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I have an irrational dislike of stage models, but this is a pretty helpful distinction!

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Dec 12, 2019

Ha. :) My dislike is mostly pragmatic, sort of more about how they are often misappropriated into something like a credentials program. Which, y'know, they aren't.

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Can you say more about stage theories being misappropriated into a credentials program? Where does this happen / who does it / in what context? Not sure I know of examples (apart from a single highly peculiar one in Kegan’s most recent book)

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I meant I've had many interactions with practitioners who had very rigid-but-wrong interpretations of stage-based models, that they used to pigeon-hole experiences. 'Irrational' since people also get fossilized without recourse to well-defined models, which is often much worse.

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Ah, that sounds bad… practitioners of what?

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There were many. Most were Buddhists of the Theravadan and Mahayanan dispositions, when they weren't syncretic dabblers like myself. But I've had similar experiences with yogis and new agers among others.

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Ah, ah, I see… this is stage models in general (and particularly in Buddhism) rather than the stage models found in academic adult developmental psychology. Those certainly *could* be misused badly, but it seems to be rare.

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I’ve often said that it’s important not to take the adult-dev stage model too concretely, but only as a heuristic way-of-looking… I sometimes wonder whether I should emphasize that more

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Cinder

@Triquetrea

Somewhat agree, somewhat not. Cognitive shorthands can be great, when well-understood. A poorly-apprehended model can turn them into something more like cognitive short-circuits, and frequently do. Most of the terms of craft in wide circulation are misapplied, in my experience.

8:50 PM · Dec 12, 2019Twitter Web App

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Hm, no, this formulation is too cynical on a second reading... I agree with your point, and am rather more apprehensive about ill-disciplined usage - which I experience to be the norm in most contexts. Which is probably neither here nor there for the point you're making.