'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 think and 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, Sociology and Anthropology 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 (Structural Functionalism in the Lower Right) and cultural shifts (Symbolic Interactionism in the 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.

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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.

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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 neural 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).

                                                                                                   Motivation and Temperament

The Graves Model and its Spiral Dynamics build provide the most accurate and comprehensive model of how motivational systems develop in people - individually (Upper Left) and collectively (Lower Left); but is that development influenced by such factors as intelligence and temperament (rooted in the Upper Right)? Graves certainly thought it likely but couldn't get sufficient evidence to present a comprehensive-enough case to be completely convincing.

In truth, it is an area generally under-researched; but, in large part, by using the DISC Model of William Moulton Marston (which maps both motivational and temperamental factors into its behavioural traits), I have identified what appears to be an association between the core 1st Tier vMEMES and the 4 temperamental types produced by the intersection of 2 of the natural Dimensions of Temperament - Extraversion and Neuroticism - mapped by Dr Hans J Eysenck. (In fact Eysenck long ago had some evidence of association between temperament and motivation - principally that extraverts were significantly less conformist than introverts.)

As depicted in the graphic below, a person with a Phlegmatic personality is more likely to be comfortable with PURPLE driving their thinking than another vMEME, similarly a Choleric personality lends itself to RED thinking while Melancholic facilitates BLUE thinking. There does appear to be an association between a Sanguine type and ORANGE driving the thinking; but the association seems much weaker than with the other vMEME-temperamental type matches.

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The Intraversion-Extraversion axis appears to have some bearing on whether someone ascends the Spiral with a preference for one side of the other. Introverts are more likely to favour the conformist/sacrifice-self (cool colours) side of the Spiral while an extravert is more likely to lean towards the express-self side (warm colours).

The intensity with which someone experiences a preference for one side or the other also seems to be influenced by Eysenck's third Dimension, Psychoticism, which he considered to be powered by the male sex hormone, testosterone. If the warm-coloured side of the Spiral can be considered 'masculine', and the cool-coloured side 'feminine', then those high in Psychoticism will tend to the masculine and those low in Psychoticism will favour the feminine side of the Spiral. This would fit in with the famous query of Carl Gustav Jung as to just how much an individual is able to access their animus (male side) and anima (female side).

While Marston's Dominant (Choleric/RED), Submission (Phlegmatic/ PURPLE), Compliance (Melancholic/BLUE) and even Influence (Sanguine/ORANGE) behavioural types have held up pretty well through some 80 years of assessment, there does seem some element of predetermindation that a certain personality type will more likely be dominated by a certain vMEME. There is plenty of annecdotal evidence of clearly-defined personality types being led by different vMEMES in different circumstances. However, when temperametal type and vMEME do lock together - often referred to as a centre of gravity - it produces ways of thinking which are closed (in Spiral Dynamics 'speak') and are extremely difficult to shift.

For all this, temperament and motivation do not always sit that well together. Consider the teenage student whose RED craves esteem and respect but whose Psychoticist impulsiveness leads to breaking of the classroom rules and, therefore, punishment.

                                                                The Selfplex
The selfplex is Dr Susan Blackmore's term for the cognitive awareness of self we call 'I'. It is our sense of who we are - and it is effectively a confluence of schemas (or biologically-embedded concepts).

The selfplex can be considered to sit on top of the basic set of natural temperamental dispositions Eysenck mapped.(Depending on one's philosophy or religion, there may or may not be a 'spiritual self' at the core of this construct!)

From the work of Dr Ralph Allison and others on Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), it is clear that the strength and well-being of the selfplex is critical in containing the forces of the vMEMES which are all too often in conflict with each other. It would appear that, if they get too out of hand, then vMEMES can contribute significantly to the development of DID or even MPD.
 

Effectively the selfplex moderates the interaction of our vMEMES with the memes of the outside world as those memes are perceived through our existing schemas (values, beliefs, attitudes, memories, etc). This is depicted in the NLP Communication Model.

The NLP Communication Model also shows the importance of meta-programmes in processing behaviour out and in, in light of these many elements.

While some of our meta-programme preferences are more reflective of temperamental dispositions, most are shaped by the ebbing and flowing of vMEMES in our psyche - as is the assimilation, accommodation or rejection of memes external to ourselves. Assimilated and accommodated memes then influence the internal schemas upon which we operate. Our schemas influence how we work through the elements of the Cognitive Triad to develop meta-states. High-level meta-states provide governing frames of reference - eg: "I'm not attractive to the opposite sex" - which influence all our dealings in that context. Thus, the criticality of the embedded schemas of Values & Beliefs we have about ourselves and our interactions with the world around us.

All of these processes are influenced by the dominant vMEMES in our psyche, and, at least until we reach 2nd Tier thinking, the temperamental Dimensions of Neuroticism and Psychoticism.

                                                                                          A Call to Practitioners and Researchers
This page has outlined in very basic terms the core of Integrated SocioPsychology. As yet, the integrated approach is very much in its infancy. To develop, it needs the contributions of practitioners - especially mapping exercises and detailing case studies - and it needs hard research. University Psychology and Sociology departments and others involved in research need to test the linkages and suggestions made on this site for reliability, variance and validity - and to extend them!

One purpose of these pages is to call for such contributions and research. I am interested not only in hearing from those who also favour the integrated approach but also in soliciting 'guest features' - articles, case studies, etc - for this site. If you think you can help develop the ideas on these pages, then please do get in contact....

Click here to learn about my Integrated SocioPsychology ‘open’ workshop programmes.

Integrated SocioPsychology Resources

'Towards an Integral Vision: Using NLP and Ken Wilber's AQAL Model to Enhance Communication' - Peter McNab (Trafford, 2005)

‘Knowing Me, Knowing You: an Integrated SocioPsychology Guide to Personal Fulfilment & Better Relationships' - Keith E Rice (Trafford, 2006)

Integral Strategies
Matthew Kalman's site dedicated to the works of the likes of Ken Wilber and Don Beck