Need for cognition as a predictor of psychosocial identity development

The authors examined the hypothesis that psychosocial identity development is related to need for cognition (NFC), a social-cognitive individual-difference variable defined as the desire to engage in effortful thinking (J. T. Cacioppo, R. E. Petty, J. Feinstein, & W. Jarvis, 1996). They administered 2 measures of psychosocial identity-a scale from the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status 2 (EOMEIS-2; G. R. Adams, L. Bennion, & K. Huh, 1989) and the Identity subscale of the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI; D. A. Rosenthal, R. M. Gurney, & S. M. Moore, 1981)-and the NFC scale to 200 incoming college students and approximately half of those students about 15 months later. Results indicate that people with higher psychosocial identity levels had higher NFC scores at both time periods. In addition, higher Time 1 NFC scores were related to higher Time 2 EOMEIS-2 achieved scores and lower Time 2 foreclosure and diffusion scores, and changes in NFC over the course of the study were positively correlated with EPSI changes and negatively correlated with changes in EOMEIS-2 foreclosure and diffusion scores. Results provide support for the importance of a cognitive and motivational individual-difference variable in the development of a unique and cohesive identity.