Clare W. Graves

Clare W. Graves (December 21, 1914 – January 3, 1986) was a professor of psychology and originator of the Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory of adult human development (ECLET), aspects of which were later popularised as Spiral Dynamics. He was born in New Richmond, Indiana.[6]

Clare W. Graves
BornDecember 21, 1914 (1914-12-21)
New Richmond, Indiana, U.S.
DiedJanuary 2, 1986(1986-01-02) (aged 71)
Rexford, New York (state), U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Education
  • B.A., Union College, Math and Sciences, 1940
  • M.A., Western Reserve University, Psychology, 1943
  • Ph.D., Western Reserve University, Psychology, 1945
Known forEmergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory
Spouse(s)Marian Huff Graves
Children
  • Susan Graves Friday
  • Robert Graves
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
Institutions
Doctoral advisorCalvin S. Hall, Jr.[1]
Influences
Influenced
Integral Theory
Integral theorists
Integral themes
  • AQAL
  • Integral ecology
  • Integral politics
  • Integral psychology
Influences on integral theory
Integral artists
Integral organizations
  • Integral Institute

Education and academic career

Graves graduated from Union College in New York in 1940 and received his master's degree and PhD[7] in psychology in 1943 and 1945, respectively, from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He taught at Western Reserve for three years before returning to Union College as an Associate Professor in 1948. He was promoted to full Professor in 1956, and retired in 1978.[8]

In 1975, Don Edward Beck, a professor at North Texas University, sought Graves out on the basis of his 1974 article in The Futurist. By this point, Graves's health was declining, and Beck resolved to record Graves's knowledge.[9] They were later joined by Christopher Cowan, with whom Beck developed Spiral Dynamics as an extension of Graves's work. After Graves's death, Cowan, his consulting partner Natasha Todorovic, and archivist William R. Lee, became custodians of Graves's work, maintaining the official Clare W. Graves web site, which provides access to some of those materials.[10]

The Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory

Name

Graves used a variety of names for his theory, ranging from the generic Levels of Human Existence in his earlier work[11] to lengthy names such as Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of Adult BioPsychoSocial Systems Development (1977), Emergent, Cyclical, Phenomenological, Existential Double-Helix Levels of Existence Conception of Adult Human Behavior (1978) and Emergent Cyclical Double-Helix Model of the Adult Bio-Pyscho-Social Behaviour (1981).[12] Cowan and Todorovic popularized the acronym ECLET (for Emergent, Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory) in the course of posthumously publishing Graves's work.[13]

Motivation

In the mid-twentieth century, Clare W. Graves taught psychology at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Graves claimed that the inspiration for developing his theory of adult human development came from undergraduate students in his introductory psychology courses, who asked who, from among the many competing psychology theorists, was ultimately "right" or "correct" with their model.[14][15] Graves did not see a clear answer to this question, since there were elements of truth and error in all of them.[16] He decided to conduct experiments that he hoped would reconcile the various approaches to human nature and questions about psychological maturity.[17]

Experimental Design

Rather than construct a hypothesis about how the conflicting systems could be resolved, Graves posed several open-ended questions and looked to see what patterns would emerge from his data. While not typical at the time, these approaches would later become known as grounded theory and inductive thematic analysis.[18]

Graves settled on the following questions to frame his experiments:[19]

  1. What will be the nature and character of conceptions of psychological maturity, in the biologically mature human being, produced by biologically mature humans who are intelligent but relatively unsophisticated in psychological knowledge in general, and theory of personality in particular?
  2. What will happen to a person's characterization of mature human behavior when s/he is confronted with the criticism of his/her point of view by peers who have also developed their own conception of psychologically mature behavior?
  3. What will happen to a person's conception of mature human behavior when confronted with the task of comparing and contrasting his/her conception of psychologically mature human personality to those conceptions which have been developed by authorities in the field?
  4. Into what categories and into how many categories, if any, will the conceptions of mature human personality produced by intelligent, biologically mature humans fall?
  5. If the conceptions are classifiable, how do they compare structurally and how do they compare functionally?
  6. If the conceptions are classifiable, how do the people who fall into classes compare behaviorally as observed in quasi-experimental situations and in every day life?
  7. If the conceptions are classifiable, how do the people who fall into one class compare to people who fall into other classes on standardized psychological instruments?

