Journal of Integral Theory and Practice 2010—Vol. 5, No. 2

Table of contents :
EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE
GUEST EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
In This Issue
References
Artwork
INTEGRALLY RESEARCHING INTEGRAL RESEARCH: Enactive Perspectives on the Future of the Field
Integral Research and the Need for Integrated Knowledge
Critical Reflectivity and the Evolution of Integral Research
Methodology
Data-Reflection # 1: Defining Integral Research
Limitations of the Current Definition of Integral Research
A Spectral Definition of Integral Research
Level One
Level Two
Level Three
Level Four
Data-Reflection #2: The Phases of Integral Research
Research Design
Data Analysis (Coding)
Epistemic Reflexivity
Issues of Validity and Meta-validity
Conclusion
Appendix A: Reflexive Inquiry in Coding
Notes
References
TOWARD AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO STANDARDIZED TESTING: Using the Integral Model to Improve Test Performance and Evaluate Current Testing Methodologies
Current Perspectives on Standardized Testing
A Brief History of the Kaplan Method
A Systematic Approach
Individual Dimensions
The Interior Domain
The Exterior Domain
Collective Dimensions
Conclusion
Notes
References
AN INTEGRAL INQUIRY INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADDICTION AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
First-person Methodologies
Phenomenological Method and Research Design
Phenomenological Research Data
Discussion
Structural Method and Research Design
Structural Research Data
Discussion
Second-person Methodologies
Hermeneutic Method and Research Design
Hermeneutic Research Data
Discussion
Ethnomethodological Method and Research Design
Ethnomethodological Research Data
Discussion
Third-Person Methodologies
Empirical Analysis Method and Research Design
Empirical Analysis Research Data
Discussion
Systems Analysis Methodology and Research Design
Systems Analysis Research Data
Discussion
Conclusion
Notes
References
MUSIC AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: Flows and Peaks
First-person Research
Phenomenological Research Method and Design
Interpersonal Theme
Personal Theme
External Theme
Discussion
Structural Research Method and Design
Structural Data
Journal Data
Discussion
Second-person Research
Hermeneutic Research Method and Design
Tools Theme
Personal Qualities Theme
Practices Theme
Essence Theme
Utility Theme
Extraneous Variables Theme
Discussion
Participant-Observer Research Method and Design
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Discussion
Third-person Research
Empirical Research Method and Design
Empirical Data
Discussion
Systems Research Method and Design
Systems Data
Discussion
Conclusion
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
References
AN INTEGRAL EXPLORATION OF LEADERSHIP
First-person Approach
Zone 2: Structural Analysis Method
Level of Ego Development and the SCTi
Kolbe A Index
Validity
Discussion
Second-person Approach
Zone 3: Hermeneutic Method
Interview with Ramon Corrales
Discussion
Third-person Approach
Zone 6: Empirical Analysis Method
Data Analysis
Discussion
Conclusion
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Notes
References
PRESS PLAY TO GROW! Designing Video Games as "Trojan Horses" to Catalyze and Integrate Human Development
Video Games as Storytelling Media for the 21st Century
Potential “Dignities and Disasters” of Video Games
Primary Research Question
Article Overview
Integral Methodological Pluralism and Video Games
Influence of Video Games in Culture and Society
Video Games as Conveyor Belts of Human Development
Games as “Trojan Horses” for Catalyzing and Integrating Human Development
Video Games as the Ultimate Art Form?
Video Games Reintegrating “the Big Three”
A Bird’s Eye View on Human-Machine Interfaces: Integrating Spirit and Matter
The Interfaces Between Human Development and Video Games
Game Developers Conference
Learning and Education through Video Games
Educational Categories of Video Games
The INDENTRO Framework
Developmental Cross-Training: The Integral Life Practice Framework
Developmental Play: The Integral Play Framework
Conclusion
Appendix A
Notes
References
DEVELOPMENTAL EXPERIMENTS IN INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE MOVEMENT TO SECOND TIER
History: The Evolving Program and Research Approach
Third-person Research
Methodology
Participants
Results
First- and Second-person Inquiry and Meaning Making
Emerging Research
Appendix A
Notes
References
INTEGRAL RESEARCH: Book Review

