Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the developmental aspects of the ego-identity scale in Korean adolescents . The subjects consisted of 1,442 middle school students, 1,372 high school stdudents and 1,448 college students in four citys including Seoul. The instruement administered for this study was Korean Ego-Identity Scale by researcher. The data were analyzed by ANOVA using SPSS. The results of the study are as follows- First, there were significant difference in adolescents's ego-identity scale between the three age groups(p<001). Second, there were significant differences in eight sub-scales of ego-identity(p<.001). Third, the three sub-scales such as 'Initiativeness', Self-receptiveness and Confirmativeness for future were checked as the highest scales of the high school students significantly. The results of the study suggest that, in Korean culture, the development of ego-identity of adolescents is influenced by their age and psychological environmental, such as perceived parental attitudes on the future. In addition, this study suggests that the majority of korean adolescents, in college students especially, seem to be in high level of the ego-identity.