Monday, February 25, 2013

Stages of Development

I came across this in my studies to be a life coach within the cleverly entitled book, Becoming a Professional Life Coach. In 1983 a fellow by the name of Robert Kegan presented a list of the stages of human development. This appears to be a good measure of the path.

The Egocentric self (stage 0-2) Birth to 12-16

The self consists of needs, interests, wishes, impulses an perceptions, but does not truly have a shared reality with others. 

Interpersonal  of Socialized Self (stage 3)

Most humans make it to this stage in which we find a role in the larger society and identify with that role. 

Independent Self (Stage 4)

Only 25% of humans in our culture successfully make this transition. The person can no longer ignore or distort the call of the soul. They realize that walking their own path may disappoint others, risk failure or violate accepted norms that seem to make the socialized self valued. They feel whole and complete.

Integral or Interindividual Self (Stage 5)

One percent of adults reach this stage. Here, the internal awareness that "I am whole and complete" of Stage 4 gives way to "I am not whole and complete...I am many selves" People here can easily make constructive judgments of themselves.  

Sacred Self (Stage 6)

This seldom if ever develops without a long-term practice. "I am not the body, nor the mind." The human identifies with the soul that is in common union with the divine. This is the birthplace of universe compassion.

(Note: this is a chopped up but often directly quoted. If a copyright holder finds this too much to post here, I will delete the post.)



4 comments:

Jason Miller, said...

Straight out of Ken Wilbur.

Robert said...

He too is quoted in the text. I will have to look into it and see who mentioned it first. I am just now working in this area.

Yvonne said...

...this provides a model or map of ascension. It shares parallels with integral practice, lightbody/lightworker and other new age stuff, as well as some of the trans-himalayan theosophical "science" that I am recently familiar with. They are all the same, with slightly different flavors. You are exactly where you should be, Robert which is awesome. You are setting things up for the future, where science and spirituality come together. You are ahead of most of us, career wise. You may become rich! (LOL)

Lavanah said...

This isn't a universal calendar of stages; it is very tightly tied to the Western (now mostly world-wide, admittedly) industrial/post-industrial world. But since that is the world society in which you will be coaching...