STAGES Roadmap
Download the STAGES Roadmap for a summary of the STAGES model, complete with illustrations.
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O'Fallon, T., Polissar, N., Neradilek, M. B., & Murray, T. (2020), Heliyon, 6(3).
Journal paper with validity study showing agreement with prior ego development assessments for stages 3.0 to 4.5.
Summary of STAGES Validation Research
Murray, T. & O’Fallon, T. (2020), Integral Review journal 16(1).
A summary of studies on: internal consistency, inter-rater-reliability, longitudinal studies, specialty inventories, late stage patterns, vocabulary analysis, Ogive method and Rasch analysis, dissertations and applications using STAGES. [15 min video summary.]
STAGES Child Research: Preliminary Report
O’Fallon, T. (2020), Integral Review journal 16(1).
Preliminary report on how 53 grade school children responded to the sentence completion test.
The STAGES Specialty Inventories: Robustness to Variations in Sentence Stems
Terri O’Fallon & Tom Murray. Integral Review journal 16(1).
Validity analysis of STAGES assessment variations in specialty stems and length.
Find other research results and application reports in the Integral Review Special Issue on the STAGES model.
States and STAGES: Waking up Developmentally
O’Fallon, T. (2020), Integral Review journal 16(1).
Traces the history of theorizing about the relationship between states and stages through evolutionary and developmental lenses.
Murray, T. (2017), Integral Leadership Review, August, 2017.
An overview of the lineage of ego development assessments (the sentence completion test) and their validity studies.
Collective intelligence as a causal ground
O’Fallon T., Ramirez, V., & Fitch, G. (2014), Spanda Journal V(2).
Explores collective intelligence as it emerges in concrete, subtle, and causal bands of developmental awareness.
Development and consciousness: Growing up is waking up
O’Fallon, T. (2012), . Spanda Journal, , III(1), 97-103.
This is Terri’s first major publication outlying the STAGES model in detail.
Seven Perspectives on the STAGES Developmental Model
Barta, K. (2020), Integral Review journal, 16(1).
With an overview of the STAGES model and sections on applications of the model to: psychological factors, shadow patterns, typologies, parenting, love, and organizational shadow.
Developmental experiments in individual and collective movement to second tier
O’Fallon, T. (2010), Journal of Integral Theory and Practice 5(2).
Describes a study of 30 people in the GTC program over 2 years, cataloging individual and group developmental changes. Findings indicate that individuals grew one stage or more and groups grew one stage.
The Senses: Demystifying Awakening
O’Fallon T. (2013), Presented at the Integral Theory Conference, July, 2013.
Uses the STAGES model to describe how the senses form the basis of development, and evolve from concrete to subtle to causal capacities, explaining (demystifying) some beliefs about spiritual awakening.
Development and Consciousness: Growing Up is Waking Up
O’Fallon, T. (2012), Spanda Journal 3(1).
An beginning explanation of the relationship between states, stages, state-stages, and developmental levels.
STAGES for Educators-Waking Up and Growing Up
O’ Fallon, T. & Lynam, A. (2017), Available at https://www.pacificintegral.com/articles.
This article delves into the patterns that appear in adult development and how awareness of such patterns helps educators to better understand students and their students’ developmental needs.
Causal Leadership: A Natural Emergence from Later Stages of Awareness
Ramirez, V., Fitch, G. & O’Fallon, T. (2013), Presented at Integral Theory Conference, July 2013. Available at https://www.pacificintegral.com/articles.
Causal Leadership is a way of being. It arises naturally, as a creative spark, from and through spacious awareness, aligning multiple visions, delivering creative resolution to “unsolvable” problems, and providing spontaneous intuitive direction beyond imagination.
A Response to Critiques of the STAGES Developmental Model
O'Fallon, T., Murray, T., Fitch, G., Kesler, J. & Barta, K (2017), Integral Leadership Review,.
A hearty response to some misunderstandings and misconceptions about the STAGES model by our honored colleagues.
Deconstructing Developmental Constructs: A Conversation
Jordan, T. & Murray, T. (2021), Integral Review journal, 16(1).
Thomas Jordan and Tom Murray in dialogue about the pros and cons of having a wide-net developmental construct such as ego development, vs. breaking it up into smaller psychological constructs.
