The idea that development is a “transcend and include” process is a partial-truth that results in significant collective shadow in the integral diaspora—specifically it supports an ascending bias and subtle arrogance in narratives about adult development.  We will see how human development, i.e. all learning, necessarily involves a transcend and *exclude* process. That is, all new mental structures create some degree of shadow or “occlusion,” which later calls to be released, healed, or deconstructed through “descending” processes.  Theories of ego development and spiritual growth must include both ascending processes of complexity-creating vertical development and descending processes of complexity release and un-learning. The Wisdom Skill model, which shows how ascending and descending modes of maturation relate and intertwine, untangles several conundrums and apparent paradoxes in developmental theories.

STAGES is a relatively new developmental model created by Terri O’Fallon, which extends Loevinger’s ego development model and assessment framework. It adds additional stage levels and includes theory of four foundational parameters underpinning all stage transitions, which was inspired by Wilber’s quadrant model.  In this presentation we will summarize a number of research studies of, and based upon, on the STAGES model that illustrate the models validity and usefulness. These studies include: a validation study showing that STAGES replicates Cook-Greuter’s model in the Subtle Tier; a Rasch analysis and longitudinal analysis showing the psychometric strength of the assessment; a validation study showing inter-rater consistency over the entire range of levels; studies indicating the validity of using alternative sentence stems; and an analysis and critique of the Ogive cutoff model used in most sentence completions tests.