From Left: Clare Graves; From Top to Bottom: Don Beck, Chris Cowan, Ken Wilber
The philosopher, Ken Wilber and the Integral community at large popularized the term, but it really came from Spiral Dynamics in which Wilber borrowed it and expanded the idea with his Integral Theory. And the creators of Spiral Dynamics, Don Beck and Chris Cowan built their theory from their mentor, Clare Graves and his theory, Emergent-Cyclical Levels of Existence.
Wilber first uses the term in Integral Psychology (2000):
“With the completion of the green meme, human consciousness is poised for a quantum jump into 'second-tier thinking.’ Clare Graves referred to this as a ‘momentous leap,’ where ‘a chasm of unbelievable depth of meaning is crossed.’ In essence, with second-tier consciousness, one can think both vertically and horizontally, using both hierarchies and heterarchies; one can, for the first time, vividly grasp the entire spectrum of interior development, and thus see that each level, each meme, each wave is crucially important for the health of the overall spiral…it steps back and grasps the big picture, and thus second-tier thinking appreciates the necessary role that all of the various memes play. Using what we would recognize as vision-logic, second-tier awareness thinks in terms of the overall spiral of existence, and not merely in the terms of any one level. Where the green meme uses early or beginning vision-logic in order to grasp the numerous different systems and contexts that exist in different cultures, second-tier thinking goes one step further and begins to integrate those pluralistic systems into integral and holistic spirals and holarchies…” ¹
Does that sound laden with alot of abstract and strange terminology? If yes, you wouldn't be the first to experience that. And as you will soon discover, 2nd Tier thinking requires a whole new lexicon and way of conceptualizing to explain the patterns and phenomenon in this emerging structure. Don't worry if you don't understand all this new terminology; it will take time. In this article and others, you will come to understand some of the words above like "green", "meme", "level", "wave", "vision-logic", "spiral", "hierarchies and heterarchies", "pluralistic", "integral", "holarchies".
The terms that Wilber is using come from both his creation and also the arena of developmental psychology. Some words on philosophy, developmental psychology and its history will give us some context on where the four men above fall on this journey.
Philosophers throughout history would speculate on development, especially moral development in the 18th and 19th centuries. And philosophy created the foundation of science with the schools of empiricism and rationality and how Immanuel Kant would synthesize these two schools of thought. Darwin riding off these developments of modern philosophy and early science would discover his theory of evolution. When he published this theory in On the Origin of Species in 1859, his ideas of evolution and development began a scientific movement from where developmental psychology would eventually take root. As the idea of evolution spread in the subsequent decades, developmental psychology seemed to begin with the observations of infants and observing patterns at different ages. Darwin supposedly began observing infants in 1839² and Baldwin and his contemporaries continued the tradition. Baldwin published his first observations of his children in 1890³ and 1913 in History of Psychology, he expounded his theory of stages of development.⁴ Piaget in 1932 published his sequence of how a child develops moral ideas in The Moral Judgment of the Child. And would later propose his theory of cognitive intelligence. In the 1950s and 60s, a new generation of researchers emerged with more of an empirical approach to development such as Lawrence Kohlberg and Jane Loevinger, who would propound their own theories of development, moral development and ego development respectively. Also during this time were positive psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Clare Graves that would contribute to the field. Maslow would publish his hierarchy of needs and Clare Graves found inspiration there. Many other theories of development would emerge in subsequent decades.
CLARE GRAVES
The journey of where the term, 2nd Tier originated starts with Clare Graves. Although he didn't create the actual term as you will see below, he created the meaning behind it and used different words to convey this meaning. It was his students, Don Beck and Chris Cowan that actually created the term and published it in their 1996 book, Spiral Dynamics. And then Ken Wilber expanded on it and popularized the term in the Integral community.