These questions led him to design a four-phase experiment, in which collected pertinent data from his psychology students and others. His initial research, conducted between 1952 and 1959, involved a diverse group of around 1,065 men and women aged 18 to 61.[20] Supplemental studies were carried out over the next twelve years.[21]

Phase One: Essays on personal conceptions of the mature adult human

Students in Graves's class on "Normal Psychology" were assigned to develop their own personal conception of the psychologically mature adult human. These students included full-time male undergraduates, coed graduate students in teacher education and industrial management, and coed night school students. The students were given four weeks to produce the essay, during which the class covered relevant topics around the nature of personality and relevant human behavior for developing such a conception.[22][23]

Graves's students were not aware of the research project, and were told that the papers would be graded on:[24]

  1. Breadth of coverage of human behavior.
  2. Concurrence with established psychological fact.
  3. The internal consistency of the conception.
  4. The applicability of the conception.

Next, the students spent four weeks in small groups where each student presented their conception to the group and received criticism, after which they turned in a defense of their existing conception, or a modified conception. This step demonstrated the reaction of students to peer criticism. Finally, after another four weeks of small group study of existing conceptions of mature personality in academic psychological literature, the students once again turned in a defense or modification of their conception. This step demonstrated the reaction of students to being confronted by authority. Graves observed the students in their small group work, without their knowledge as logistics allowed, and interviewed each student after the final defense or revision was turned in.[25]

Phase Two: Classification of the essays

Each year, Graves recruited seven to nine new judges who knew nothing of the project, and instructed them as follows:

Take these conceptions of mature personality, study them, then sort them into the fewest possible categories if you find them to be classifiable. Do not force any into categories. If some do not fit any category you decide upon, just place them into an unclassifiable group.

Each judge first produced their own classification, and then the judges produced a single classification by unanimous agreement. Essays for which no unanimous classification could be determined were added to the unclassifiable group.[26][27]

Phase Three: Observation of behaviors of groups of people with similar conceptions

Graves also taught classes in Organizational/Industrial, Experimental, and Abnormal Psychology, and most of his students from the Phase One studies took one of those classes from him the semester after taking Normal Psychology. These classes were structured such that students were organized into groups which, unknown to them, each contained students with the same classification of mature personality. Students who had not participated in Phase One were grouped together, providing what Graves called a "moderate control" effect. Students in the Organizational and Experimental Psychology classes were given specially designed problems to solve, while those in the Abnormal Psychology class were given many standard psychological tests as part of that class's normal approach. Graves studied the groups through one-way mirrors, gathering data on how they organized themselves, interacted with each other, solved problems, and performed on standard tests.[28][29]

Phase Four: Making sense of the data through research

From 1960 until his retirement in the late 1970s, Graves researched other work in order to make sense of confusing aspects of his data.[30] Since many adult humans do not take psychology classes (the source of his data), including those from cultures who do not participate in western educational systems, this phase also included research on how such adults might fit with Graves's collected data.[31]

Development of the Theory

Graves's analysis of the data collected and researched through the experiments described above became the basis for his theory.[32][33]

Graves theorized that in response to the interaction of external conditions with internal neuronal systems, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve existential problems and cope with their worlds. These coping systems are dependent on evolving human culture and individual development, and they are manifested at the individual, societal, and species levels.[34] He believed that tangible, emergent, self-assembling dynamic neuronal systems evolved in the human brain in response to evolving existential and social problems. He theorized "man's nature is not a set thing, that it is ever emergent, that it is an open system, not a closed system."[35] This open-endedness set his approach apart from many of his contemporaries who sought a final state, a nirvana, or perfectibility in human nature. His inclusion of the bio-, psycho-, social, and systems theory as vital co-elements also described an inclusive point of view that continues developing today.[36]

Graves' work observes that the emergence within humans of new bio-psycho-social systems in response to the interplay of external conditions with neurology follows a hierarchy in several dimensions, though without guarantees as to time lines or even direction: both progression and regression are possibilities in his model. Furthermore, each level in the hierarchy alternates as the human is either trying to make the environment adapt to the self, or the human is adapting the self to the existential conditions. He called these 'express self' and 'deny self' systems, and the swing between them is the cyclic aspect of his theory. Graves saw this process of stable plateaus interspersed with change intervals as never ending, up to the limits of the brain of Homo sapiens, something he viewed as far greater than we have yet imagined.[37]

