Saturday, August 07, 2010

Developmental Lines and the Integral Psychograph

I'm introducing basic Integral Theory in The Integral Warrior workshop, and in it, we're doing an Integral Psychograph. The Integral Psychograph looks at an individual's "Lines of Development," one of the Five Aspects in the Integral Model. The others are the four quadrants, types, stages, and states. These are different kinds, or types, of intelligences. There is no one measurement of intelligence...rather, we are made up of many different kinds of "intelligences." The ones we're most concerned with for an Integral Psychograph are:
1. Cognitive: thinking clearly and rationally, reasoning capabilities, solving...able to sort things out, make plans, see multiple perspectives. The cognitive sets the stage for all of the other intelligences.
2. Interpersonal; Interaction with others. People who are highly developed here tend to be extroverts. seen in how we notice distinction among others; in particular, contrasts in their moods, temperaments motivations and intentions.
3. Psychosexual: development of the individual's sexuality as affected by biological, cultural, and emotional influences from prenatal life onward throughout life.
4. Emotional: four types of abilities: Perceiving, using, understanding, and managing. (link) describes the ability, capacity, skill to identify, assess, manage and control the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups.
5. Moral/ethical/values: the capacity to understand right from wrong; it means to have strong ethical convictions and to act on them so that one behaves in the right and honorable way
6. Kinesthetic or physical: control of one's bodily motions and capacity to handle objects skillfully; are generally good at physical activities such as sports or dance. They may enjoy acting or performing, and in general they are good at building and making things.
7. Aesthetic/artistic: may be music, art, writing, love of beauty. the ability to produce, express, communicate and appreciate in a compelling way inner, spiritual, natural and cultural realities and meanings. (This can include aspects of verbal, musical and spatial intelligences.
8. Spiritual: Sometimes called the ultimate intelligence and the guide for all the other intelligences, It is the soul's intelligence, the intelligence of the deep self. It is the intelligence with which we ask fundamental questions and with which we reframe our answers. 
9. Empathy/compassion: Those with high empathetic intelligence do well at commiserating, ‘reading’ others, making themselves ‘likable’ as well as persuading and manipulating.  The emotionally intelligent know what reactions their own actions will produce in others before they act.

These are but a few of the "lines of development," one of the 5 aspects of the integral model. So why are these important in our development? I believe that to be fully evolving, we need not only to feel and have state, or temporary experiences, but that knowing how we evolve aids us in our rapid transition to later stages (permanent structures) of consciousness, and that knowing this allows us to consciously participate in our own evolution. To do this fully, we must consider all five of the aspects of the Integral model.


So we do the cognitive work which prepares us for a deeper understanding of the experiential elements (like meditation, journeying or Shamanic Breathwork) which, together, help us shift by allowing us to interpret these altered-state experiences from the highest perspective possible.


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