Human development in the light of the STAGES model

The miracle of human growth from birth to the more mature stages of adulthood

What a wonder to see how a baby wins over mother and father with its irresistible smile after birth, how it learns to move, how it finds out what belongs to itself and what belongs to others, how it babbles its first words and then increasingly conquers the world and learns to deal with its body, its feelings, its thoughts and the people around it.

In this process of child development, a child repeatedly takes decisive physical, emotional, mental and social steps. For example, while for some time they believe that they are not seen when they hold their hands in front of their eyes, at some point they realize that they can be seen by someone else even if they cannot see them themselves. This is an example of an enormous developmental step, of which there are many in human development. Such developmental steps do not usually stop when young people become adults. Rather, development can continue into adulthood.

In a later stage of development, people begin – to give another example – to observe their thoughts and feelings and reflect on their impulses. And a little later still, they get to know their personality traits. They may discover an inner part that is rather shy and reserved and another inner part that is a real go-getter. And – with a little patience and luck – they learn to initiate a conversation between opposing tendencies within themselves and to integrate the opposites into a more mature self.

In the course of development, new facets of reality become accessible to consciousness and can also be actively shaped. Eventually, awareness itself becomes the object of consciousness. But of course, with each developmental step, new pitfalls and confusions arise that keep the living experience of the mind alive.

There is no reason to assume that human development has to come to an end at some point. However, it can be observed that some people are satisfied with a certain stage of development and do not want to grow any further. That is their right.

A STAGES developmental assessment: Where am I on my developmental path?

As human beings, we are always on our own personal developmental path. A STAGES developmental assessment allows us to see where we are on our path. It gives us a retrospective view of our path to this point and an outlook on further development opportunities. Such an assessment addresses both the inner experience, which is expressed in feelings and thoughts, as well as the way we think and our orientation in action. The assessment also sheds light on how our social relationships and interactions appear in our consciousness, how we look at social systems and structures and which strengths and weaknesses deserve attention. Such a developmental assessment supports us in pausing to become aware of our perspectives and their possibilities and also to recognize where we rub up against reality and how we could integrate further aspects of it into our consciousness and our being.

Please contact me if you are interested in an English (or German) STAGES developmental assessment.

The STAGES model of human development

The STAGES model of human development was developed by Terri O'Fallon (PhD). It is based on more than fifteen years of in-depth scientific research, which is ongoing. Terri O'Fallon builds in particular on the research on ego development by Jane Loevinger and Susanne Cook-Greuter and the Integral model by Ken Wilber.

The STAGES model shows that children and adolescents primarily relate to concrete objects such as a ball, a horse, a bicycle, grandma and grandpa, a girlfriend or a boyfriend. In a subsequent developmental tier, people begin to name and address subtle objects such as thoughts, feelings, relationships, plans, contexts or systems. And in an even later developmental tier, awareness itself becomes an object of awareness. These three tiers of human development are called the Concrete, the Subtle and the MetAware tier in the STAGES model. Each of these three tiers (Concrete, Subtle and MetAware) in turn contains four stages of development. Twelve developmental stages are therefore considered, which are designated with the numbers 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 up to 6.5. There is a wealth of empirical material from sentence completion tests for these twelve stages. Hypothetically, a further developmental tier, the Unified tier, is assumed, again consisting of four further developmental stages. However, there is as yet no empirical material to support this hypothesis.

A developmental stage is a coherent structure of perspectives that describes how a person at this stage usually thinks, feels and acts, shapes their relationships and fits into the larger whole. People normally move through several stages in their everyday lives, switching from one to the other depending on the context and sometimes falling back several stages under stress, i.e. they experience a so-called shadow crash. They then temporarily behave like a three-year-old child in the defiant phase, for example (which would correspond to stage 1.5 in the STAGES model). However, their main focus is on thinking, feeling and acting from a stage that can also be described as their developmental center of gravity. Occasionally they experience themselves in a later stage that is not yet stably available and often they find support in an earlier supporting stage that is familiar to them in all its breadth and depth.

Certified STAGES Scorer, Debriefer and Developmental Practitioner

As a STAGES certified developmental scorer, debriefer and developmental practitioner, I apply the perspectives and insights of STAGES in my life, conflict and developmental counseling. I have acquired these qualifications in the course of several years of demanding and thorough further training courses with subsequent supervision.