Check who validated a stage model before you repeat its claims

When a stage model is described as scientifically proven, find out who ran the validation, whether the report is public, and whether anyone outside its developers has checked it.

なぜ効果があるのか

The 2017 exchange over the STAGES model turned on how validity was described and when the supporting report was public. The critique by Susanne Cook-Greuter, Ken Wilber and Beena Sharma, as quoted in the developers’ response, said the model was “prematurely promoted as validated.” By Murray’s 2020 account the critique raised ten points in all. The response does not agree that validity was misrepresented, but accepts that it was promoted prematurely, because the statistical report was not yet available for colleagues to scrutinize; Murray (2020) reports that the response judged nine of those ten points to rest on misconceptions; the response itself counts eleven issues. A validation claim is only as checkable as the report behind it, so asking who ran the study, whether it is in print, and who else has examined it tells a reader how much weight the claim can carry.

やり方

  1. Find the sentence that says “validated” or “proven” and write down which study it refers to.
  2. Check whether that study is in a peer-reviewed journal or only in a newsletter, workshop, book or website.
  3. Note who wrote the report and whether any author developed the model or sells training in it.
  4. Look for an examination by people outside the developers. If you find one, check whether it re-analysed the same data or new data.
  5. Repeat the claim at the level the evidence reaches, for example “a study by the developers reported positive agreement,” rather than “proven.”

エビデンス

The 2017 response in Integral Leadership Review, by O’Fallon, Murray, Fitch, Barta and Kesler, acknowledges that the developer made verbal and written statements about the model’s statistical validity before a research report was available for colleagues to scrutinize. The 2020 validation study’s first author is the model’s developer (Crossref author list). Merckoll (2023) examines two empirical studies cited as validating STAGES scoring and says their verification claims “do not hold up under scrutiny”; Murray (2023) responds in the same issue. The practice applies those documented points to a reader’s own check. It has not been tested. (mechanistic)

Checking who validated a model describes the state of the evidence. It does not show whether the model is accurate. The 2020 summary is written by the model’s developers, and the 2020 special issue is, by its editor’s description, mostly supportive of the model. The 2023 critique concerns scoring rather than the theory.

出典

よくある間違い

Treating a validation claim as settled because it is repeated in many places. Repetition inside one community is not an independent check, and a quotation on a website is not a published study.

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The Critiques of Adult Development Stage Theories, Fairly Stated の実践法をもっと見る

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