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Nine Levels Of Increasing Embrace In Ego Development: A Full-Spectrum Theory Of Vertical Growth And Meaning Making
Ego Development Theory (EDT) has come a long way since Jane Loevinger’s original (1970) and sparse stage descriptions compared to our current understanding of the full trajectory of development, and the mechanisms, and patterns of vertical growth in the personal realm.
What makes EDT unique and different from other theories in the field of constructivist developmental approaches is its focus on meaning making. EDT addresses the whole person. It is best understood as a framework that portrays the growth of individuals as moving into ever greater awareness and integration about both the inner and the outer world. Although EDT focuses on the development of individual awareness, it fully recognizes that there is no individual interior development outside a cultural and linguistic surround, nor is individual growth possible without the external context (historical, geographic, infrastructure, etc.) as it supports and constrains what is possible in the interior.
EDT has been developed and refined over at least 40 years by empirical means unlike almost all other developmental approaches 2 which first propose a theory, then find appropriate means to measure their constructs. EDT is a grounded theory. It was derived solely based on evidence from responses to the sentence completion test which we now call the MAP (Maturity Assessment Profile).
What makes EDT unique and different from other theories in the field of constructivist developmental approaches is its focus on meaning making. EDT addresses the whole person. It is best understood as a framework that portrays the growth of individuals as moving into ever greater awareness and integration about both the inner and the outer world. Although EDT focuses on the development of individual awareness, it fully recognizes that there is no individual interior development outside a cultural and linguistic surround, nor is individual growth possible without the external context (historical, geographic, infrastructure, etc.) as it supports and constrains what is possible in the interior.
EDT has been developed and refined over at least 40 years by empirical means unlike almost all other developmental approaches 2 which first propose a theory, then find appropriate means to measure their constructs. EDT is a grounded theory. It was derived solely based on evidence from responses to the sentence completion test which we now call the MAP (Maturity Assessment Profile).
97 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 28, 2019
A very well-argued thesis on the evolutionary progression of the Ego. In essence, the ego transforms from nothingness to infinity. From darkness to light. From fear and selfishness to love and selflessness.
Here is the short summary at the end of the book:
I have tried to chronicle the development of the self from prerational to metarational and from preverbal ignorance (
not knowing) to beginning postsymbolic wisdom and witnessing. Much freedom is gained when people realize the essential inter-connectedness of all phenomena and the constructed aspects of boundaries, objects, our self-identities and our stories about life and nature. Much suffering is alleviated when the automatic habits of mind and heart are unlearned and uncoupled from memory (what was) and desires (what ought to be) and replaced by mindful, non-evaluative attention to what is - now.
Some other excepts I enjoyed:
According to my understanding of the function of language, all mathematical models, diagrams and figures are abstractions. They help to explain specific and partial aspects of the underlying experience, but they each have their unique limitations.
the ego maintains its stability, its identity, and its coherence by selectively gating out observations inconsistent with its current state – granting that one person’s coherence is another person’s gibberish.
When our current meaning making system is disturbed, we tend to deny or ignore the intrusion in order to remain safely with what we know. The greater the perceived threat, the more we may cement our current way of seeing things by actively denying or rejecting it or by simply paying not further attention.
We often operate under the false assumption that it is better to stay with what we know than to face the unknown even if the status quo is not ideal or outright toxic.
Making sense of experience seems to be one of the fundamental drives in human nature. This need for meaning is irrepressible and ongoing.
It is ego’s function to ceaselessly interpret experience and to try to make coherent sense of it.
We postulate that the ego is the meaning maker or story teller, or whatever name we choose to give this force in us. It orchestrates, integrates, and metabolizes experience throughout life and all the way up beyond the personal realm.
There is wide consensus that human beings are born undifferentiated and symbiotically merged with their initial caregivers.
This view of reality is called the systems view because it allows individuals to look and compare whole systems of thought or organizations with increasing distance. Postconventional adults can become aware of their own unexamined beliefs. Interest in laying bare one’s underlying assumptions as well as those of the society is an important new capacity at these two new stages.
Now people come to realize that all objects are human-made constructs, including for instance such abstract constructs as purpose, linear time and the ego. All are based on layers upon layers of symbolic abstraction. Even such an everyday concept as a “bed” is an enormous simplification. No two people’s mental picture of a bed is alike and no two beds in the world are identical. A
if the hypothesis is valid that the ego is valiantly trying to create a coherent narrative about our existence and about the world, a last ditch attempt to create the most comprehensive maps possible would be one expression of this need at the Construct-aware level.
Thus some Construct-aware individuals spend a lifetime creating such theories in order to provide the meta-perspectives or supermaps they feel are going to help themselves and others to better understand the complexity of human affairs. A chief indicator that we deal with such an endeavour is the extreme complexity of such theories. 32
Becoming conscious of the futility of describing reality by ever more complex maps and approximations can lead individuals to suffer greatly as they experience the limits, but have no way to transcend them with the same rational means that have brought them to grasping this state of affairs.