Citation preview

JOURNAL of INTEGRAL THEORY and PRACTICE

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice is published quarterly by: Integral Institute 363 Centennial Parkway, Ste. 150 Louisville, CO 80027 United States of America Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP) is the official source for material related to Integral Theory and its application. The journal publishes peer-reviewed articles, case studies, integral research, critical dialogues, book reviews, and conference reports. JITP embraces a post-metaphysical and post-disciplinary perspective that is dedicated to articulating the ways ontology, epistemology, and methodology interact and co-arise across various scales of time and space. Authors emphasize the perspectival nature of reality, which emerges as first-, second-, and third-person perspectives interact with each other to enact phenomena. JITP is indexed by EBSCO (Humanities International Complete) and Ulrich’s.

www.integralinstitute.org Integral Institute provides research and leadership for humanity’s most pressing problems. Through education and events that foster intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social self-awareness, the Institute aims to help leaders from all arenas to improve the human condition. Among the primary goals of the Institute is research of complex, global issues facing humanity in the 21st century. Climate change, evolutionary forms of capitalism, and cultural conflict in political, scientific, or religious domains are examples of problems to which the Institute hopes to bring new clarity.

www.sunypress.edu An acclaimed international publisher of research and works of general interest since 1966, SUNY Press offers a range of publications to fulfill the evolving needs of scholars, students, authors, and readers. SUNY Press sponsors nationally recog-

nized and rapidly growing lists of scholarly publications in the areas of philosophy, religion, Asian studies, transpersonal psychology, integral studies, women’s studies, queer studies, African-American studies, Jewish studies, and indigenous studies. In addition to scholarly books, the Press also makes available works for all readers through its Excelsior Editions trade imprint.

©2010, Integral Institute No part of any article may be reproduced in any form without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism and discussion. The opinions expressed in articles, reviews, and other text material are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editors, editorial board, or publisher. The editors and publisher deny any responsibility or liability for statements and opinions expressed by the authors. Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the authors. ISSN: 1944-4083 (print) ISSN: 1944-5091 (electronic)

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Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief

Ken Wilber

Guest Editor

Nicholas Hedlund

Executive Editor

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens

Chief Executive Officer

Robb Smith

Managing Editor

Lynwood Lord

Graphic Designers

Angie Hinickle Brad Reynolds

BOARD OF EDITORS John Astin, Ph.D. Medicine California Pacific Medical Center

Thomas Goddard, J.D., Ph.D. Healthcare George Mason University

Kevin Bowman, Ph.D. Economics Augsburg College

Gail Hochachka, M.A. International Development Drishti–Centre for Integral Action

Allan Combs, Ph.D. Transformative Studies California Institute of Integral Studies

Joanne Hunt Coaching Integral Coaching Canada, Inc.

Susanne Cook-Greuter, Ed.D. Psychology Harthill USA John Dupuy, M.A. Recovery Integral Recovery, LLC Brian Eddy, Ph.D. Ecosystems Science Natural Resources Canada

Elliott Ingersoll, Ph.D. Psychotherapy Cleveland State University Heather Larkin, Ph.D. Social Service Catholic University of America Andre Marquis, Ph.D., LPC Psychotherapy University of Rochester

Lynne Feldman, Esq. Education New York Integral, Inc.

Randy Martin, Ph.D. Criminology Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Mark Fischler, J.D. Law Plymouth State University

Cynthia McEwen, MBA, M.A. Sustainability Avastone Consulting

John Forman, OblSB Christian Ministry Mt. Angel Abbey

Bert Parlee, Ph.D. Psychotherapy John F. Kennedy University

Marc Gafni, Ph.D. Spirituality Integral Life Spiritual Center

Terry Patten, M.A. Practice Integral Institute

Jennifer Gidley, Ph.D. Psychology, Education, Futures RMIT University

Gerald Porter, Ph.D. Education State University of New York

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Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

John Records, J.D. Social Service Committee on the Shelterless Michael Schwartz, Ph.D. Art Augusta State University Simon Senzon, M.A., D.C. Subtle Energies John F. Kennedy University Elizabeth Smith, DSW Social Service Catholic University of America Paul van Schaik Sustainability iSchaik Development Associates Joseph Voros, Ph.D. Science Swinburne University Roger Walsh, Ph.D., M.D. Psychiatry University of California, Irvine Gregory Wilpert, Ph.D. Politics Fulbright Scholar, Venezuela David Zeitler, M.A. Psychotherapy John F. Kennedy University Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D. Ecology University of Colorado, Boulder

