Form

Perspective-taking

Authority/Demands of Society

Self-Sovereign

Adolescent/
War Lord

Red

Concrete understanding. The only perspective a person can take is his own. All other people are mysterious; helpers or barriers on the road to getting your desires. There is only the present. 

Authority is in arbitrary rules and regulations made by those in power to benefit themselves. Follow the rules while others are looking; get past them when you can. Friends don’t lie to each other because of a fear of retaliation.

Socialized

Traditional

Blue

A person becomes embedded in the perspectives of other people/theories, etc. Socialized minds see the world through other perspectives, judging right and wrong, good and bad, from the perspectives of others more worthy to determine truth. Truth holds over time and discontinuity is confusing.  The past leads to the future, so sacrifice now for future gains.

Authority is in an internalized value/principle/role which comes from outside oneself. When those important external principles conflict, one feels an internal tearing, as though parts of himself were pitted against one another.  Socialized are loyalty to the group and have the ability to put the needs of the group before needs of the self. 

Self-Authored

Modern Achiever

Orange

A person can take multiple perspectives while maintaining his own. He can understand the views and opinions of others and often uses those to modify and strengthen his own argument or set of principles.   People own their own ideas and work, become self-motivated, make their own decisions. Competence and expertise are valued.

Authority is found in the self. The individual determines rules and regulations for himself. When others disagree, it can be inconvenient or unpleasant, but is not internally wrenching. Because they don’t have leaders whom they blindly trust, Modern people  must find other ways of knowing how to raise their children, do their jobs, and be citizens in the world.

Self-

Transforming

Post-Modern

Green

A person sees and understands the perspectives of others and uses those  to continuously transform his own system, becoming more expansive and more inclusive. He does not fine-tune his own argument or principles; he puts the entire system at risk for change with each interaction with others.  Subjectivity is the way of life, and objective Facts simply privilege one way of life over another.

Authority is fluid and shared, and is not located in any particular person or job. Rather, authority comes from the combination of the situation and the people in the situation. A new situation (or different players) will need a shift in where authority is located. An awareness that we all belong to greater systems which are all tied to one another and to this planet in important ways drives interactions.