How do adults “grow up”? 8 stages of development

Many of us would like to think of ourselves as a unique individual. However, our purely individual development in adulthood (if it occurs at all) is subject to general patterns: we can only move in a strictly defined direction – towards greater awareness, greater integrity and freedom, passing through certain stages along the way.

However, the vast majority – 55% – are in one of the initial four stages of development. Does all this mean that as we move from one stage to another, we go from worse to better? No, this is not a story about “bad” and “good” or about the fact that we must grow.

One of the authors of the vertical development model, linguist and psychologist Suzanne Cook-Greuther, believes that it is much better to be happy at the stage you are at, to live it as holistically and fully as possible. However, we should keep this possible perspective in mind, see these steps that separate us from ourselves – such as we could be.

What is vertical development?

“In the course of life, we all accumulate certain knowledge, skills, master new methods, but this accumulation in itself does not lead to qualitative changes in our personality,” says psychologist Anastasia Gosteva, who was trained by Suzanne Cook-Greuther. — The model of the world as an operating system through which we perceive reality remains the same. This development can be called horizontal.

Vertical development describes the process by which your operating system changes to a new one that is more cohesive, flexible, and somewhat powerful. A person has new ways of goal-setting, being and thinking. The transition to the next stage is determined by what aspects of internal and external reality a person is able to hold in his attention.

In order for deep, qualitative changes to take place, that is, the transition to a new stage of development, our perception of ourselves and the world must change in three key parameters.

• Action is the level of the physical body. How do I set goals? How do I achieve them? Where is the focus of my attention in the process of setting a goal – on myself or am I noticing other people and large systems?
• Self-awareness is the level of emotions. To what extent am I aware of and in control of my emotions, at rest and under stress? To what extent am I able to read other people’s emotions and their impact on the overall context of relationships?
• Cognitive models – the level of thinking. How do I give meaning to the surrounding reality and my place in it? Do I consider my “I” to be really existing, or rather a construct that is changeable and at every moment is the result of the interaction of many factors?

Any of us observed this in the example of children: the child survived the age crisis – and moved to a qualitatively new level. He not only acquired new knowledge and skills, but his psyche gained the ability to perceive reality through more complex models. But how can these changes be measured, is there an objective indicator for them?

At one time, the developmental psychologist Jane Levinger hypothesized that language, or rather, the language models that they use, serves as such a marker for adolescents. This assumption was confirmed by the results of tests in which teenage girls had to continue unfinished sentences.

Levinger’s student Susanne Cook-Greuther decided to try the same tests with adults, adding new questions to them (for example, about sex). Each group of questions was aimed at testing a certain area: how I act, how I feel and how I think about myself and about the world.

Tens of thousands of such tests have been carried out over 30 years. It is striking that for all the diversity of individuals, the answers turned out to be quite standard and corresponded to one of the stages in the model of vertical development.

In this case, the stages are not rigid levels, like the rungs of a ladder. Rather, they are like waves of maturity that wash over us and flow through us over time, each profoundly changing our being.

We all gravitate toward one stage that serves as the “center of attraction” at a given moment in life, but under stress we can regress to the earlier stages, and at some points we can experience a later stage as a peak and new experience.

Eight stages of growth

Opportunist (5% of adults)

Focused on one’s own immediate needs (mostly bodily) and self-defense. Operates with the concepts of “I want” and “mine”, obeys his impulses. Lives according to the law of the jungle: whoever is strong is right, the strongest survive. Feedback is perceived as an attack. Does not think about the consequences, does not feel guilty. Indispensable in war and in emergency situations.

The first stage, at which the “I” for the first time realizes itself as a separate one – and therefore impulsiveness and aggressiveness is often associated with the fact that a person still does not really understand how to build healthy boundaries.

Examples: gang members, mafia, soldiers of fortune, military.

Diplomat (12%)

Conformist, strives for socially approved behavior and encouragement. He realized that it is more difficult to survive alone than in a team. Seeks the support of a family, group, church, corporation, expecting that his life will be endowed with meaning there. He is looking for an authoritative figure for himself: a respected spiritual leader, a good boss.