Journal of

INTEGRAL THEORY and PRACTICE A Postdisciplinary Discourse for Global Action

Volume 5 • Number 2 • June 2010

EDITORIAL v

Executive Editor’s Note Sean Esbjörn-Hargens

vii

Guest Editor’s Introduction Nicholas Hedlund

ARTICLES 1

Integrally Researching Integral Research: Enactive Perspectives on the Future of the Field Nicholas Hedlund

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Toward an Integral Approach to Standardized Testing: Using the Integral Model to Improve Test Performance and Evaluate Current Testing Methodologies Brooks Suttle

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An Integral Inquiry into the Relationship Between Addiction and Emotional Intelligence Kathleen Grillo

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Music and Personal Experience: Flows and Peaks Matthew Collins

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An Integral Exploration of Leadership Travis Tasset

117

Press Play to Grow! Designing Video Games as “Trojan Horses” to Catalyze and Integrate Human Development Moses Silbiger

149

Developmental Experiments in Individual and Collective Movement to Second Tier Terri O’Fallon

BOOK REVIEW 161

Integral Research: A Global Approach towards Social Science Research Leading to Social Innovation, by Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer Lauren Tenney

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JOURNAL of INTEGRAL THEORY and PRACTICE Aims and Organization

Integral Theory is an all-inclusive metaframework that draws on the key insights of the world’s greatest knowledge traditions. The awareness gained from drawing on all perspectives allows integral practitioners to bring new depth, clarity, and compassion to every level of human endeavor—from unlocking individual potential to finding new approaches to global-scale problems. Articles published in the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP) represent explorations in several modes of discourse: philosophical, theoretical, pragmatic, experiential, and critical. JITP is committed to the refinement, development, and expansion of Integral Theory.

Instructions for Authors JITP follows American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines. Visit www.integraljournal. org for full submission guidelines and a glossary of Integral Theory terminology. An abbreviated outline of the manuscript review process is listed below. In light of the fact that both Spiral Dynamics and the Integral model sometimes use a color scheme to describe levels of development, we request that authors specify which color scheme they are using (e.g., orange altitude vs. orange vMeme). Altitude can be used to refer to any developmental line (e.g., orange

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cognition, orange self-identity, etc.), while Spiral Dynamics, in the context of Integral Theory, specifically refers to levels of values development.

Review Process Initial Review Authors must submit articles as Microsoft Word files to Lynwood Lord at [email protected]. In cases where authors do not adhere to JITP submission guidelines, manuscripts will be returned with a request that all components be provided. Theoretical changes, copy editing, and structural suggestions may be suggested at this stage.

Ken Wilber, Editor-in-Chief. Ken will offer constructive criticism and theoretical clarifications. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn and refine your understanding of Integral Theory. The call will be recorded and a link to download the audio will be provided within a week.

Editorial Review Accepted manuscripts are edited in accordance with JITP editorial style.

Author Review Authors will be e-mailed a proof and will have one week to suggest minor changes.

Peer Review

Critical Presentations

The editorial team then assigns manuscripts to external reviewers. Information from submitted manuscripts may be systematically collected and analyzed as part of research to improve the quality of the editorial review process.

Authors are encouraged to explore hypothetical and critical views in relationship to Integral Theory. When presenting hypothetical material (e.g., the possibility of a new line of development in one of the quadrants), authors should make it clear that a suggestive addition that is not currently part of Integral Theory is being offered, and then provide as much evidence, argumentation, and supportive material as possible to substantiate their position. When presenting critical material, authors must represent the components and claims of Integral Theory within an academically acceptable range of interpretation. JITP views the process of hypothetical and critical engagement as essential to the development of Integral Theory.

Authors are expected to revise their article in light of peer-review comments and provide a revised draft within two weeks. Changes should be made using the track changes feature in Microsoft Word, so our editorial team can quickly identify edits.