As you read above, a foundation of developmental psychology was well established by the time Clare Graves began his research. Graves supposedly got his inspiration of creating a theory from Maslow's work and also a great question that his student at the end of a particular semester asked. Chris Cowan shares that it was in that class that Graves taught at a university in the 1950s that prompted him to explore his own theory of development that he called the Emergent-Cyclical Levels of Human Existence (E-C). Cowan writes that as Graves was teaching Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a student asked, "which one is the right one?", and that inspired him to delve into the question more and try to scientifically confirm Maslow's theory.⁵ But as his research progressed, the data revealed that Maslow's theory was incomplete and this propelled him to create his own theory. In 1974, he published his eight levels of development.⁶
Automatic Existence (A-N): motivated by basic physiological needs
Tribalistic Existence (B-O): safety and security via development of tribe
Egocentric Existence (C-P): power, satisfying one's desires without consideration of other.
Saintly Existence (D-Q): establishing rules for society based on philosophy/religion
Materialistic Existence (E-R): individualistic achievement, rational thought
Personalistic Existence (F-S): harmony with self and other
Cognitive Existence (G-T): knowing all can be one with others
Experientialistic Existence (H-U): integration with awe, wonder, mystery, intuitive experience of reality
His theory describes how an individual could possibly evolve over their lifetime as well as cultural systems.⁷ Each level signifies a level of existence that includes an individual's values and a behavioral system that share a pattern amongst other individuals at this level. Worldviews, value systems, motivations, feelings, identity and roles, and range of behaviors exemplify what constitutes each level.
Each level successively emerges from the previous in a hierarchical fashion that includes it, but also transcends it to create an entirely new level. He uses two range of letters to designate two forces that exist and create the dynamism from one level to another or arrested development at that level. The first range A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H signifies the problems of living associated with the life conditions of the environment for the individual, group, and culture. And the second range N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U signifies according to Graves the neuropsychological equipment of that individual that gets activated to cope with those living problems and conditions.⁸
For example, an individual at the tribalistic existence (B-O) values being part of tribe to ensure the needs of safety and security are met. They don't really have a sense of self. They are blended with their group. They will live by basic rules and roles to forage and collect food and build shelter. They begin to see their environment as a living world of spirits and they begin to develop ideas and practices around relating to these spirits with rituals and worship. But as an individual matures at this level, they begin to delineate themselves more from others. They begin to assess danger and threat not only within the tribe, but also outside by other humans, animals, and tribes. They begin to sense these new life conditions and problems (C) and new aspects of their brain and neuropsychological way of thinking gets activated (P). They begin to assess not only being a member of a tribe, but also desire being a leader of it. They see how more of their desires can be met if they were to take a more self-centered initiative. They see how they can control how the tribe lives and how it interacts with other tribes. They begin to see how they can cultivate power and possibly expand the tribe into a bigger civilization like a kingdom or empire. All this thinking and the corresponding values, desires, behaviors (P) is activated by perceiving the new life conditions and problems (C). And this transitioning to a new level by experiencing these new problems and conditions starts the process anew until a new set of problems exists and must be solved, motivating the system to change and adjust, allowing them to emerge to ever new levels. This process is how an individual and society traverses to each of the eight stages of existence.
In describing these eight levels, Graves also delineated two sections. He described the first six levels (A-N thru F-S) of existence as the subsistence level systems and the last two levels, seven and eight (G-T and H-U), as the being level systems. He would use various labels to identify the second section such as second spiral, second ladder, second swing, or second movement. The following excerpt highlights this demarcation:
“And finally, there is the need to distinguish conceptually between certain gross classes of levels, between the levels of the first spiral of psychosocial development and those levels which appear later in psychological time. The first six together I will call The Subsistence Level Systems. Those of the second spiral I will name The Being Level I Systems. Those of later spirals, should they come to be, would be designated as Being Level II Systems, Being Level III Systems, etc.” ⁹
This delineation of two sections is what began the construct and associated meanings behind "2nd Tier."
