Competence allows individuals to develop and use skills
and abilities to complete tasks involved in their chosen career. Fidelity allows individuals to be
faithful and loyal to themselves and to others, including becoming who they wish to become in
the domain of vocation. (See Erikson, 1964, and Markstrom, Sabino, Turner, & Berman, 1997,
Downloaded by [University of Delaware] at 17:53 03 October 2014

for an elaboration on the nature of the ego strengths.)

Prior research on ego strengths has found strong interrelationships among the ego strengths in
total, ranging from a Cronbach’s alpha of .74 to .94 (Gfellner & Armstrong, 2012; Gfellner &
Córdoba, 2011; Markstrom & Marshall, 2007; Markstrom et al., 1997). Such patterns are con-
sistent with Erikson’s (1964, 1968) epigenetic principle, because if every ego strength exists in
every stage, ego strengths should be correlated with one another.

Career Identity

If fidelity is the product of resolving the identity-identity confusion crisis of adolescence, estab-
lishing the major concerns and issues with which individuals grapple during this process is
necessary to better support them. It has been argued that career identity (the conscious aware-
ness of oneself as worker) is a core element of identity development throughout the life span, but
is especially salient during the transition from school to work (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011). To
better understand how adolescents and adults go about choosing an occupation and therefore
developing their career identity, some researchers have focused solely on assessing career ident-
ity specifically rather than identity as a broad construct that incorporates a variety of domains
such as work, religious beliefs, and political ideology. Identity processes in different domains
are often characterized by low convergence, so the study of domains separately is warranted.
Career identity is a domain of nearly universal concern and is often addressed before other
identity domains become salient (Goossens, 2001; Kunnen, 2010; Skorikov & Vondracek,
2011; Solomontos-Kountouri & Hurry, 2008).
Career identity can be conceptualized using the Luyckx model of identity that includes
in-breadth exploration, in-depth exploration, commitment making, and identification with
commitment, and the Crocetti, Rubini, and Meeus (2008) model of identity that includes
in-depth exploration, identification with commitment, and reconsideration of commitment
(Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008; Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, & Beyers, 2006; Luyckx,
Goossens, Soenens, Beyers, & Vansteenskiste, 2005). Research on career identity has also
addressed the extent to which individuals have reconsidered this identity via doubting the
commitment or remaining flexible and open to changing the commitment in the future (Porfeli,
2009; Porfeli, Lee, Vondracek, & Weigold, 2011).
Blending these two models results in six different dimensions of career identity: (a)
in-breadth exploration refers to the extent to which individuals have engaged in a wide
 EGO STRENGTHS 155

exploration regarding different careers–when using such full-spectrum consideration, individuals

may focus on careers that may or may not be consistent with their talents, skills, and interests but per-
haps are highly visible in the media, which prompts the individuals to consider how they may fit into
such a career rather than matching their skills and talents to a career (Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010); (b)
in-depth exploration refers to the extent to which individuals have thought extensively regarding their
chosen field and ways to implement their plans with a particular focus on careers that are perceived to
be consistent with their talents, skills, and interests as well as how to pursue such careers (Porfeli &
Skorikov, 2010); (c) career commitment making refers to the extent to which individuals have com-
mitted to a particular career path because they feel they know what career is best for them (Porfeli
et al., 2011); (d) identification with career commitment refers to the strength and certainty with which
individuals hold to a career commitment and perceive it to be consistent with personal values and
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goals, broadly considered (Porfeli et al., 2011); (e) career self-doubt refers to the extent to which indi-
viduals are uncertain about their career choice; and (f) career flexibility refers to the extent to which
individuals are open to future changes in their career choice (Porfeli et al., 2011).
Prior research on these variables with high school and university students has revealed posi-
tive correlations between in-breadth exploration and in-depth exploration, between commitment
making and commitment identification, and between self-doubt and commitment flexibility—as
well as negative correlations between commitment making with self-doubt and commitment
flexibility, and commitment identification with self-doubt and commitment flexibility (Porfeli
et al., 2011; Porfeli & Savickas, 2012).

Research Questions and Hypotheses

I proposed the following research questions to examine the relationships among ego strengths
and career identity.