A Response to "An Examination of the STAGES Scoring System"
Murray. T. (2023), Integral Review journal 18(1).
Tom Murray’s response to Kristian Merckoll’s critique about the statistical methods and validity of the results in our paper “The validation of a new scoring method for assessing ego development based on three dimensions of language.”
Dissertation and Thesis Work using STAGES
Farrow, L. (2022). Servant Leadership Maturity and Motivation Across Age Cohorts (Doctoral dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology). LINK
Oluwafunmilayo A. (2021). Influence of Adult Developmental Stages on Leader-Member Exchange Model of Leadership William James College ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2021. 28496323. LINK
Mantler, N. (2020). Women’s Authentic Leadership Development (WALD). Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary & Transcultural Journal for New Thought, Research, & Praxis, 16(1). (Based on a PhD thesis) LINK
Churchill, J., & Murray, T. (2020). Integrating Adult Developmental and Metacognitive Theory with Indo-Tibetan Contemplative Essence Psychology. Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary & Transcultural Journal for New Thought, Research, & Praxis, 16(1). (Based on Churchill's PhD thesis.) LINK
Miller, J. P. (2020). Finding truth within: Exploring the importance of reflective practice in deepening self-knowledge. Integral Review, 16(1), 357-390. (Based on Masters thesis) LINK
Buckley, L. L. (2021). Making Meaning of Loss and Limitation Through Hope: A Developmental Stage Perspective. PhD thesis at Fielding Graduate University. LINK. And see "Hope Examined Through a Developmental Stage Perspective," Integral Review, 16(1), 385-386.
Reynolds, E. M. (2019). Next-Stage Organizations: A Transdisciplinary Case Study. PhD from Saybrook University. LINK
Attebery, J. (2017). Regenerating Soil, Soul, and Society: Garden-based Sustainability Pedagogy for Incarcerated Adult Learners (Doctoral dissertation). LINK
Parker, J. (2022). Assessing the Vertical Development of Organizations. PhD from Fielding Graduate University. LINK
Hurst, R. N. (2020). Emerging Characteristics of Median Stage Ego Development: When Does Self-Initiated Reflection Begin? (Doctoral dissertation, Fielding Graduate University). LINK
Braks, A. (2020). Transformational Executive Coaching: The Dimensions, Dynamics, and Dilemmas that Expedite Later Stage Postconventional Leadership Development from Achiever to Strategist. Base on completed PhD research. See "From Vanilla to Vertical Coaching: The Powerful Shift from Developmental to Transformative Coaching to Realise Later Stages in Vertical Leadership Development" LINK; and "Leadership coaching leads to later stage development." Integral Review, 16(1), 332-356. LINK
Schneider, J. A. (2022). Making Meaning of the Meaning in Our Lives: Exploratory Study of Relationship Between Adults’ Psychosocial Maturity and Personal Meaning-In-Life. Fielding Graduate University. LINK
Academic Research using STAGES
Lynam, A. (2020). Principles and Practices for Developmentally Aware Teaching and Mentoring in Higher Education. Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary & Transcultural Journal for New Thought, Research, & Praxis, 16(1). LINK
Hochachka, G., Kozak, R., Santo, A., Naito, R. & Murray, T. (in submission). What shapes climate perceptions: The influence of worldviews, action-logics, and populism.
Thakur, A., Hilbert, M. & Murray, T. (2025). "Does LLMs Ego Develop? Understanding the Developmental Maturity of Large Language Models,” presented at IC2S 2025—11th International Conference on Computational Social Science, July, 2025, Norrkoping, Sweden.
Hilbert, M. (2025). A Constructive Developmental Evaluation of AGI: Can AI’s Simulations Match Human Meaning-Making and their Orders of Consciousness? Presented at AGI-2025 (Artificial General Intelligence), August, 2025. LINK
Hilbert, M., Thakur, A., Repetto, A. (2023). Digital Immunity: consciousness as antidote to digital harms. Presented at Society for Consciousness Studies SCS2022. LINK.
Hilbert, M. and Thakur, A. and Repetto, A. (2022), First Results of 'Digital Immunity Study' . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4228106 or LINK
Bronlet, X. (2025). Leveraging on large language model to classify sentences: a case study applying STAGES scoring methodology for sentence completion test on ego development. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1488102. LINK