SPIRAL DYNAMICS
Don Beck and Chris Cowan met Clare Graves in 1975, and they began to study with him, to explore his theory in a close working relationship, and would even expand the theory. Graves passed away in 1986, but Beck and Cowan continued his work. They would begin to implement the theory in the 1980s in South Africa with the issue of apartheid.¹⁰ Twenty years of developing and implementing the model led to the creation of a newly expanded system called Spiral Dynamics with the publication of the book with the same name in 1996: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change.
Spiral Dynamics is very similar to Graves theory, but the levels of existence were renamed into stages of vMemes with new labels for each. The descriptions and typologies of each of the levels were also expanded along with new concepts such as vMemes, open/closed/arrested development, and many more. The letter ranges designating Graves stages were replaced by alternating cold and warm colors. Also a ninth level was added¹¹:
Beige: SurvivalSense Instinctive vMeme
Purple: KinSpirits Clannish vMeme
Red: PowerGods Egocentric vMeme
Blue: TruthForce The Purposeful vMeme
Orange: StriveDrive The Strategic vMeme
Green: HumanBond The Relativistic vMeme
Yellow: FlexFlow The Systemic vMeme
Turquoise: GlobalView The Holistic vMeme
Coral
When people first get introduced to Spiral Dynamics and other developmental theories, there is a tendency to make an erroneous projection that these levels are static and fixed (see Concluding Remarks below); and to consider them as types of people. Beck makes this point by sharing the nuance of types and codes. He considered these levels as codes vs types of people:
"Codes co-exist within us, like musical chords, rather than a single note. Visualize a stack of Russian dolls. Pick up the top doll and nestled inside is a smaller doll. Pick up that doll to reveal another doll and so on through multiple and progressively smaller dolls. Likewise, the characteristics of one code remain nestled in our consciousness even after a new code takes predominance in our thinking. Thus, BEIGE is nestled inside PURPLE, which is nestled inside RED, which is nestled inside BLUE, which is nestled inside ORANGE, which is nestled inside GREEN and so on...remember, codes are types in people. They are not types of people. [bold and italic mine]. Someone may strongly express, for example, ORANGE values, but we must not forget that nestled within that individual will be also codes BEIGE, PURPLE, RED and BLUE. They may also have the beginning of Code GREEN appearing in their psychological make-up. No one is a Code ORANGE person. ORANGE expresses a value system, a code." ¹¹
They were first to designate the term, 2nd Tier in their 1996 book:
"The brightening of every new VMEME is a major step in human development. But the GREEN to YELLOW transition is, as Graves called it, ‘a momentous leap’ which takes us over from the First Tier’s Subsistence Levels to the Second Tier’s Being levels. This is not just another step along the developmental staircase..." ¹²
KEN WILBER
As quoted in the beginning of this article, Wilber first mentions the term 2nd Tier in his Integral Psychology (2000) and also Theory of Everything of the same year. Don Beck shares that he always followed Wilber since his earliest publications¹³; and according to Frank Visser, a student of Wilber's, Beck met Wilber in 2000, and they started a working relationship together integrating spiral dynamics with integral theory.¹⁴ It wasn't long before tensions arose and seemingly disagreements started as early as 2002.¹⁵ By 2006, Wilber and Beck seemed to have gone separate ways¹⁶, and Wilber expanded the 2nd Tier concept when he published Integral Spirituality in the same year.