Theoretical Review Once a draft with peer-review comments incorporated is received, a theory call will be scheduled with

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE Sean Esbjörn-Hargens

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his issue of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP) is the second one to have a guest editor, and it is the third issue of JITP to be focused on Integral Research. After the first two Integral Research issues were published in 2008 (Vol. 3, No. 1; Vol. 3, No. 2), I felt it was important to regularly publish an issue devoted to Integral Research. I planned for the next issue to be largely comprised of students’ work, and I began to contact exceptional students from three different graduate programs where I teach courses in Integral Research. My intention was to provide both a snapshot of what Integral Research looks like in its three- and six-method approaches and create a resource for future Integral Research efforts. The articles in this issue detail some of the best work done to date within the Integral Research framework, and as such help to expose what has worked and what has not worked thus far. By publishing them, I hope to support current students with useful examples as well as to invite the larger community of integral scholarpractitioners to bring their constructive criticism to bear on how Integral Research is being conducted. It is important to keep in mind that several of the articles in this issue are summaries of what were originally much larger documents (e.g., Kathleen Grillo, Matthew Collins). As such, these authors help reveal the value of span (using six different methods) and the challenge of discussing and then integrating the insights from so many divergent methodological domains. One author, Travis Tassett, uses only three methods, but is able to provide a strong balance between the data enacted and the discussion it evokes. In his article, Moses Silbiger provides us with only a fraction of the details from his 200-plus page study, but offers a stimulating discussion of the implications of his findings. In addition to these student efforts, this issue contains a valuable article by veteran researcher Terri O’Fallon. Her article presents provocative research results from the field, which help raise new questions around how we assess individual growth via third-person psychometrics, second-person interactions, and first-person meaning making. Each of these articles helps reveal the dignity and the downside of Integral Research in important ways, and taken as a whole they are instructive in how we might continue to reinvent Integral Research in service of a greater whole. One of the things I love more than anything else is reading/hearing how each student discovered their own enactive potential for knowledge claims. So, regardless of the interpretive lens you bring to these articles, I encourage you to stay attuned to the sound of these voices finding their way into an important topic through the use of multiple methods. Notice how alive the Kosmos sounds from that perspective. In addition to the examples in this issue, it is worth noting that we have posted at the Integral Research Center (www.integralresearchcenter.org/source) an Integral Research thesis, “Moving Toward Conscious Consumption: An Integral Inquiry into Post-consumer Attitudes and Behaviors,” by Bruni Howind. This document is over 100 pages long and provides a comprehensive example of how to conduct a three-method (i.e., a first-, second-, and third-person method) Integral Research project. As such, it is a valuable resource for any graduate student or post-doctoral researcher who wants to draw on integral principles in their research. After soliciting a number of articles for this issue, I decided that the aims outlined above would be furthered by having someone guest edit the material. Nicholas Hedlund was the obvious choice, given he had recently graduated with his master’s in Integral Psychology (wherein he conducted Integral Research as a student) and Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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was just beginning to work with me at the Integral Research Center at John F. Kennedy University. I felt that Nick could provide a unique and valuable perspective as an editor in that he went through the same kind of multi-method research process as all the students in this issue. Moreover, as a recent graduate doing pioneering work at the Integral Research Center, he could provide insight into the development and future trends of the field. Nick and I have engaged in many valuable conversations about Integral Research over the years, so I know he has an astute mind and open heart—often raising critical issues that need to be grappled with for Integral Research to continue to develop and serve the knowledge quest. Nick was enthusiastic about serving as guest editor and accepted the invitation immediately, and it has been a pleasure to watch him bring forward his contribution. He took great care in both his work with each author and in the development of his reflective voice, which comes through so powerfully in his own article in this issue. Nick’s article provides the kind of forward thinking that I feel is paramount to the development of the emerging field of Integral Research. I believe Nick’s article to be the most important publication on Integral Research to date. Recently, Nick and I, along with Lauren Tenney (who has been engaged in an extended Integral Research project on sustainability and provides a great book review in this issue), attended the Research Across Boundaries symposium held at the University of Luxembourg. This was an exciting event hosted by the Institute for Integral Studies, which itself is committed to supporting emergent forms of integrative research. It was exhilarating to be there with Roy Bhaskar, Soren Brier, Mark Edwards, Jennifer Gidley, Gary Hampson, Ronnie Lessem, Markus Molz, and Jonathan Reams, among others, all of whom are engaged in various forms of integrative research. It feels symbolic of a new phase of Integral Research that this issue is being published practically in conjunction with the symposium, a phase where emergent forms of “meta-research” are in deep dialogue with each other, informing and stretching each other into new forms of knowledge enactment. I invite you to join us on this exciting adventure. This issue offers a great entry point into this adventure—as you read its contents, be ever present to how you yourself can contribute to the exciting new field of Integral Research.

