Constructive-Developmental Continuum

Kegan has identified six orders of mind, beginning at birth with a sort of zero order for infants and culminating with a largely theoretical fifth stage that unfolds, if it unfolds at all, never before mid-life, and often only in advanced age (Kegan, 2003). There are 21 equilibrative structures “that set terms with what is self and what is other, what is subject and what is object” (Kegan, Noam, & Rogers, 1982). While there are periods of relative stasis, what Kegan refers to as the “evolutionary truce,” when a balance is struck between what is object and what is subject, the “motion” of development is, at least potentially, continuous and ongoing. What follows is a brief description of the third, fourth, and fifth stages or orders of mind, and an overview of the transition between stages, without the lengthy discussion that would be required to discriminate among the 21 equilibria or discriminations.

Stage 3: The Interpersonal Balance or Socializing Mind

Once the young person arrives fully at stage three, an achievement attained at some point from mid-adolescence on, he notices that he no longer is subject to his needs. Rather than being run by them, he now takes control and manages them in a way that makes it possible, for the first time, to talk about feelings now as feelings rather than as social negotiations. In the context of interpersonal relations, he is now able to consider the needs of another, and sublimate his own needs in order to preserve or enhance his relationships or place within the larger community; a capacity he lacked in the earlier Imperial Balance (Berger, 2010). For any parent who has survived raising a teenager, this is a splendid accomplishment worth celebrating! The self is now defined by an abstract sense of identity and his sense of self is constituted by the opinions and expectations of others (Lahey et al., 2011). Though he is capable of empathy, he tends to blame others for his own feelings and feel responsible for the feelings of others. He has difficulty tolerating ambiguity and requires a clear sense of what others want from him. He relies on external authority for his standards and beliefs and experiences criticism as destructive to the self. His morality is grounded in the expectation that he will do for others what he hopes and expects others to do for him (Kegan, 1982, 1994).

Transition from 3 to 4. This transition is not seen until late adolescence or adulthood, and is marked by a “form of psychological independence or internal authority typically referred to as autonomy or identity formation” (Kegan et al., 1982). The tension during this transitional phase is constituted by her desire, on the one hand, to formulate her identity in light of the expectations of others, and by her emerging wish, on the other hand, to define her identity quite apart from what others think is best.

Stage 4: The Institutional Balance or Self-Authoring Mind

On the heels of a shift from “I am my relationships,” or embeddedness within the interpersonal, to “I have my relationships,” whereby the interpersonal is now related to as object, comes the capacity for authoring one’s own identity. “This authority, sense of self, self-dependence, or self-ownership is the hallmark of a new psychologic” (Kegan et al., 1982). Once firmly planted in this evolutionary truce, the stage four person is able to differentiate between what is self and what is other, and no longer holds others responsible for her feelings. She is the architect of her own inner life, and as such, bears responsibility for the emotions that architecture generates. She is tolerant of ambiguity, and is able to hold internal debates about disparate points of view. She evaluates her own work and sets the standards by which she is judged. Personal integrity is more important than meeting the expectations of others. She is open to criticism, recognizing that the points of view of others can enrich her own. Differences in others are understood as the way things are and embraced as opportunities for growth. Her moral code recognizes the vast variety of standards and values, and enables her to show respect for differing points of view.

With 58% of adults not constructing the world as complexly as the fourth stage, or the Institutional Balance (Kegan, 2003, p. 40), it nearly goes without saying that the fifth order of consciousness, or Interindividual Balance, is mostly theoretical. (Kegan, 2003, p. 42).

Stage 5: The Interindividual Balance or Self-Transforming Mind

The psychologic that emerges in stage 5 is characterized by a radical reorientation to one’s own institution. Whereas, in the fourth order, the person’s institution, ideology, or belief system was subject, in the fifth order it is now object. Consequently, one no longer is one’s career, one has a career. Additionally, the self is no longer subject to cultural or societal norms, but is now able to reflect and act upon them, since the self is no longer invested in any one system or ideology. It follows that the person at the fifth order of consciousness is now able to look beyond her own and others’ systems of belief in order to identify patterns and similarities. Other aspects of the fifth order mind include: a) her orientation to the tension between poles rather than to one pole or the other; b) her sense that her internal conflict is not only to be tolerated, but to be welcomed and embraced, as it has lessons about her own functioning; c) her belief that she is incomplete, partial, in process, never finished, and as such is always open to the ideas of others; d) she focuses now on her own growth and development rather than on the pursuit of her own ambitions and achievements, and finally; e) she claims citizenship in the broad community of persons, understanding her own clan as just a smaller part of a much larger whole.