[1] Stated simply, ego development refers to the observation that people do not remain psychologically static throughout their lives; rather, they undergo a long process of internal evolution.
Loevinger chose to use a projective test, relying on the principle that item stem responses are a reflection of internal, conscious and unconscious processes.
[3] The WUSCT is a pencil-and-paper test (though in recent years has been administered by computer) which consists of 36 items that take the form of "stems" which the subject may answer in any way they wish.
[3] The stems take the form of incomplete sentences; for example, one item states simply "When people are helpless" with instructions prompting the test-taker to complete the rest.
[3] Unlike many other projective tests the SCT has a number of strong, empirically derived rules that drive a rater's scoring method.
However, the manual suggests generating an impressionistic level (the rater's impression of what kind of person answered the items) and comparing this to a cumulative frequency distribution (ogive).