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Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

GUEST EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Nicholas Hedlund

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elcome to this special issue of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP) devoted entirely to Integral Research. This is the third special issue dedicated to this emerging field, following the two back-to-back special issues published in 2008 (Vol. 3, No. 1; Vol. 3, No. 2). In many ways, the publication of the special issues in 2008 marked the official birth of Integral Research as a field in its own right. Since then, Integral Research seems only to have been evolving and building momentum in a number of ways. First, the Integral Research Center (www.integralresearchcenter.org) has launched a number of important initiatives in support of a burgeoning global community of integral scholar-practitioners. In addition to the $5,000 Integral Research Grant for students in the Integral Theory master’s program at John F. Kennedy University (JFKU), we are in the fortunate position to likewise be offering a $5,000 International Integral Research Grant for non-JFKU researchers in the United States and abroad. As a result of these grants, outstanding researchers, such as Lancaster University’s Edward Kelly and JFKU’s Lauren Tenney, are contributing high-quality original research studies while developing novel and innovative approaches to Integral Research. Thus these contributions are stretching the canvas of—and inciting reflection on—what we take Integral Research to be. Additionally, in the fall of 2009, we launched the ambitious Integral Transformative Education Assessment for Curriculum Research project, better known as iTEACH. The iTEACH project is a longitudinal study that employs methods from all eight zones of Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) to assess the transformative effects of the Integral Theory program on students and faculty alike. Among other goals, iTEACH aims to help widen the operational purview of Integral Research to include zone 5 and zone 7, which to date have remained largely abstruse to most researchers. Second, Integral Research is evolving in that we have gained enough experience working with first-, second-, and third-person approaches (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006) that we have begun to enter into a process of critical-sympathetic reflectivity vis-à-vis the very definition of Integral Research. We have thereby begun to ask ourselves the important question of what an optimal definition might look like. In addition to the typical first-, second-, and third-person methodological exemplar pursued by a number of authors in this issue, integral researchers have begun to creatively “think outside of the box” and explore the myriad varieties of Integral Research. Third, the emergence of such critical-sympathetic reflection and discourse in relation to Integral Research has been further supported through its deepening dialogical encounter with other integrative research approaches and meta-methodological frameworks. There is a growing “marketplace” of integrative approaches to knowledge acquisition, and there are other frameworks that have adopted the name integral research (e.g., see pp. 161-169 for a review of Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Scheiffer’s approach). Having just returned from the Research Across Boundaries symposium at the University of Luxembourg (http://dica-lab.org/rab/), which brought together many of the world’s most prominent integrative research efforts, I can personally attest to the value and potential of such cross-paradigmatic dialogue and reflective inquiry for the evolution of the field. In addition to the fact that Integral Research is now entering into a rich dialogical exchange with the larger ecology of integrative research approaches, it is worth noting that the Integral model appeared to be the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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most common framework used by both the attendees and presenters at the Luxembourg symposium—and in particular, by younger researchers. Fourth, Mark Edwards (2008, 2010) has made a momentous contribution to the field—helping to initiate a higher level of discourse by offering a scientifically grounded, metatheoretical vantage from which to reflect on the Integral Research framework (as opposed to a strictly Wilberian one). While I feel that there is much potential for Integral Research to turn in on itself to enact valuable critically self-reflective insight (as my article in this issue attempts to do), I feel that we also need to reflect from external metatheoretical perspectives that have been derived from scientific and reflexively transparent methods. With regard to the latter, I feel that Edwards convincingly points the way, thereby disclosing new horizons of integral (meta)inquiry that we have barely begun to explore. In addition to the above-mentioned developments following the publication of the special JITP issues on Integral Research in 2008, I feel that the present issue likewise makes a substantive contribution to the field. More specifically, in each of the key areas of application, theoretical clarification/development, and critical reflectivity, as designated by Esbjörn-Hargens (2008) in his discussion of “The Future of Integral Research” (pp. x-xii), I feel that this issue moves the field forward. I will address these in turn. With respect to application, Esbjörn-Hargens (2008) states that “one of the greatest contributions to Integral Research at this point will be simply to collect more examples of it” (p. xi). As such, I feel that the present issue contributes by offering seven original research studies. Furthermore, these examples were conducted in a number of different contexts, are varied in topic, and include a number of novel approaches to Integral Research. Thus, it is my hope that they will be instructive for graduate students and post-graduate researchers aspiring to design and conduct Integral Research. Turning to the area of theoretical clarification, this issue arguably contributes in a number of ways. Since concrete application often provides an optimal forum for the illumination of areas in need of theoretical clarification, the studies in this issue likewise may contribute as case studies of embodied theory ripe for reflection, appreciation, and critique. For example, I feel that the varied approaches presented in this issue, all of which are included here under the umbrella of Integral Research, implicitly contribute by calling us to reflect on the key theoretical issue of how we are defining Integral Research. Moreover, the article I have written for this issue addresses the definition of Integral Research in an explicit manner and hopefully contributes, if in no other way, by issuing a call to deepen our discourse relative to this pivotal topic. Regarding critical reflectivity, this issue contributes on an individual level by providing a number of concrete examples of the multiple ways researchers can reflexively research themselves and situate their data and interpretations in relation to the structures of their own embodied awareness. I feel that my article in this issue likewise contributes to collective reflectivity by deepening the critical discourse in relation to the development of the field as a whole. Moreover, Lauren Tenney’s book review (pp. 161-169) enriches our shared reflectivity by introducing us to another important integrative research framework and inviting us to consider the various points of resonance and differences therein. The aforementioned developments and contributions in the field, taken together, could be said to constitute a new, emergent phase in the evolutionary trajectory of Integral Research. Following Edwards’ (2008, 2010) articulation of the four structural components of an integral meta-studies, we might posit that the first phase in the Wilberian tradition of integral meta-studies was the development of the AQAL model and the core viii

