“The Relation of Ego Integrity and Despair to Personality Traits and Mental Health” by Westerhof et. al seeks to discuss any correlations between Erikson’s eighth and final stage of development with variables involved in personality and mental health. With mental health, a dual continua model has been formed, which claims that although mental illness and well-being are related, they are still distinct from one another (Keyes 2005). In the study, the personality traits examined are neuroticism, extraversion, and an individual’s openness to experience. The first hypothesis of the study claimed that neuroticism was related to despair, whereas extraversion and openness to experience are related to ego integrity. In a bivariate study, comparing only personality traits with ego integrity versus despair, more neuroticism was found to have a significant relationship with despair, but not with ego integrity. On the other hand, extraversion
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Supporting this hypothesis, results following a bivariate study indicate that more depressive symptoms are significantly related to more despair, but not to ego integrity. Similarly, more well-being is significantly related to ego integrity, but not to despair (Westerhof 2015). The third and final hypothesis of this study claims that depressive symptoms mediate the relation between neuroticism and despair, whereas well-being mediates the relation of extraversion and openness to ego integrity. After conducting the experiment, it was found that well-being mediates the relation of extraversion and openness to ego integrity and that depressive symptoms do not mediate the relation between neuroticism and despair (Westerhof 2015). Lastly, it was shown that chronological age is unrelated to ego and despair, which leads to the conclusion in which achieving ego integrity depends on individual personality (Hannah et al.
Supporting this hypothesis, results following a bivariate study indicate that more depressive symptoms are significantly related to more despair, but not to ego integrity. Similarly, more well-being is significantly related to ego integrity, but not to despair (Westerhof 2015). The third and final hypothesis of this study claims that depressive symptoms mediate the relation between neuroticism and despair, whereas well-being mediates the relation of extraversion and openness to ego integrity. After conducting the experiment, it was found that well-being mediates the relation of extraversion and openness to ego integrity and that depressive symptoms do not mediate the relation between neuroticism and despair (Westerhof 2015). Lastly, it was shown that chronological age is unrelated to ego and despair, which leads to the conclusion in which achieving ego integrity depends on individual personality (Hannah et al.