Ego Identity in a Cohort of Young Adults of Voting Age

Abstract

Results of the 1984 presidential election showing that the Reagan-Bush ticket received its strongest support among younger voters aged 18 to 24 yr., have been widely interpreted as indicating a trend toward conservative ideology among young people. Has such a trend any implications for understanding the course of personality development among contemporay youth? This issue was addressed in a study examining political attitudes of college students as a component of ego-identity in Erikson's (1950) sense. 37 men and 37 women, individually matched for age and academic major, were given Marcia's sentence-completion test for ego identity. 78% of the sample rejected any interest in political affairs. Over-all, their levels of identity-achievement were strikingly lower than those reported (Marcia, 1980) in previous decades. The only reliable intrasample difference was found for those aged 20, among whom women were significantly higher in ego-identity than the men. Results suggest that (1) political attitudes of young voters are not rooted in any cleat ideological position and (2) a strong cohort effect may differentiate this generation from their counterparts in the 1960s and 1970s.