G

GABA:

Galvanic Skin Response: a means of measuring the electrical conductivity of the skin which is increased by sweating. When the autonomic nervous system is aroused through stress or strong emotion, an electrode placed on the skin - eg: the wrist or the palm - relays the electrical activity to a machine that responds to electrical signals.

Gamete: reproductive cell - either sperm or egg - in its mature state.

Gender:

Gender Bias:

Gene: a unit of inheritance which forms part of a chromosome. Some genes alone determine certain characteristics; but most characteristics are the result of many genes.

Genome: the total genetic material of an individual organism.

Genotype: someone's raw genetic potential, as conceived from the union of the parents' egg and sperm.

Gestalt Psychology: this approach - 'gestalten' means 'good form' or 'whole shape' - was developed in Germany in the 1910s by Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka & Wolfgang Kohler. Its basic presupposition is that behaviour can really only be understood as a whole, rather than broken down into constituent parts. It has particular application to the way meaning is applied to sensory input to produce perception.

Gestalt Therapy: loosely drawing upon Gestalt Psychology, this form of Humanistic therapy, devised by Fritz Perls, aims to develop a greater awareness of the self and a sense of wholeness.

Glucocorticoids: a group of hormones produced in the adrenal glands which help metabolise protein and carbohydrates when the body is subject to stress.

Graves Coding: before Spiral Dynamics termed the systems he identified 'vMEMES' and colourised them, Clare W Graves originally assigned letter pairs for the symbiotic relationship between the external Life Conditions and the internal coping response and the existential state their match created. Thus:-

• Existential State A-N: Life Condition A matched by internal response N (BEIGE)
• Existential State B-O: Life Condition B matched by internal response O (PURPLE)
• Existential State C-P: Life Condition A matched by internal response P (RED)
• Existential State D-Q: Life Condition D matched by internal response Q (BLUE)
• Existential State E-R: Life Condition E matched by internal response R (ORANGE)
• Existential State F-S: Life Condition F matched by internal response S (GREEN)
• Existential State G-T: Life Condition G matched by internal response T (YELLOW)
• Existential State H-U: Life Condition H matched by internal response U (TURQUOISE)

Some Gravesians prefer to use the original letter pairs, rather than the colours, to emphasise the relationship of the Life Conditions and the internal response and the trauma mismatch - eg: E-Q - can cause.

Graves Model: the model of human motivational systems which Clare W Graves developed from over 30 years of research and on which Spiral Dynamics is based. Once described by MacLeans Magazine in Canada as "the theory which explains everything", it sits at the core of Integrated SocioPsychology.

Gravesian: an element of the Graves Model or a follower of Clare W Graves' work.