A Comparison of the Personality Structures of a Group of Young, Married and a Group of Middle Aged, Married Women

Abstract

This has been a comparative study, by means of the IES test, of the relative strengths of impulses, ego, and superego in a group of young, married women (average age 26 yr.) and a group of middle aged, married women (average age 50), the latter group being in the menopausal age range. Both groups were well educated, the majority of individuals being college graduates. Results showed no statistically reliable differences between the two groups on any of the four tests measuring the strength of impulses, ego, and superego. Both of the groups studied showed strong, reality oriented egos, and were objective, conventional, and able to plan realistically. Both groups perceived the world in a reality setting, although the older group may have shown somewhat greater sensitivity to the impulse aspects of their environment than did the younger group. Both were aware of impulse needs within them, perhaps the younger somewhat more so than the older who tended to have more conscious feelings of guilt and unworthiness. The failure to find statistically significant differences in personality structures between these groups of younger and older women raises the question as to whether the psychic apparatus in normal women of menopausal age necessarily undergoes the changes proposed in the literature, or if the changes accompanying the aging process become evident at a somewhat later age than has been thought. If the psychic apparatus is altered, it may be that this particular test is not appropriate to women or perhaps sufficiently sensitive to pick up the subtleties of these changes. It is also plausible to consider the possibility that the IES test does not measure those independent aspects of impulse, ego, or superego which might undergo such changes.