Feedback is perceived as disapproval or a reminder of the rules, regulations. But it is the Diplomats that are the glue of any group: they strive to maintain unity whenever possible.

Examples: followers of orthodox religions, representatives of the bureaucracy, the “vertical of power” and those who support it.

Expert (38%)

Unlike the previous two, he is able to look at himself from the outside for the first time. Respects the interests of the group, but wants to find out what makes him unique. And decides that in unique skills and knowledge. Strives for a better life based on knowledge, expertise and hard work.

Perfectionist. Bad team player. Arguments his position and discards the considerations of others. He has answers to all questions. Considers himself virtuous and others wrong. Feedback is taken personally, and if it is not given by an expert, it is thrown out of the head.

Examples: technocratic managers, micromanagers who focus on the details so much that they forget the whole.

Achiever (30%)

Focused on achieving results, efficiency, achieving personal goals. Key interests are success and independence. Behavior model: “Act in your interests and win!” He is rational and very interested in science – it is important for him to learn how the world and himself work in order to better control reality.

Feedback is welcome if it helps to achieve the goal. Able to see multiple perspectives, develop strategies, set goals and take risks. Begins to understand his own psychology. At this stage, a person may go to a psychologist for the first time or start meditating, because this will make him more effective.

Examples: Wall Street financiers, top managers of large corporations, entrepreneurs, innovative scientists.

Individualist (10%)

At this stage, attention turns inward for the first time, and the person asks questions that previously might not have bothered him at all: who am I? am i happy? Am I living my life in the full sense of the word?

The individualist suddenly discovers that at every moment he is part of a larger context. He plunges into the study of his inner world in search of unique gifts or answers to questions that are relevant to him. Enjoys life in the here and now. Learns to accept himself and, as a result, begins to accept others.

The process is often more important to him than the goal. Personal accomplishments are more important than socially approved roles. Looking for feedback, considering it necessary for their development. Seeking consensus, striving for dialogue. He believes that all points of view have a right to exist, which often causes irritation in those who are at earlier stages of development.

Examples: Consultants, Helping Professionals, Greens, Postmodernists, Creative Class, Internet Startup Founders.

Strategist (4%)

Very aware of his reactions, emotional and bodily, and how they affect himself, his environment and team. Strives to live a full and responsible life, realizing his full potential for the benefit of large systems and his higher self.

Integrates the highest values ​​into everyday life. Plans for a period of 1 to 25 years, foreseeing a more distant future. He considers feedback necessary for the development and constant rethinking of reality.

Pays great attention to personal development and helps others develop. Launches major systemic changes in the world. Pays more attention to irrational sources of information – intuition, prophetic dreams.

Examples: Steve Jobs, creators of eco-industrial parks.

Alchemist (1%)

Possesses contemplative, harmonizing thinking. Able to realize that the ego does not have an independent nature – it is a product of cultural and social life. Meanings are generated by people and do not exist by themselves. And therefore, everything that he witnesses in his daily experience, he does not see as existing separately from himself – and takes full responsibility for this seemingly “external” world.

Extremely sensitive to the states of other people and systems, has great intuition. Promotes global social transformation. The alchemist feels inextricably linked with the entire planet and all living beings and is able to hold several timelines in his attention at the same time.

Examples: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela.

Unifying (0,1%)

The last of the stages that are currently being identified by linguistic methods. But many researchers, including Cook-Greuther, agree that this is not the last stage of development. The unifier feels that he is everything, he is nothing, and he is still someone – this body, these emotions, these thoughts that arise and disappear in the stream of his perception.

Able to see hidden connections where they are not visible to others. They are present at many levels of reality at once – personal, systemic, planetary – and for the first time are able to fully withstand the paradoxical nature of the world, without trying to change it out of selfish motives and – changing it by the very fact of their presence in it.

Examples: Sri Aurobindo, Dalai Lama IV.