Once human beings realize the fundamental function of the ego to create a sense of permanence and saliency, they may experience their full and inevitable ego-centricity
Final knowledge about the self or anything else is seen as illusive and unattainable through effort and reason because all conscious thought, all cognition is recognized as constructed and, therefore, split off from the underlying, cohesive, non-dual territory.
They observe the habits of mind such as the tendency to endlessly analyze and reflect in order to create ever more accurate theories of life and nature. All of these endeavors can now be understood as partial defenses against knowing the impermanence of the embodied self.
Here is the short summary at the end of the book:
I have tried to chronicle the development of the self from prerational to metarational and from preverbal ignorance (
not knowing) to beginning postsymbolic wisdom and witnessing. Much freedom is gained when people realize the essential inter-connectedness of all phenomena and the constructed aspects of boundaries, objects, our self-identities and our stories about life and nature. Much suffering is alleviated when the automatic habits of mind and heart are unlearned and uncoupled from memory (what was) and desires (what ought to be) and replaced by mindful, non-evaluative attention to what is - now.
Some other excepts I enjoyed:
According to my understanding of the function of language, all mathematical models, diagrams and figures are abstractions. They help to explain specific and partial aspects of the underlying experience, but they each have their unique limitations.
the ego maintains its stability, its identity, and its coherence by selectively gating out observations inconsistent with its current state – granting that one person’s coherence is another person’s gibberish.
When our current meaning making system is disturbed, we tend to deny or ignore the intrusion in order to remain safely with what we know. The greater the perceived threat, the more we may cement our current way of seeing things by actively denying or rejecting it or by simply paying not further attention.
We often operate under the false assumption that it is better to stay with what we know than to face the unknown even if the status quo is not ideal or outright toxic.
Making sense of experience seems to be one of the fundamental drives in human nature. This need for meaning is irrepressible and ongoing.
It is ego’s function to ceaselessly interpret experience and to try to make coherent sense of it.
We postulate that the ego is the meaning maker or story teller, or whatever name we choose to give this force in us. It orchestrates, integrates, and metabolizes experience throughout life and all the way up beyond the personal realm.
There is wide consensus that human beings are born undifferentiated and symbiotically merged with their initial caregivers.
This view of reality is called the systems view because it allows individuals to look and compare whole systems of thought or organizations with increasing distance. Postconventional adults can become aware of their own unexamined beliefs. Interest in laying bare one’s underlying assumptions as well as those of the society is an important new capacity at these two new stages.
Now people come to realize that all objects are human-made constructs, including for instance such abstract constructs as purpose, linear time and the ego. All are based on layers upon layers of symbolic abstraction. Even such an everyday concept as a “bed” is an enormous simplification. No two people’s mental picture of a bed is alike and no two beds in the world are identical. A
if the hypothesis is valid that the ego is valiantly trying to create a coherent narrative about our existence and about the world, a last ditch attempt to create the most comprehensive maps possible would be one expression of this need at the Construct-aware level.
Thus some Construct-aware individuals spend a lifetime creating such theories in order to provide the meta-perspectives or supermaps they feel are going to help themselves and others to better understand the complexity of human affairs. A chief indicator that we deal with such an endeavour is the extreme complexity of such theories. 32
Becoming conscious of the futility of describing reality by ever more complex maps and approximations can lead individuals to suffer greatly as they experience the limits, but have no way to transcend them with the same rational means that have brought them to grasping this state of affairs.
Once human beings realize the fundamental function of the ego to create a sense of permanence and saliency, they may experience their full and inevitable ego-centricity
Final knowledge about the self or anything else is seen as illusive and unattainable through effort and reason because all conscious thought, all cognition is recognized as constructed and, therefore, split off from the underlying, cohesive, non-dual territory.
They observe the habits of mind such as the tendency to endlessly analyze and reflect in order to create ever more accurate theories of life and nature. All of these endeavors can now be understood as partial defenses against knowing the impermanence of the embodied self.
April 18, 2022
Good book based on a study, but in my point of view the % were not relevant.
October 17, 2020
Really enticing. Also gives me some insight to where I am in, what I am lacking of on the stage I am centered at and perhaps what I could do to improve next, whether I would like to take a step further into the unknown realm un-understandable. Suddenly aware of blind spots previously not aware of.
Really recommend to have a read through.
Really recommend to have a read through.
November 1, 2022
I think this is an absolutely essential read. Development should be a prerequisite class in all Universities. It’s my leading edge at Strategist that would have me say so, but many of the problems we currently face are the result of people becoming stuck at Achiever and Individualist without the proper tools to transcends their current stage.
June 26, 2024
Phenomenal book on comprehending how the perspective (or ego) of an individual (mainly adult) consciousness can evolve (potentially) with a relatively down to earth decription and formulation. - Couples well with spiral dynamics.
June 10, 2022
A niche book for psychology passionates. It is a hard to read book, but the information,in the book it's pure gold!
November 2, 2022
This is a book that can be used as a wonderful tool for your own personal self actualization and to gain a deeper understanding of your fellow human beings. I absolutely love it.
September 26, 2025
A demonstration of hierarchical selves of the persona. Changed my way of thinking.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews