'Integrated SocioPsychology' is the term I have coined for developing a highly-practical and integrated approach to the behavioural sciences...

     # Integrated - the aim is to learn how all the elements of the behavioural sciences and the complementary 'hard' sciences' of
     Biology and Neuroscience fit together to explain...
     # Psychology - how and why people behave as they do...
     # Socio - taking into account group dynamics and the influence of culture and the 
     societies people live in

This page and the next provide a basic overview of the integrated approach and how the key models link together. More specific detail on the individual models is available on their linked pages.

Psychology and Sociology are fractured fields of study, with several different (and often competing!) schools of thought and even areas of exploration. The history of the behavioural sciences is littered with disputes both between those competing schools which are accepted academically and also between academia and 'fringe' or 'alternative' approaches such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) .

                                                                    The structure of an integrated approach
Integration is made possible by building the structure of SocioPsychology around the frame of the Don Beck-Ken Wilber 4Q/8L schematic. This looks at motivational systems - what Spiral Dynamics terms 'vMEMES' - influencing individuals (Upper Left), social institutions (Lower Right) and cultural shifts (Lower Left) - with the Upper Right being the biological mechanisms that enable the development of vMEMES in individuals. 4Q/8L enables different approaches to explain different modes of thinking at different levels in different contexts.

Spiral Dynamics, when used to explain the relationships between the different neurological levels, provides a powerful tool for understanding how our motivations shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us and drive our behaviour in it. It gives us a 'scaffolding' onto which virtually every aspect of human motivation can be mapped to some degree or other.

As such, the Spiral Dynamics-Neurological Levels structure provides a platform for integrating all the other elements of the behavioural sciences to do with motivation and forms a key element of 'Integrated SocioPsychology'.

This structure is represented by the graphic below....

Built on the Neurological Levels hierarchy, it shows how vMEMES (N to U in the original coding of the Graves Model, on which Spiral Dynamics is based) underpin Identity and shape Values & Beliefs in relation to the perceived Life Conditions (A to H) in the particular Environment. vMEMES will also acquire pertinent Skills & Knowledge (Capability) to carry out the Behaviour appropriate to the Life Conditions in the Environment. It also brings in the effects of hormones and neurology (Upper Right) and the Environment is effectively split into Culture (Lower Left) and Structure (Lower Right). (Although the intention above is to focus on the Upper Left, the Spiral Dynamics-Neurological Levels structure can be applied across the two Lower Quadrants to analyse organisations - see A Company by Neurological Levels in the Business pages as an example.                                                                  

At what I call the Nominal Level - represented above - people adapt their Identity to the Environment - eg: a 'Manager' at work goes  home to be a 'Lover' to his/her partner and a 'Parent' to their children. At the Deeper Level, - represented below - the vMEME stack may shift to match changing Life Conditions in the Environment. For example, if the partner in the domestic Environment is loving and affectionate, this will most likely stimulate the PURPLE vMEME to prize such Values as love, loyalty and belonging and will shore up the Identity of 'Lover'. However, if the partner in the domestic Environment seeks to dominate, then such  Life Conditions will most likely rouse RED - at the level of Values & Beliefs, either to resist/fight back or to fear, if the dominating partner has the greater power. For many people, such a scenario would undermine their schemas of what loving relationships should be about and could even lead to a shift in Identity.

As Dr Albert Bandura pointed out, however, Behaviour can change the Life Conditions in the Environment, with the changed Environment then consequently bringing about changes in the person - perhaps even needing a different vMEME effect to keep the neurological levels aligned. Bandura called this symbiotic relationship between change in people and change in the Environment Reciprocal Determinism . 

This also applies at a cultural or organisational level - eg: when the way people behave (Left Quadrants) results in changes in the structural environment (Lower Right) which inevitably has effects on how the group (Lower Left) and individuals (Upper Left) feel about themselves. Since we know that the plasticity of the brain (Upper Right) enables it to learn from experience and develop new neural networks or adjust existing ones, environmental feedback from the Lower Quadrants can have a major effect on the brain and bring about vMEMETIC shifts (Upper Left).