Assessments

A number of scholars or companies have created and/or marketed assessments.[38][39] Graves himself, however, never built a test for his theory and doubted that a simple, valid instrument could be constructed to measure levels of psychological development accurately. His objective was to understand how people think and not just to categorize the things they think about or value.[40] Assessments, as momentary snapshots, do not match the nature of the theory which is based on a wave-like moving picture with many uncertainties.[41][42]

Evolutionary stages vs. typology

Graves' work outlines emergent stages rather than personality types which can be present at any stage.[43] Personality traits do not directly or consistently correlate with the stages, which are more about the why of behaviors than the behaviors themselves.[44] ECLET is a theory about the interplay of existential life conditions and the neurology of the human brain, with the color-coded stages and their properties being the results of that interaction.[45]

Criticism

Validating Graves's results is viewed as challenging as his raw data was thrown out towards the end of his life, with only collated results retained.[46][47] Graves's results as presented in his posthumous writing have been criticized as too vague to support the universality of his conclusions.[48]

Graves's approach of using his students as subjects without their knowledge would be considered ethically dubious today.[49]

Influence

Graves's Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory has been influential in psychology,[50] philosophy,[51] spirituality,[52] education,[53] economics,[54] geopolitical conflict resolution,[55] cultural analysis,[56] and management theory.[57][58]

While Graves's work is most broadly known through consultants working with the Spiral Dynamics (SD) or Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi) adaptations, or through SDi's influence on the Integral movement, these adaptations were not created and popularized until a decade after his death. During his lifetime, Graves worked within academia, with his theories occasionally finding broader audiences such as through the magazine The Futurist.[59]

Metamodernism

Metamodern philosophers Daniel Görtz and Emil Friis, writing as Hanzi Freinacht, have described a four-part developmental stage theory as part of their metamodern approach to politics. In addition to the four parts, they include an overall assessment which is explicitly described as a revision of Spiral Dynamics, which they call the "effective value meme."[60][61] One of the four parts, the "symbol-stage" or "cultural code", uses the same names and Spiral Dynamics-derived patterns as are used for the effective value memes.[62] Görtz and Friis associate metamodernism with the first level of the second cycle of levels, which Graves described as "being" levels as opposed to the "surviving" levels of the first cycle.[63]

Works

Graves worked towards a book describing his theories, but published few articles and gave few public talks on his work during his lifetime. A full chronological bibliography is available online;[64] a selection of his most notable publications is provided below.

Graves was reportedly distressed by the poor reception given to Abraham Maslow at an American Psychological Association seminar in the mid 1950s[65] and determined not to publish his full theory until he was confident he could defend it.[66] Due to a brain injury sustained in 1975[67], Graves abandoned his book manuscript in 1977[68]. The manuscript, consisting of largely complete drafts of sections describing the derivation of the theory from experimental data, and comparing it to other theories, was edited together with other primary sources to reconstruct the missing section on the nature of the levels, and published posthumously in 2005 as The Never Ending Quest.[69]

Additionally, an edited transcription of a seminar given by Graves at the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1971, along with a reprint of his 1970 article in the Fall 1970 issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, were collected and published in book form in 2004 as Levels of Human Existence.

  • Graves, Clare W. (1966), "Deterioration of Work Standards." Harvard Business Review, September/October 1966, Vol. 44, No. 5, p. 117-126.
  • Graves, Clare W. (1970), "Levels of Existence: An Open System Theory of Values." Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Fall 1970, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 131-155.
  • Graves, Clare W. (1974), "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap." The Futurist, April 1974, p. 72-87.
  • Graves, Clare W. (2004). Lee, William R.; Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). Levels of Human Existence. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing.
  • Graves, Clare W. (2005). Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). The Never Ending Quest. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing.

