The STAGES model defines 12 levels in the maturity of human meaning-making (perspective-taking or ego-maturity). The assessment is a sentence completion inventory, in which one completes a sequence of sentence prompts such as “Sometimes I wish that...” or “A good leader…”  The standard assessment has 36 items, taking about an hour to complete. There are no “correct answers,” and one is encouraged to respond freely and authentically.  You get a personalized report and hour (or more) debrief targeted to deeper self-understanding and psychological vitality. 

The sentence completion inventory has a long history of excellent validation and application studies in the academic literature (see here and here). The STAGES model has 12 levels over 3 “tiers” (Concrete, Subtle, and Metaware), spanning development across the lifespan and into the rare later stages of human development.

The standard assessment contains 36 prompts, taking about an hour to complete. The items draw from many life contexts, which allows the analyst to evaluate how you make meaning from a wide variety of perspectives, and determine a “center of gravity” (or Core Score) representing your predominant mode of meaning making (also called perspective-taking level, or stage of consciousness/awareness).

Though the STAGES model is unique in that it explains the growth of consciousness and ego development in terms of just four foundational parameters, interpreting those parameters to score the inventory is a difficult and time-consuming task. These assessments are much more powerful and generative than other psychological tests based on self-rating or fixed-choice answers.

The assessment package typically includes a 12-20 page written Report containing personalized comments about strengths, challenges, shadows, and self-growth activities; and a one-hour Debriefing session to discuss your results. Clients consistently report feeling deeply seen and inspired by what is revealed in this process. We also offer referrals for ongoing coaching relationships for those who desire ongoing support in their journey of self-development and transformation.

STAGES is the latest evolution in the lineage of scientifically validated ego development assessments (more here). 

• Vs. various self-rated fixed-choice psychometric  instruments it has much stronger validity and reliability.
• Vs. other assessments of cognitive development, the sentence completion test captures key elements of social-emotional wisdom along with perspective-taking complexity, and affords the analyst a deeper view into holistic context and the unconscious.
• Vs. other ego development assessments, STAGES is unique with its (1) deeper underlying model that uses four parameters to explain  development, which allows for (2) more flexibility and variety in the types of assessments we can offer; and (3) makes life-long development more understandable through patterns the repeat across each of the three tiers.
• Finally, we have superior published research on many aspects of the model's validity.

Our approach pays particular attention to the health and breadth of every developmental level we carry within us, and does not focus on a narrow classification into a single developmental category. 

 After purchasing an assessment through STAGES International or one of our certified practitioners, you will receive an email link for taking the inventory, which takes about an hour to complete. Then it will be scored by a certified STAGES Scorer within three weeks.

Standard assessments include an approximately 20-page personalized downloadable PDF report, including:

• a record of your sentence completions answers,
• a complete explanation your score,
• descriptions of your range, leading, and trailing developmental markers,
• personalized analysis of holistic themes: interiors, actions, relationships, and systems orientation;
• recommendations for practices and personal inquiry, and
• orienting information about the STAGES model.

"Specialty inventories" will include analysis and recommendations based on the specialty area (e.g. leadership).

In your assessment debriefing session a certified STAGES Debriefer will explain your report conclusions and answer any questions you may have. They will also provide context for the places you are likely being challenged, your trailing edge and shadow indications, and offer insights on your leading edge, which helps you to place your Assessment inside the larger context of your past, future, and relationships.

Taking an Assessment opens the door to some of our advanced offerings; and the Debriefing sessions can be your first step in ongoing work with a developmentally-informed coach, therapist, or counsellor.

Once you have completed an assessment we recommend ongoing support from a STAGES certified coach, therapist, or counsellor. This support is particularly helpful in working with shadow material, which is difficult to see.

We maintain a network of coaches, mentors, consultants and therapists who use STAGES in their work with clients. All practitioners in this network are Certified through STAGES International, Inc. and we have formal agreements to ensure their use of the STAGES model conforms to high professional and ethical standards. We nourish this network with ongoing training, and we encourage practitioners to share their experience so that we can continually refine STAGES and its applications.

Click here for a list of our certified Practitioner Partners.

In addition to those show above, STAGES International is innovating assessment tools faster than any company in our field. This is possible because our underlying model is more flexible and general. If you are interested in the services below, or other types of assessment customizations,  Contact us for availability.

Research Assessments — For Group and Population Studies 

If you are planning a research study and only need the final Core Score number (category) for each subject, the cost is much less. The project report contains statistical results and charts. Subjects are identified using anonymous IDs. Pricing differs per project.

Short Form — 16 item Assessment

Comes with a limited personalized Report, containing Core Score and Leading Edge. Only offered for group/team Debriefing bundled with courses, workshops, or group coaching.

Computer-scored — For Group and Population Studies Assessments

Our partners at Open Way Solutions LLC, have developed the StageLens artificial intelligence software application for automated scoring of the STAGES assessment text. Results have a larger margin of error so it is not appropriate to give individuals their scores, but rather it is used for group/aggregate scaled-up research assessments, and is a fraction of the cost of human-scored assessments (good for 3.0 - 4.5). For more info go to:  www.StageLens.com or contact [email protected].

Specialty Assessments (BETA)

Specialty assessments have some of the items of the Standard inventory replaced with items specific to a particular domain.  We have validated assessments for the domains of: Leadership, Love, Money, Relationships, Hope, Religion/Spiritual, Education, Climate Change, Aging (with more to be validated soon). These inventories contain a mini-assessment on one’s meaning-making/perspective-taking maturity in a specific domain, as well as an overall Core Score result. The Report is similar to the Standard inventory report, but Debriefing sessions focus on the specialty area.  Short-form Specialty assessments are possible for those who have already taken a 36-item inventory, and are working with a coach or consultant focusing on a specific theme.

Assessments in Languages other than English (BETA)

We are currently prototyping a STAGES assessment for the German and Spanish languages. We plan to expand the process with other languages. Contact us for info.

Link to Assessment Terms & Conditions