If you read Wilbers works from the period of 1977 thru the 1990s, you will see mentions and citations of various developmental psychology researchers over the years such as Lawrence Kohlberg, Jean Piaget, and Jane Loevinger just to name a few. It was obvious that he was looking at the research in a deep way as well as making inferences and developing insights. Wilber was really interested in weaving together different streams of knowledge from multiple domains like religion, spirituality, biology, physics, chemistry, psychology, systems theory; and creating an integrated model from it that would explain patterns from a more complex and holistic viewpoint. He was creating his Integral Theory. Through coming in contact with the phenomenological research of various spiritual traditions (mystics in christianity, buddhism, hinduism, etc) and also the empirical research of western psychology (ie developmental psychology) during this time, Wilber started to create a system of stages of development. He began to see patterns and similarities across different lines of research in developmental psychology. He wasn't the first to recognize this. Various researchers before him began to see that. I suspect that is where he got the idea. Jane Loevinger, the main researcher for ego development, created a comparative table in her 1976 book, comparing her theory and its stages with other stages from other theorists researching other variables (ie moral development).¹⁷ Clare Graves created a similar table for his theory in the 1970s (a book that was published posthumous in 2005).¹⁸ See notes section below for examples of others.¹⁹
So in 2000 with the publication of Integral Psychology, Wilber combined dozens of lines of research from the eastern and western traditions in the Appendix section of the book; and he started to create a his own list of labels that would delineate all these stages together. He used cognitive intelligence labels and called them "Correlative Basic Structures" such as rule/role, formal, vision-logic, psychic, subtle, causal, and nondual.²⁰ In 2006, he went a step further in Integral Spirituality and introduced a color scheme to replace those labels. As you probably guessed he got the idea from Spiral Dynamics way of classifying stages, but he chose to use the rainbow colors of the chakra system. They were very similar to Spiral Dynamic colors with exception of the beige, purple, blue, yellow, coral stage labels. And he expanded from 9 levels to 12 levels and created the theoretical 3rd Tier section:
Infrared
Magenta
Red
Amber
Orange
Green
Teal
Turquoise
Indigo
Violet
Ultra-Violet
Clear Light
Fig. 2.4 from Integral Spirituality
Fig 2.4 is just a snapshot of the lines of research Wilber integrated. He actually weaved over 80 different lines of research consisting of phenomenological, philosophical, and empirical types in both western and eastern traditions. The Appendix of Integral Psychology lists all of them.²¹ So all the stages from the lines of research in the teal and turquoise area above is designated as 2nd Tier. And as you can see, not every line of research gets that far. Piaget only got to the orange level, formal operations; and Wilber placed Aurobindo's phenomenological findings on top of Piaget's.
This is what became the new understanding of 2nd Tier with the organizing of multiple lines with Spiral Dynamics being just a single line of research. Seeing the patterns at a given level across the lines of research is what lent to the new understanding of 2nd Tier. 2nd Tier was no longer about levels of development around values like Spiral Dynamics would highlight. Instead Wilber's version would also include cognitive intelligence development, moral development, ego development, faith development just to name a few.
Finally²², Donny Epstein, a teacher and healer popularized by Tony Robbins, also borrowed from Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber and uses the term, 2nd Tier and integrated the word into his system. From what I can see and hear from his students, Donny's use of the word and the meaning he ascribes to it seems radically different from both Spiral Dynamics' and Wilber's meaning. I will write more about this in a future article.
SUMMARY
To summarize, the meaning behind 2nd Tier started with Clare Graves in the 1960-70s with his theory of levels of existence and delineating two sections - a first spiral and second spiral of existence. His students, Don Beck and Chris Cowan expanded on his theory and created Spiral Dynamics and published a book under the same name in 1996. It is in this book that the term, "2nd Tier" is first used. Ken Wilber got exposed to Spiral Dynamics and first mentioned the term in 2000 with the publication of Integral Psychology and Theory of Everything. Up to this point, 2nd Tier, was only only associated with a single line of research, Spiral Dynamics. The term evolved in meaning when Wilber wrote Integral Spirituality in 2006 and combined various lines of research together along a new color coding scheme. Wilber used three sections, 1st Tier, 2nd Tier, and 3rd Tier to express the meaning that was created by observing similar patterns at the same stage of development along all the various lines of research as illustrated in Figure 2.4 above.