See also

Notes
  1. Lee, William R. "Chronology of Publications and Articles by Dr. Graves". Retrieved 4 Aug 2020.
  2. Graves, Huntley, and LaBier (1965)
  3. LaBier (1971)
  4. Beck and Cowan (1996)
  5. Wilber (2001)
  6. "In Memoriam..." The Concordiensis. Union College, Schenectady, NY. 16 Jan 1986. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  7. Graves, Clare W. (1945). A Study of the Genesis and Dynamics of Psychopathic Personality as Revealed By Combining The Clinical Case History and Experimental Approaches (PhD). Western Reserve University. OCLC 45432163.
  8. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha; Lee, William R. (eds.). "About Dr. Graves..." Clare W. Graves. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  9. Krumm, Rainer; Parstorfer, Benedikt (10 Oct 2014). Clare W. Graves, Sein Leben sein Werk (in German). Werdewelt Verlag. pp. v, 1–2. ISBN 978-3981531886.
  10. Butters (2015), p. 71
  11. A.C. Beck et al (1972)
  12. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), pp. vi-vii
  13. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha (2006). "NVC Consulting: The Spiral Dynamics People". Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved 7 Aug 2020.
  14. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), p. iv
  15. Rice (2018), para. 4
  16. Graves (2005), pp. 14, 32-42
  17. Rice (2018), para. 5
  18. Rice (2018), paras. 5, 7
  19. Graves (2005), pp. 43-44
  20. Graves, Clare W. (2004). Lee, William R.; Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). Levels of Human Existence. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing. p. vi. ISBN 0-9724742-0-X.
  21. Graves (2005), p. 44
  22. Graves (2005), pp. 44-45
  23. Graves, Clare W.; Lee, William R. (eds.). "Examples from Dr. Graves's Research: Written Conceptions of the Mature Adult Human Being". Retrieved 5 Aug 2020.
  24. Graves (2005), p. 45
  25. Graves (2005), pp. 45-46
  26. Graves (2005), pp. 46-47
  27. Rice 2018, para. 7
  28. Graves (2005), pp. 46-48
  29. Rice 2018, paras. 8-9
  30. Graves (2005), p. 48
  31. Graves (2005), pp. 199, 215
  32. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), pp. vi-vii
  33. Graves (2005, pp. 160-166)
  34. Beck and Cowan (1996), p. 30
  35. Graves, Clare W. "A Systems View of Values Problems". Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  36. Beck and Cowan (1996), p. 29
  37. Graves (2005), pp. 184-191
  38. Hurlbut, Marylin Anne (Aug 1979). Clare W. Graves' Levels of Psychological Existence: A Test Design (PhD). University of North Texas. OCLC 61848580. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  39. Stephens, Nancy Edythe (1981). Reliability and Validity Testing of a Multidimensional Instrument to Assess Biopsychosocial Systems According to Clare W. Graves' Theory (MS). University of Maryland. OCLC 8358183.
  40. Graves, Clare W. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha; Lee, William R. (eds.). "Dr. Graves on Assessment". Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  41. Beck and Cowan (1996), p. 74
  42. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha. "FAQ: Is the Spiral About Waves or Particles?". Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  43. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha. "FAQ: Does the Spiral consist of a typology?". Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  44. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha. "FAQ: What about emotions and temperament factors?". Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  45. Cowan, Christopher; Todorovic, Natasha. "FAQ: The Spiral: Much more than a color code". Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  46. Rice (2018), para. 14
  47. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), pp. v-vi
  48. Reitter (2018), p. 8
  49. Rice (2018), para. 11
  50. LaBier (1971)
  51. Freinacht (2017)
  52. Wilber (2006)
  53. Landolfi, Hugo (2017). Psicología, Filosofía y Educación: El pensamiento de Clare Graves en diálogo con la filosofía y sus implicancias educativas (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Editorial Dunken. ISBN 978-987-76-3006-0.
  54. Dawlabani, Said E.; Beck, Don Edward. Economic Systems and the Emerging Values of Humanity. Bretton Woods 75. Retrieved 2 Aug 2020.
  55. Beck, Don; Larsen, Teddy Hebo; Solonin, Sergey; Viljoen, Rica; Johns, Thomas Q. (29 May 2018). Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code. Chester, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1119387183.
  56. Viljoen, Rica; Laubscher, Loraine I. (1 June 2015). "African Spirituality: Insights from the Cradle of Mankind". In Spiller, Chellie; Wolfgramm, Rachel (eds.). Indigenous Spiritualities at Work: Transforming the Spirit of Enterprise. Information Age Publishing. ISBN 978-1681231556.
  57. A.C. Beck et al (1972)
  58. Flowers and Hughes (1973)
  59. Graves (1974)
  60. Freinacht (2017), pp. 171, 305-350
  61. Görtz, D (September 5, 2018). Metamodern Values Explained: TEDxTUBerlin. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.
  62. Freinacht (2017), pp. 211-247
  63. Freinacht (2017), pp. 305-350
  64. Lee, William R.; Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). "Chronology of Publications and Articles by Dr. Graves". Retrieved 3 Aug 2020.
  65. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), p. iv
  66. Graves (2005), pp. 5-6
  67. Graves (2005), p. 5
  68. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), p. v
  69. Cowan and Todorovic (2005), pp. v-x

