Framework 136 Spiral Dynamics

Introduction

It is a framework for explaining evolutionary development of individuals, organisations and societies; it is about psychological development.

The word spiral is used to explain how the psychology of humans continuously unfolds, expands, oscillates, and emerges with changing trends and time plus its presence in nature like DNA double Helix

It has application in management theory and business ethics as it follows a specific pattern; with development in an infinite process. It
"...describes how value systems and worldwide views emerge from the interaction of life conditions and mind's capabilities..."
Wikipedia, 2022

It focuses on life's conditions as you progress through value systems; no level is inherently positive or negative; it is responsive to the local environment, and can be incremental or breakthrough.
"...Through these value system, groups at cultures structure their society and individuals integrate within. Each distinct set of values is developed as a response to solving the problems of the previous system..."
Wikipedia, 2022

The important question to ask is why a particular behaviour occurs in a certain value system.
"...The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiral process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behaviour systems to newer, higher-order systems as an individual's existential problems change..."
Claire Graves as quoted by Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020

Overview of the Levels

(source: Wikipedia, 2022a)

Diagrammatical format

(source: Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)

Some Comments

- large-scale personal development and self-actualisation (many billions of people have lived before us; we learn from their mistakes; most violence occurs during the red stage, etc)

- traits of all stages (someone can incorporate characteristics of different stages at the same time, etc)

- stages can't be skipped (as we move from one state to another, we take the positives of that stage and leave the toxicity behind, ie transcending a stage and at the same time including it, etc)

- psychological level (
"...Human values have evolved a lot since the last 100,000 years. This model explains the change in values across societies, organisations, and individuals is not something arbitrary and random but is linear and predictable. Evolution is not merely biological. Our values, morality, beliefs, and psychology also evolve with time..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020

- irreversible process (the development of values is irreversible, ie move forward, not backward, over time, etc)

- society pulls up and down (whatever stage society or organisation is at will put enormous pressure on people to be in the same stage, etc)

- levels of cognitive development (at each stage your understanding and thinking about reality enlarges, ie you become more open-minded about others' perspectives and less defensive about your own perspective; tend to synergise older ways of thinking;
"...By continuous change, we open ourselves to more perspectives that open the door for self-development..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)

- collectively and individually (people move up this file both individually and collectively; for individuals features like states, types, lines, etc are involved;
"...societies and countries, the process is slow and various other factors play a significant role in evolution that include economy, politics, technology, geography, etc..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020

NB better able to understand integration and connectedness of various variables

- more to come (the framework does not explain everything, ie more to come on stages, states, lines, types, factors, etc

    i) states (
"...You can be either be waking, dreaming, experiencing various mystical states, meditative states, and emotional states..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)

    ii) types (they can be a way to categorise people on their personality types, ie

        a) gender (masculine like goal-orientated, protective, assertiveness, rational, etc vs feminine like relationship-orientated, nurturing,, grateful, intuitive, etc)

        b) 9 Enneagram personality types

        c) 16 Myers Briggs personality types

        d) left brain or right brain personality types

(for more details, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base)
"...masculinity at red may produce the worst criminals, while femininity at green can provide great leaders. Feminism at stage green will be completely different from feminism at stage red..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)

    iii) lines (
"... A person at a particular stage of spiral dynamics can have different levels of cognitive, emotional, or moral development and can have different statuses of career, livelihood, health, diet, interpersonal relationships, IQ, spiritual, education, and metaphysical understanding that further increases the complexity of the model..."
Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)

    iv) factors (different sets of conditions experienced in a lifetime shape your personality; some factors include genetics, IQ, childhood trauma, mental illness or disability, family, society, country, geography, etc)

    v) tiers (first tier stages are absolutist about their values; second-tier considers the relative and synergises all perspectives, etc)

Modified Spiral Dynamics (includes quadrants, applied memetics, integral theory, etc to help understand the evolution of human psychology)

(source: Ebrahim Haque Bhatti, 2020)