#SPIRAL DYNAMICS LEVELS HOW TO#

Most religions and religious values are rooted in this stage. By following the rules and exceeding its given role, it will know the fundamental truth. It is absolutistic, obedient, purposeful, and authoritarian. The Rule/Role Self seeks the ultimate peace, locked in the battle of good and evil. The basic theme of the Impulsive Self is “be what you are and do what you want, regardless.” The Rule/Role Self The Impulsive Self believes it can take what it wants by aligning with power. It is egocentric, exploitative, impulsive, and rebellious. The Impulsive Self drives for power, glory, rage, and revenge. The underlying theme of the Magical Self is to “keep the spirits happy and the tribe’s nest warm and safe.” The Impulsive Self Looks to gods and higher powers with rituals for protection. It is tribalistic, magical, and mystical.

The Magical Self wants safety and security. The primary theme of the Instinctive Self is to “do what you must just to stay alive.” The Magical Self

It thinks and acts in a needs-driven, wish-fulfillment manner. The Instinctive Self is archaic, basic, automatic, and instinctive. But we express other value structures as well.ĭriven to survive. Instead, the literature uses the term “center of gravity,” in that each of us has a center of gravity that’s predominantly in one stage of development. It’s important to note that a particular stage of development doesn’t define an individual. The Eight Stages of Grave’s ModelĪs you scan these stages, look at them as “expressions” within the human experience. Grave’s research was picked up by Christopher Cowan and Don Beck who coined the term “spiral dynamics®” and published a book by the same title in 1996.ĭon Beck joined forces with philosopher Ken Wilber who integrated this model into his integral theory, helping to popularize Grave’s work. This partly explains why his work is less well known than Maslow’s even though, in many ways, this research is richer and more instructive for understanding our psychology. Grave’s detailed research, however, revealed many psychological insights that went beyond Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.īut Graves passed away in 1986-before he completed and published his work. Graves initially sought to validate Maslow’s conclusions. Questioning thousands of participants in longitudinal studies, he found there are specific stages of development in human values. Graves’ over 20 years of research yielded what he called the levels of existence. Graves was examining what makes people different in their behaviors, values, and worldviews. While Abraham Maslow was formulating the hierarchy of human needs, psychologist Clare W. I know this may seem a bit abstract, but hang on for a minute as this model will become entirely practical once we start exploring the individual stages below. Society itself has evolved through these stage structures as well. These eight stages are developmental in that we grow through these stages.

This hierarchy of value structures consists of eight levels that individuals express in their psychological life.

#SPIRAL DYNAMICS LEVELS HOW TO#

How to Use this Model for Self DevelopmentĬlare Graves created a psychological model that highlights stages of development specifically around values.

How Values Influences Psychological Development.

How Grave’s Model Explains Human Conflict.

The Dance of Masculine and Feminine Energies.

The Relationship between Grave’s and Maslow’s Model.

Spiral dynamics levels