References
  • Beck, Arthur C.; et al. (Staff of the Institute for Business and Community Development, University of Richmond) (June 1972). "Clare W. Graves Theory of Levels of Human Existence and Suggested Managerial Systems for Each Level". In Beck, Arthur C.; Hillmar, Ellis D. (eds.). A Practical Approach to Organization Development Through MBO/Selected Readings. Addison-Wesley. pp. 168–181. ISBN 978-0-2010044-7-2.
  • Beck, Don Edward; Cowan, Christopher C. (8 May 1996). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1557869401.
  • Butters, Albion (17 Nov 2015). "A Brief History of Spiral Dynamics". Approaching Religion. 5 (2): 67–78. doi:10.30664/ar.67574.
  • Caspers, Svenja; Heim, Stefan; Lucas, Mark G.; Stephan, Egon; Fischer, Lorenz; Amunts, Katrin; Zilles, Karl (1 Apr 2011). "Moral Concepts Set Decision Strategies to Abstract Values". PLOS ONE. 6 (4). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018451.
  • Caspers, Svenja; Heim, Stefan; Lucas, Mark G.; Stephan, Egon; Fischer, Lorenz; Amunts, Katrin; Zilles, Karl (22 Aug 2012). "Dissociated Neural Processing for Decisions in Managers and Non-Managers". PLOS ONE. 7 (8). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043537.
  • Cook‐Greuter, Susanne R. (1 Dec 2004). "Making the Case for a Developmental Perspective". Industrial and Commercial Training. 36 (7): 275–281. doi:10.1108/00197850410563902.
  • Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (2005). "Editors' Foreward". In Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). The Never Ending Quest. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9724742-1-4.
  • Freinacht, Hanzi (10 Mar 2017). The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One. Metamoderna. ISBN 978-8799973903.
  • Graves, Clare W.; Huntley, W.C.; LaBier, Douglas (Feb 2002) [Written 1965]. Lee, William R. (ed.). "Personality Structures and Perceptual Readiness: An Investigation of Their Relationship to Hypothesized Levels of Human Existence". Union College, Schenectady, NY. Retrieved 3 Aug 2020.
  • Graves, Clare W. (September–October 1966). "Deterioration of Work Standards". Harvard Business Review. 44 (5): 117–126.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  • Graves, Clare W. (October 22–24, 1969). A Systems View of Values Problems. Systems Science & Cybernetics Conference. IEEE No. 69-C37-SSC.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  • Graves, Clare W. (Fall 1970). "Levels of Existence: An Open System Theory of Values"". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 10 (2): 131–155.
  • Graves, Clare W. (April 1974). "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap". The Futurist. pp. 72–87.
  • Graves, Clare W. (2005). Cowan, Christopher C.; Todorovic, Natasha (eds.). The Never Ending Quest. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9724742-1-4.
  • Hughes, Charles L.; Flowers, Vincent S. (March–April 1973). "Shaping Personnel Strategies to Disparate Value Systems". Personnel. 50 (2): 8–23.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  • LaBier, Douglas (31 March 1971). Developments in the Application of The Graves Theory to Behavior Change and Psychotherapy. 9th Annual Convention of the National Society for Programmed Instruction. Rochester NY.
  • Laloux, Frederic (20 Feb 2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. Nelson Parker. ISBN 978-2960133516.
  • Lynch, Dudley; Kordis, Paul L. (1989). Strategy of the Dolphin: Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World. William Morrow & Co. ISBN 978-0688084813.
  • Reitter, Nicholas (Jun 2018). "Clare W. Graves and the Turn of Our Times". Journal of Conscious Evolution. California Institute of Integral Studies. 11 (11). Article 5. Retrieved 5 Aug 2020.
  • Rice, Keith E. (12 Jun 2018). "Clare W Graves' Research". Retrieved 3 Aug 2020.
  • Wilber, Ken (16 May 2001). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1570625541.
  • Wilber, Ken (2006). Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World. Integral Books. ISBN 9781590303467.
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