Because the Integral Model situates self-flourishing in culture and nature, Integral psychotherapists face a complex task. The self has many components, each nested in cultural and physical systems. Framing the health of clients in these terms is a major advance over partial and piecemeal approaches. But it requires that therapists have an understanding of a wide range of perspectives and techniques. The understanding and assessment of development is one of these key perspectives.*
At DTS we are interested in designing developmental assessments specifically tailored for the needs of integral psychotherapists. We already offer assessments of skills for single lines as well as multidimensional assessments focused on two or more lines. Multidimensional reports include psychographs— developmental profiles that show how development is progressing along multiple lines.
To find out more about what we do, read on.
*Stein, Z., & Heikkienen, K. (2008). On operationalizing aspects of altitude: An introduction to the Lectical™ Assessment System for integral researchers. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice 3(1), 105-138.
Since 1993, our founder, Theo Dawson, has been designing, testing, and working with a developmental assessment system called the Lectical™ Assessment System. The system is based on Harvard Professor Kurt Fischer's Dynamic Skill Scale, and can be used to score the developmental level of any sample of reasoning in any area of knowledge.
The scale we use is composed of 13 levels, covering the entire life-span. Our assessments have been designed to capture the top 5 levels of the scale, which are observed in adolescence and adulthood. Junior high school students primarily reason at levels 9 and 10, high school students usually reason at level 10 in several areas of knowledge, and college graduates or individuals with equivalent knowledge and experience may demonstrate reasoning at level 11 in some areas. A small percentage of adults reason at levels 12 or 13 in one or more disciplines.
Our assessment system reliably distinguishes 4 phases per level. This means we can identify 18 distinct phases in adulthood, each of which has specific implications for performance.
For general information about our assessments, click here.
Our research into the development of reasoning has exposed several more or less distinct knowledge areas, each of which unfolds through a sequence of developmental levels. Interestingly, although it is often desirable for skills in all of these knowledge areas to develop in concert, a substantial body of research shows that this is not always the case. In fact, reasoning skills in different knowledge areas often develop at different rates. For example, a philosophy major may score near to top of our scale on reflective judgment, but perform no better than the average college sophomore on self-understanding.
For this reason, it is necessary to assess development in specific areas of interest. If you want to know how a client reasons about the good, you need an assessment of evaluative reasoning about the good. If you want to know how she is likely to approach knowledge and learning, you need an assessment of reflective judgment. If you want to know how she thinks about herself in various relationships, you need an assessment of self understanding. If you want a profile, you need a multidimensional assessment.
For adolescents (14+) and adults who are interested in exploring their thinking about themselves in important relationships
Our self understanding assessment is primarily informed by our own research on the development of self understanding in adulthood and the research of Blasi, Kegan, Fischer, and Armon, among others.
In this assessment, testees are asked to think about themselves as members of a variety of relationships and people who live and work in particular contexts. They are also asked to think about the difference between their "ideal" and "real" selves. The assessment is composed of a series of essay questions and a set of survey-style questions.
As you know, self-reflection of the kind people engage in when they take this assessment is important for personal growth. Taking the assessment, in itself, can be an important learning experience. Because of this, and because the essays they will write for this assessment are an important personal and clinical record, we will send them to you along with the report.
Contact us if you would like to view sample reports.
For adolescents (14+) and adults who are interested in exploring their thinking about the good life
The LGLA examines how people think about the good. This includes thinking about good relationships, good people, good education, good work, and the good self. Most of what we know about the development of reasoning about the good comes from Cheryl Armon's good life research, Keller and Edelstein's research on good friendship, and our own research on good education and leadership.
This assessment is composed of a series of essay questions that ask testees to show how they think about different aspects of the good life. These are followed by a set of survey-style questions that will help us to understand their level of satisfaction with themselves.
How we think about the good influences many of the choices we make in life, and reflection of the kind people engage in when they take this assessment is important for personal growth. Taking this assessment is likely to be an important learning experience. Because of this, and because the essays people will write for this assessment are an important personal record, we will send them to you along with the report.
Contact us if you would like to view sample reports.
Building on the work of Perry and Kitchener & King, we have designed a general assessment of reflective judgment—the LRJA. This assessment, in which the testee is asked to reason through one of several challenging real-world dilemmas, is composed of a set of essay questions, followed by a short survey. Level of performance on this assessment provides a general sense of how an individual reasons and how he or she is likely to approach information and learning.
In the modern world, continuous learning is essential. There is a substantial research literature on the relation between reflective judgment and learning. This literature shows that individuals whose reflective judgment skills are more developed can learn and use more complex and abstract information. For example, college students with more developed reflective judgment skills are likely to perform better than those with less developed reflective judgment skills.
The LMSA combines the LRJA, LGLA, and LSUA to provide a profile of an individual's developmental progress in three important areas of self knowledge. The figure on the left shows 19 developmental phases (8:4 to 13:2) and one individual's scores on the three topics included in the LMSA.
This individual, an engineering student tested at age 21, has a profile that is common among college students. Attending college has provided many opportunities to advance her reflective judgment, but her reasoning about the good and self understanding look like they've been on the back burner. Unless she begins to focus more attention on these important areas, her personal growth may suffer.
All assessments are scored by Certified Lectical Analysts, who are required to maintain a high standard of accuracy and reliability (85% agreement within 1/4 of a level with a Master Lectical Analyst). It is important to understand that lectical scores are not like grades or percentile scores, which tell you where a student performs relative to other students. Lectical scores are more like positions on a ruler or thermometer. Each level and phase is defined in terms of the reasoning tasks someone performing at that level can accomplish. This ruler-like quality is unprecedented in assessment. It makes it possible for us not only to provide a score, but to tell you what that score means for an individual's learning. It means that we can tell you what each person who takes one of our assessments needs to learn next to make optimal developmental progress.
| All reports include: | |
| 1. | a lectical score, with an explanation of its general meaning, |
| 2. | information about the meaning of the score relative to the testee's management level, and |
| 3. | learning recommendations. |
If you are interested our assessments, would like to follow up on a special offer, or would like more information, please call 413-303-1484 between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM EST or email us anytime.
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