Trace a stage chart to the paper behind it
Before you quote a level chart, find the model’s own paper and check where each level name and count comes from.
Why it works
Many stage charts online combine names, numbers and colors from several models and give no source. The model papers give the counts and names: Murray and O’Fallon (2020) give the level counts for each family, and O’Fallon (2020) gives the STAGES level names and the stage-specific confusions, so a chart can be checked against them one line at a time. On this page’s reading, a chart whose counts or names do not match the originating paper is probably describing something other than the model it names.
How to do it
- Write down the chart’s source, or note that it has none.
- Find the model’s own paper, such as O’Fallon (2020) for STAGES or Starr and Torbert (2005) for the seven action logics.
- Compare the chart’s level count and level names with the paper, one line at a time.
- Quote only the lines that match, and mark the rest as unsourced.
Evidence
The level counts and names used on this page come from Murray and O’Fallon (2020), O’Fallon (2020) and Starr and Torbert (2005), each read for this page. The practice applies a source check to charts that use them. No study has measured how often charts misstate the models they name. (mechanistic)
Matching a chart to its source checks fidelity to that source. It does not show that the source’s claims hold up.
Sources
- Murray, T., & O’Fallon, T. (2020). A Summary of Research on and with the STAGES Developmental Model. Integral Review, 16(1).
- O’Fallon, T. (2020). States and STAGES: Waking up Developmentally. Integral Review, 16(1).
- Starr, A., & Torbert, B. (2005). Timely and Transforming Leadership Inquiry and Action: Toward Triple-loop Awareness. Integral Review, 1, 85–97.
Common mistake
Stopping at the chart because it has colors and clean boundaries. Clean boundaries are often the chart maker’s choice rather than the model’s.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for How the Adult Development Stage Models Compare
- Write the model’s name beside every stage you record
Each time you record a stage, write the model and its level count next to it, because the same label can sit at a different place on each scale.
- Pick the map whose resolution matches your question
Choose the model that draws the distinction your question depends on, instead of defaulting to whichever chart you saw first.
- Read a published crosswalk one level at a time
Take one level from one model, find its row in the published table, and read the spread of matches instead of a single agreed rung.
- Ask whether anyone has tested a claimed match
Before you accept that one model’s stage equals another’s, look for a published study that measured the two together.
- Keep one shared stage word from carrying two meanings
When two people use the same stage name, ask which model each one means before you agree or disagree.
- Describe one situation in two maps and mark the gap
Write one real situation, read it through two developmental maps, and note exactly where the two readings disagree.
Related concepts
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own
- Ego Development Theory: What It Is and How It Is Measured
The frame you make meaning through, how researchers measure it, and how to work with it without ranking anyone
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
- The Self-Transforming Mind: Kegan’s Fifth Order, Made Practical
When your own way of seeing becomes something you can look at, question, and let be changed
- Kegan’s Socialized Mind: What It Gives You and How to Grow Beyond It
When what others think is part of who you are — honoring the stage, and loosening its grip
- The Construct-Aware and Unitive Stages of Adult Development
Seeing the self and its stories as constructions — what it looks like, how rare it is, and what it does not promise
- First, Second, Third and Fourth Person Perspectives
How the number of viewpoints you can hold grows, what the research does and does not show, and how to practice it in a real disagreement
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