Research Question 1 (RQ1): To what extent do total ego strength scores predict the six career
identity outcome variables? The following hypothesis is advanced:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Total ego strengths scores are expected to correlate positively with and
career commitment making, identification with career commitment
and negatively with career self-doubt and career flexibility. No predic-
tion is advanced regarding the relationship of total ego strengths
scores with in-breadth exploration or in-depth exploration.
Research Question 2 (RQ2): Is the strength of the association of the total ego strengths to the six career
identity outcome variables similar or different for males and females?
No prediction regarding gender similarities or differences is advanced.
Research Question 3 (RQ3): Do individual ego strengths make differential contributions to the
career identity variables? Two hypotheses are advanced:
Hypothesis 3a (H3a): Due to the importance of competence in the pursuit of career goals, it
is anticipated that competence will be among the strongest virtues
positively correlated with in-breadth exploration, in-depth explo-
ration, career commitment making and identification with career
commitment and will be negatively correlated with career self-doubt
and career flexibility.
Hypothesis 3b (H3b): Because fidelity is the stage-specific ego strength associated with ado-
lescence (and perhaps early adulthood as well), fidelity with respect to
 156 ANTHIS

career goals should be of particular importance. It is therefore

predicted that fidelity will be among the strongest virtues positively
correlated with in-breadth exploration, in-depth exploration, career
commitment making and identification with career commitment and
negatively correlated with career self-doubt and career flexibility.

Although it is expected that trust, autonomy, and will are to be associated with the career
variables in a pattern similar to competence and fidelity, it is anticipated that these associations
will be comparatively weaker.

METHOD
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Participants

Participants in this study were students from undergraduate courses in life span development
(n ¼ 75) and child development (n ¼ 200) at a regional state university in the New England
region of the United States. They volunteered to participate for extra credit toward a course
grade. The final sample was composed of 239 individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 years,
with an average age of 20 years (SD ¼ 1.30). With respect to gender, 200 (84%) participants
were female and 39 (16%) were male. With respect to race=ethnicity, 174 (73%) identified as
European American, 35 (15%) as African American, 20 (8%) identified as Latina or Latino
American, 3 (1%) identified as Asian American, and 7 (3%) identified as mixed race=ethnicity.
icity. Regarding year in college, the distribution was 46 (19%) freshmen, 101 (42%) sopho-
mores, 58 (24%) juniors, and 34 (14%) seniors. Participants reported working 0 to 60 hours
per week, with a mean of 20.34 hours per week (SD ¼ 13.92).

Instrumentation

Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths

The 64-item Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths (PIES; Markstrom et al., 1997) is
composed of eight eight-item scales corresponding to the eight stages in Erikson’s (1964) theory
of psychosocial development, with items that are scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(does not describe me) to 5 (describes me well). I used only the scales for the first five stages
(i.e., Hope, Will, Purpose, Competence, and Fidelity) in this study because these stage-related
virtues corresponded to the chronological ages through which the 18- to 24-year-old participants
had developed.
As per the PIES instructions, reverse-scored items were changed before data entry. I
computed a total ego strength score by summing the five individual ego strengths. Sample items
for each of the five ego strength scales are as follows: Hope: ‘‘When I think about the future, I
feel optimistic’’ (a ¼ .86 in this study); Will: ‘‘I am able to follow through on a task until it’s
completed’’ (a ¼ .75); Purpose: ‘‘I try to pursue my aims even when I have to take risks’’
(a ¼ .79); Competence (reverse-scored): ‘‘I really don’t know what strengths or skills I
have to offer society’’ (a ¼ .79); and Fidelity: ‘‘I believe in being true to myself and others’’
(a ¼ .74).
 EGO STRENGTHS 157

Vocational Identity Status Assessment

The 30-item Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA; Porfeli et al., 2011) is a
domain-specific measure of identity with items that are scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Based partially on the work of others who have
established two types of exploration and commitment, as well as reconsideration of commitment,
the VISA assesses career identity with five items for each the six subscales of (a) In-Breadth
Exploration, (b) In-Depth Exploration, (c) Commitment Making, (d) Identification with Career
Commitment, (e) Career Self-Doubt, and (f) Career Flexibility.
Sample items for each of the six career identity indices read as follows: In-Breadth
Exploration: ‘‘Keeping my options open as I learn about many different careers’’
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(a ¼ .87 in this study); In-Depth Career Exploration: ‘‘Learning as much as I can about
the particular educational requirements of the career that interests me the most’’
(a ¼ .76); Career Commitment Making: ‘‘No other career is as appealing to me as the
one I expect to enter’’ (a ¼ .89); Identification with Career Commitment: ‘‘I chose a career
that will allow me to remain true to my values’’ (a ¼ .81); Career Self-Doubt: ‘‘I doubt I
will find a career that suits me’’ (a ¼ .85); and Career Flexibility: ‘‘What I look for in a job
will change in the future’’ (a ¼ .87).

Procedure

Participants completed a packet of materials outside of class, which included a consent form,
demographics form (including a question regarding how many hours students spent working
per week on average the year before), the PIES, and the VISA. Two hundred and sixty-five
out of 350 students returned a completed packet, for a response rate of 76%. The total number
of participants was 239 after those who specified they were graduate students or aged 25 years or
older were dropped from the analyses.