CONCLUDING REMARK
Most people when they first read about or study stage theory, as briefly highlighted above, they erroneously get three ideas. 1) that development is a "simple" hierarchy with "static" stages; 2) that the levels are types of people; and 3) that later stages are better or "higher" than earlier stages. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I would like to share some brief comments. Regarding the first point, human development is a complex subject with lots of nuances. In integral theory and developmental psychology, we see an individual with various psychological parts that can each express themselves depending on the situation and level of stress. We speak of a center of gravity and sub-personalities. Under normal circumstances, research in ego development has found an individual's center of gravity at a certain stage while also having markers for stages b4 and after that particular level. Their current development is seen as a normal distribution from this center of gravity stage. When an individual is under-resourced or has stressful life conditions, they can be seen to regress to earlier stages with a new center of gravity. So it is best to see this development and these stages as a dynamic flux as an individual interacts with their changing life circumstances. It is not simple or static.²³
In addition, stage theory and its research is in its infancy and its theories and empirical data are best viewed as a rough representation while considering its limitations. Despite these limitations, these theories can still serve as a roadmap for transformational facilitators and leaders as they support an individual's or collective's development.
Building off the first point, we arrive at the second point: that these levels of development are not types of people, but types within people with a center of gravity that is constantly in flux depending on the individual's life conditions and growth opportunities/stressors.²⁴
On the third point, no stage is better or higher than another. In developmental psychology and integral theory, we speak of developmental appropriateness. Every stage has its milestones that each individual needs to traverse and embody at a particular point in their journey. As mentioned above, sometimes people regress to earlier stages under stress and they need to go on that journey to learn what they need to learn. There is much more to be said here and will write a future article about it. In the meantime, see each stage as developmentally appropriate and having value.²⁵
NOTES -
¹ Ken Wilber, Integral Psychology (Boston: Shambhala, 2000), Location 1086 (Kindle) or Chapter 4, Heading: Spiral Dynamics: An Example of the Waves of Existence, Sub-heading: Green: The Sensitive Self. The "green meme" is the sixth stage of development and the last stage of 1st Tier, which is made of six levels. As you will come to understand later in this post, Clare Graves spoke of society and its related systems like a spiral. From the beginning to the end of this spiral lies various memes or levels of existence that can explain the behavior and value systems of every individual in society. When an individual traverses from the 6th level (green) into the seventh and eight (2nd Tier), it marks the first time an individual can appreciate the value of each level before it and how each level is important and appropriate for the health of the entire spiral. At all the stages of 1st Tier, each respective one believes their value system is the best at the exclusion of the rest. However in 2nd Tier, an individual begins to see the value of all of them and works diligently to weave them together so that each meme can self-express in developmental appropriate ways and adds value to the health of the entire spiral.
² “Darwin's Observations on His Children.” Darwin Correspondence Project. University of Cambridge, June 25, 2015. https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/people/about-darwin/family-life/darwin-s-observations-his-children.
³ James Mark Baldwin, "Origin of Right or Left Handedness", Science 16, no. 404 (Oct 31 1890): 247-248.
⁴ James Mark Baldwin, History of Psychology: A Sketch and an Interpretation, vol. 2 (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1913), 162
⁵ Clare Graves, The Never Ending Quest, eds. Christopher C. Cowan and Natasha Todorovic (Santa Barbara: ECLET Publishing, 2005 post-humous), pg iv. Large parts of this book were written by 1977 (pg v, vii-footnote 5) and other parts thru 1982 (pg iii). Clare Graves died in 1986.
⁶ Clare W. Graves, "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap," The Futurist, (April 1974): 72-87. Also see: Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 169.
⁷ Although it seems at times that the emphasis is on the individual's development, particular quotes in his writings give the impression that he also was including the evolution of cultural systems as well in his theory [italics mine]: "The emergent cyclical levels of existence conception of adult personality and cultural institutions..." (Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 33). "So emergent cyclical theory represents psychosocial development as an environmentosocial-organismic field varying both quantitatively and qualitatively from one psychosocial system to another...they [E-C theory] represent where a species, a culture, or a person’s development is now." (Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 166) "In this discussion of man's present and future, the first three subsistence levels must still concern us because many people, from aborigines to newly emergent nations, are still living at these levels of existence." (Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 72)
"..the Gravesian orientation was to integrate bio-, psycho-, and socio-dynamics..." (pg 11); and "what differentiates Graves from other developmental psychologists of his time is the...integral conceptualization of mature adult behavior, namely the unique positioning of a value system as a bio-psycho-social construct [italics mine]." (pg 13). From: Don Beck et al. Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2018). Kindle edition.
⁸ Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 167.
⁹ Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 163
¹⁰ Albion Butters, "A Brief History of Spiral Dynamics," Approaching Religion 5, No. 2. (November 2015): 70
Also Beck in his 2018 book says that during the 11 year period from 1975 to Graves' death in 1986, "they referred to the 'emergent, cyclical, double-helix, bio-psycho-social model' as Spiral Dynamics". (Beck, Spiral Dynamics in Action, pg 15). Beck's statement implies that the word, spiral dynamics, came from both Beck and Graves (Cowan wasn't mentioned).
¹¹ Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change (Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1996), Table of Contents.
Quotes from Beck et al., Spiral Dynamics in Action, pg 32, Kindle edition.
¹² Beck and Cowan, Spiral Dynamics, 274.
¹³ Beck writes: "his reality led me to make contact with author/philosopher Ken Wilber, as I had been following his work since his first book publication in 1978." From an article: Don Beck, “SDI: Spiral Dynamics in the Integral Age,” Integral World, December 2001, https://www.integralworld.net/sd-i.html.
¹⁴ Frank Visser, “Climbing the Stairway to Heaven,” Integral World, accessed January 19, 2023, https://integralworld.net/pdf/Climbing11.pdf. pg 34.
¹⁵ "While I did some work with Wilber, that all began to wane six years ago because of his constant distortion of the Spiral Dynamics/Gravesian model." In a website article: Graham Wilson, “When Dynamics Spiral Out of Control,” Dr Graham Wilson - 'The Confidant', November 20, 2008, http://www.the-confidant.info/2008/when-dynamics-spiral-out-of-control/. Also Butters quotes Beck saying in 2008: "'My friend Ken wouldn't even talk to me about it because he had such adversity to anything that is not spirit based..." (Butters, "A Brief History," 71)
¹⁶ I remember reading a blog post by Wilber on his website dated around 2006, but could no longer find it as of the writing of this post. It seems Wilber took his personal website down. But Butters had access to Wilber's 2006 post and quoted him saying: "I personally love SD as an intro model (seriously), and we will definitely continue to use it ...and what do you make of the fact that the two guys who developed SD, nobody really wants to work with?-and in fact, they even refuse to work with each other, as if to put an exclamation mark on the point." (Butters, "A Brief History," 73)
¹⁷ Jane Loevinger, Ego Development (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1976), 109.
¹⁸ Clare Graves, The Never Ending Quest (Santa Barbara: ECLET Publishing, 2005 post-humous), 441-446.
¹⁹ Others:
Susanne Cook-Greuter, the theorist behind ego-development theory, does this in:
Susanne Cook-Greuter, "Maps for Living: Ego-Development Stages from Symbiosis to Conscious Universal Embeddedness," in Adult Development Volume 2: Models and Methods in the Study of Adolescent and Adult Thought, eds. Michael L. Commons and Cheryl Armon et al (New York: Praeger, Publishers, 1990), Appendix.
Susanne Cook-Greuter, Post-autonomous Ego Development: A Study of Its Nature and Measurement (MA: Integral Publishers, 1999), 230-231.
²⁰ Ken Wilber, Integral Psychology (Boston: Shambhala, 2000), 197 or location 3629 (kindle).
²¹ Wilber, Integral Psychology, 197 or location 3629 (kindle).