RESULTS

Preliminary Analyses

Gender

Table 1 shows means and standard deviations for the PIES and VISA measures, along with
the results of t tests conducted on each of the 11 variables by gender. With respect to ego
strengths, the only significant difference was found for fidelity, on which women scored
higher than men, t(234) ¼ 2.22, p < .05. On the career identity variables, women scored signifi-
cantly lower than men on in-breadth exploration, t(237) ¼
2.29, p < .05, but higher than
men on in-depth exploration, t(237) ¼ 2.79, p < .01. For commitment making and identification
with commitment, women scored significantly higher than men, t(237) ¼ 2.57, p < .01 and
t(237) ¼ 3.62, p < .001, respectively. Women also scored significantly lower on career flexi-
bility, t(237) ¼
3.79, p < .001.
 158 ANTHIS

TABLE 1
Means for Ego Strengths and Career Identity Variables, by Gender, with t-test
Comparisons

Gender

Male Female t-test

Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths

Hope 30.33 (4.97) 31.07 (6.08) .82
Will 29.74 (4.76) 30.95 (4.81) 1.45
Purpose 30.38 (4.76) 31.62 (4.97) 1.47
Competence 31.28 (4.59) 31.14 (5.02)
1.71
2.22
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Fidelity 30.54 (5.12) 32.50 (4.58)

Vocational Identity Status Assessment
In-breadth exploration 19.33 (4.13) 17.56 (5.71)
2.29
In-depth exploration 22.97 (4.09) 24.91 (3.19) 2.79
Commitment making 21.33 (6.77) 24.36 (6.48) 2.57
Identification with commitment 27.49 (4.77) 30.45 (4.15) 3.62
Self-doubt 15.90 (5.82) 14.27 (5.34)
1.62
Flexibility 22.87 (6.01) 18.84 (6.35)
3.79
  
p < .05. p < .01. p < .001.

Age

There were no significant correlations among age and any of the ego strength variables, nor
among age and any of the career identity variables.

Relationships Among Ego Strengths and Career Identity

Due to the presence of a substantial number of gender differences on the career identity variables
and on fidelity as well, I conducted the correlational analyses of the extent to which the ego
strengths predict career identity separately for men and women. As can be seen in Table 2,

TABLE 2
Relationships Among Total Ego Strengths and Indices of Career Identity

Zero-order correlations Zero-order correlations z-score comparisons for the

with total ego strength with total ego strength strength of the correlations
Career identity variable scores for males scores for females from independent samples

In-breadth exploration .01 (n ¼ 39)
.17 (n ¼ 203) 1.00 (ns)

In-depth exploration .54 (n ¼ 39) .27 (n ¼ 203) 1.81 (ns)
Commitment making .35 (n ¼ 39) .47 (n ¼ 203)
.80 (ns)
Identification with commitment .57 (n ¼ 39) .55 (n ¼ 203) .16 (ns)
Self-doubt
.49 (n ¼ 39)
.62 (n ¼ 203) 1.04 (ns)
Career flexibility
.28 (n ¼ 39)
.46 (n ¼ 203) 1.16 (ns)
  
p < .05. p < .01. p < .001.
 EGO STRENGTHS 159

consistent with H1, for each gender, total ego strength scores were positively correlated with
commitment making. Identification with commitment was negatively correlated with career
self-doubt and career flexibility. Although no prediction was advanced with respect to either
in-breadth exploration or in-depth exploration, significant positive correlations were found
between total ego strength and in-depth exploration. A significant negative correlation for the
relationship of total ego strength and in-breadth exploration was found only for men.
RQ2 pertained to possible gender differences in the strength of the association of total ego
strengths to the six career identity outcome variables. As indicated in Table 2, z-test comparisons
of the strength of corresponding correlations revealed no significant effects.
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Differential Contributions of the Ego Strengths to Career Identity

In regard to RQ3, concerning whether the stage-specific ego strength scores make differential
contributions to career identity, I conducted six multiple regression analyses with gender (as a
dummy variable), age, and the individual ego strengths entered simultaneously as predictors,
with the individual career identity indices as outcome variables. As can be seen in Table 3,
limited support was found H3a in that competence was found to be a significant predictor for
only in-breadth exploration (b ¼ .24, p < .05). In that regression analysis, a nonsignificant effect
was found for only the virtue of will. Competence was not a statistically significant predictor of
any other career identity variables.
Strong support was obtained for H3b, in that fidelity was found to be a significant predictor for all
six career identity variables. Fidelity was a statistically significant positive predictor of in-depth
exploration (b ¼ .23, p < .01), career commitment making (b ¼ .35, p < .001), and identification with
career commitment (b ¼ .32, p < .001) and a negative predictor of in-breadth exploration (b ¼
.38,
p < .01), career self-doubt (b ¼
.27, p < .01), and career flexibility (b ¼
.37, p < .001).
With respect to the other ego strengths, purpose was found to be a significant predictor for all
six career identity variables in a pattern identical to fidelity: Positive beta weights were observed
for in-depth exploration (b ¼ .29, p < .01), career commitment making (b ¼ .35, p < .001), and
identification with career commitment (b ¼ .32, p < .001) and negative beta weights for
in-breadth exploration (b ¼
.24, p < .05), career self-doubt (b ¼
.25, p < .05), and career

TABLE 3
Standardized Beta Weights of Predictors for Career Identity

In-breadth In-depth Identification with

Predictor variable exploration exploration Commitment making commitment Self-doubt Flexibility

Age .05
.03
.08
.12 .01 .09

Gender
.02 .17 .06 .14
.03
.14
Hope .21
.16
.21
.17
.12 .14
Will
.03
.16 .13 .10 .11 .02
Purpose
.24 .29 .35 .32
.25
.28
Competence .24 .15
.10 .05
.17
.00
Fidelity
.38 .23 .35 .32
.27
.37
  
p < .05. p < .01. p < .001.
 160 ANTHIS

flexibility (b ¼
.28, p < .01). Hope was found to be a significant predictor on three of the out-
come variables, in-breadth exploration (b ¼
.21, p < .05), commitment making (b ¼
.21,
p < .05), and identification with commitment (b ¼
.17, p < .05). Unexpectedly, hope was
observed to be a negative predictor of the latter two variables. Will was not found to be a
significant predictor of any of the career identity variables.

DISCUSSION

The results of this investigation revealed a number of interesting patterns regarding the relation-
ship of the ego strengths with career identity. For men and women, consistent with H1, there
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were positive relationships of total ego strengths and career identity, for men and women, that
are worth noting, including the positive correlation between total ego strengths and in-depth
exploration, career commitment making, and identification with career commitment, and
negative relationships with career self-doubt and career flexibility. For men only, there was a
negative relationship of total ego strengths with in-breadth exploration. These patterns are
consistent with Erikson’s (1985) hierarchical principle, in that satisfactory resolution of prior
ego strength stages (hope, will, purpose, competence, and fidelity in this study) increases the
likelihood of the resolution of later stages (career identity in this study).
In terms of differential contributions of the ego strengths to career identity, competence was a
positive predictor of in-breadth exploration but did not play as a great a role in career identity as
was anticipated. As expected, fidelity was a positive predictor of in-depth exploration, career
commitment making, and identification with career commitment, and a negative predictor of
in-breadth exploration, career self-doubt, and career flexibility. Purpose was found to play a
greater role in career identity functioning than had been anticipated.
A number of gender differences were also observed with women showing higher levels of the
fidelity ego strength, and more mature aspects of career identity such as in-depth exploration,
commitment making, and identification with commitment. However, gender differences were
not found in the zero-order correlations relating total ego strengths to career identity. This sug-
gests that the ego strengths play a comparable role in the career development for men and women.

Future Research

These findings are provocative, yet some caveats are in order. To begin, to ensure that the pat-
terns are representative of most, if not all, college students, the findings must be replicated with
students from different geographical areas, various types of universities and colleges, with more
participants who are non-White, male, and perhaps older. The findings must also be replicated
with future college students to determine what role, if any, the sociohistorical context plays,
given the economy in which individuals initially develop a career identity may restrict or expand
their options; that is, fewer prospects in their field of interest may diminish hope and flexibility,
yet increase commitment (to a more practical, but perhaps less interesting field).
Longitudinal research is also necessary to determine if ego strengths serve as true developmen-
tal precursors to career identity, that is, if a change (e.g., increase) in competence is associated
with a change (e.g., increase) in in-breadth exploration. If so, such findings would suggest that
 EGO STRENGTHS 161

school and afterschool programs that help students identify where their talents lie may help them
engage in more extensive identity exploration before making a commitment to a particular career.
Studying participants over time would also establish whether the greater in-depth exploration,
relative to in-breadth exploration, follows a developmental trajectory so that the difference
between the two continues to grow with increasing age. Longitudinal work could also help
researchers identify if and when flexibility changes, that is, near a certain milestone such as
having a child or being laid off from a job in their career and not being able to find similar work.

Conclusion
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My findings appear to be consistent with Erikson’s (1985) hierarchical principle, in which the
satisfactory resolution of prior stages and acquisition of that stage’s ego strength increase the
likelihood of the resolution of later stages. This is because ego strengths prior to and during ado-
lescence function together as an overall best predictor of the most commonly fretted over, and typi-
cally most mature, identity domain: career choice. Such patterns suggest that the resolution of
psychosocial crises prior to adolescence best prepares an individual for a mature career identity.

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