²² Susanne Cook-Greuter also talks of a second tier of development in her dissertation: Susanne Cook-Greuter, Post-autonomous Ego Development: A Study of Its Nature and Measurement (MA: Integral Publishers, 1999), 198. But it is not the same as how Wilber is using it. Cook-Greuter explains three tiers in Appendix D (pg 197-201). Also mentions a fourth one on pg 119-123. Other mentions: pg 23-24, 54, 124-126 (third tier). She says that her and Miller in their 1994 paper divide the overall stages of ego development into four tiers. (1999, pg 23). Take note that this happened before Spiral Dynamics was published in 1996 and Wilber discussing 2nd Tier in his 2000 publications above. O'Fallon, a student of Cook-Greuter who went on to develop her own theory also delineates these same four tiers: Terri O'Fallon and Kim Barta, The Stages Matrix Roadmap: A Contemporary Model of Development Perspectives (Stages International, 2018), 5
²³ Cook-Greuter explains this point regarding her ego development theory:
"Despite the appearance of this diagram, the theory is not to be seen as a simple hierarchy, or a stair-case like sequence of clearly separated levels which describe all human beings. Let me make it clear at this point: Ego stages are idealizations. They describe the ideal outcome of healthy development for each increase in perspective and integration at a new level. No individual fits all aspects of these descriptions. They serve as a road map...as a rule we find that the later the stage, the more varied ways there are to embody that frame of mind as more and more capacities and resources come on board. Nobody is at one or another stage 100%. Although a person may test as having his or her center of gravity at a specific stage, we always see a distribution of responses over at least 3 levels...the MAP-test identifies the center of gravity. We define the center of gravity as that level of ego maturity to which a person has consistent access to under ordinary circumstances without special support conditions or under unusual stress." (pg 4-7)
In Susanne Cook-Greuter, Nine Levels Of Increasing Embrace In Ego Development: A Full-Spectrum Theory Of Vertical Growth And Meaning Making (Prepublication, 2013), http://onesystemonevoice.com/resources/Cook-Greuter+9+levels+paper+new+1.1$2714+97p$5B1$5D.pdf.)
²⁴ Just like to repeat what I wrote in the Spiral Dynamics section of this blog - For example, when people first get introduced to Spiral Dynamics and other developmental theories, there is a tendency to make an erroneous projection that these levels are static and fixed; and to consider them as types of people. Beck makes this point by sharing the nuance of types and codes. He considered these levels as codes vs types of people:
"Codes co-exist within us, like musical chords, rather than a single note. Visualize a stack of Russian dolls. Pick up the top doll and nestled inside is a smaller doll. Pick up that doll to reveal another doll and so on through multiple and progressively smaller dolls. Likewise, the characteristics of one code remain nestled in our consciousness even after a new code takes predominance in our thinking. Thus, BEIGE is nestled inside PURPLE, which is nestled inside RED, which is nestled inside BLUE, which is nestled inside ORANGE, which is nestled inside GREEN and so on...remember, codes are types in people. They are not types of people. [bold and italic mine]. Someone may strongly express, for example, ORANGE values, but we must not forget that nestled within that individual will be also codes BEIGE, PURPLE, RED and BLUE. They may also have the beginning of Code GREEN appearing in their psychological make-up. No one is a Code ORANGE person. ORANGE expresses a value system, a code." (Beck, Spiral Dynamics in Action, pg 32)
²⁵ "Later (higher) is not necessarily better than earlier meaning making, it’s a matter of optimal fit." (Cook-Greuter, 2013, pg 17)
"Derailment in development, pockets of lack of integration, trauma and psychopathology are seen at all levels. Thus later stages are not more adjusted or 'happier.'" (Cook-Greuter, 2013, pg 3)
Clare Graves echoes this sentiment:
"I am not saying in this conception of adult behavior that one style of being, one form of human existence [stages of development] is, inevitably and in all circumstances, superior to or better than another form of human existence, another style of being. What I am saying is that when one form of being is more congruent with the realities of existence, then it is the better form of living for those realities. And, what I am saying is that when one form of existence ceases to be functional for the realities of existence, then some other form, either higher or lower in the hierarchy, is the better style of living." (Graves, The Never Ending Quest, 482)