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EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

metatheoretical architecture of Integral Theory (metatheory); the second phase was the development of the meta-methodological framework of IMP (meta-methodology); the third phase was marked by the emergence of the field of Integral Research as a systematic approach to generating/analyzing multiple data sets (metadata analysis); and finally, the fourth phase—of which we now stand on the brink—is centered around the interpretation and integration of multiple data sets (meta-hermeneutics). Thus, we could say that phase one of Integral Research was primarily concerned with coming up with a systematic, operationalized framework for the generation and analysis of multiple data sets, which expressed itself primarily in the use of the concurrent first-, second-, and third-person method approach. And now, as a result of the developments in the field over the past two years—including this special issue of JITP—we might say that Integral Research is entering a new phase and is now turning toward the crucial questions of metadata interpretation (e.g., the integration of data sets, synthetic meta-analysis, validity/meta-validity, etc.). As such, it could be said that this issue represents the culmination of the first phase of Integral Research as well as the initiation—or at least intimation—of a new one. It is my sincere hope that this issue both inspires and empowers researchers to go deeper with their endeavors, thus more effectively generating integrated knowledge claims and contributing to the ongoing evolution of this propitious field.

In This Issue The first article in this issue, “Integrally Researching Integral Research: Enactive Perspectives on the Future of the Field,” is authored by myself. As a former student of Esbjörn-Hargens in JFKU’s Integral Research courses, associate researcher and coordinator of the iTEACH project at the Integral Research Center, doctoral student conducting Integral Research, and instructor of the Integral Research course at JFKU’s department of Integral Theory, I seem to inhabit a unique perspective at the nexus of a number of aspects of the Integral Research world. As such, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the field from several vantages and have thereby generated a number of thoughts on the state and future of the field. This article represents an initial attempt to share a few of those reflective insights with the community. Beyond the particulars of my musings, I feel that my article invites the Integral Research community to engage in a process of critical reflectivity in relation to a number of key issues, and thereby cultivates a deeper discourse that can help to enact an optimal future trajectory for the field. Next, we have Brooks Suttle’s piece, “Towards an Integral Approach to Standardized Testing: Using the Integral Model to Improve Test Performance and Evaluate Current Testing Methodologies.” In this article, Suttle offers a lucid analysis of the landscape of American standardized testing using the eight zones of IMP. In contrast to a number of the other original research studies in the issue, Suttle makes use of the zones not as research methodologies in the standard sense, but rather as interpretive heuristics with which to frame and clarify the multiple aspects of his topic—which he then weaves into an insightful narrative. Moreover, Suttle’s approach differs from most Integral Research studies that have been pursued to date in that his analysis does not stick to the exploration of a single object in the manner of “octangulating” multiple perspectives on a single object of inquiry, but instead explores multiple or “roaming” objects using the backdrop of IMP in a varied manner. More specifically, Suttle uses the eight zones of IMP as perspectives to look at or code the various aspects of the informal method used by Stanley Kaplan in creating his novel approach that revolutionized the testing industry. He then shifts from such an “octivial” analysis to a “quadratic” analysis, exploring the four dimensions of the test-taker while occasionally bringing in the zone lens so as to nuance his analysis of a given quadrant. In my view, Suttle’s article does a great job making use of multiple IMP-based approaches in relation to multiple objects of inquiry to generate valuable and often-overlooked perspectives on what a more Integral approach to standardized testing might look like. Moreover, I feel that this article is valuable Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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in that it is suggestive of IMP’s broader potential in opening up new, more comprehensive understandings of psychometrics in general—a topic of great interest to the integral community. The next article, “An Integral Inquiry into the Relationship Between Addiction and Emotional Intelligence,” by Kathleen Grillo, reports the results of her original research study conducted at JFKU. Making concurrent use of multiple first-, second-, and third-person methodologies, or six of the eight zones of IMP, Grillo discerns across her data sets “that addiction is correlated with deficits of particular aspects of emotional intelligence (e. g., the ability to stay open to feelings and to moderate negative emotions and enhance pleasant ones)” (p. 71). By making use of phenomenological “self-inquiry” and “autobiographical analysis,” Grillo beautifully and vulnerably discloses how her personal history and experience in relation to addiction has shaped her inquiry and how in her subjective experience, addiction and emotional intelligence are processes that “are intimately related and ultimately not separate” (p. 71). This article is a wonderful illustration of how Integral Research invites the researcher to locate themselves and their direct experience in relation to their topic in a very personal way—and how doing so can enhance the overall inquiry. After Grillo’s article, we have Matthew Collins’ “Music and Personal Experience: Flows and Peaks.” Like Grillo, Collins follows the same general six-method approach to pursue an inquiry into music and its ability to induce flow states of consciousness as peak-experiences. Although Collins’ article was also conducted at JFKU and in many ways follows the pattern of the Integral Research course structure, Collins illustrates some novel and creative ways of conducting research in particular zones. For example, while many researchers have operationalized zone 2 research through conducting a structural self-assessment into the developmental (vertical) and typological (horizontal) structures of their awareness, Collins employs a somewhat different— and inventive—approach to zone 2. Specifically, Collins explores his strengths and weaknesses related to his musical capacity as a guitarist—and thus his structural relationship to music—by recording his playing and analyzing it in terms of rhythmic and melodic variables. So while such an inventive approach also raises a number of important questions of methodological rigor and validity, Collins’ article nonetheless provides us with a good example of how integral researchers can, in an appropriate context, “step out of the mold” to creatively interpret and enact the particular methods used in a study. Following Collins’ article, we have Travis Tasset’s “An Integral Exploration of Leadership.” Tasset shifts from the more common six-method approach to a three-method first-, second-, and third-person approach to explore some key ideas in the field of leadership. As a coach and co-founder of an organizational consulting company focusing on leadership and personal development training, Tasset conducted his research within the context of his work as a leadership training facilitator. As such, his study seemed to serve as an opportunity for him to reflect on and explore his own understanding and embodiment of leadership, thereby generating insights that would inform subsequent action within his personal and professional life. Thus, his research nicely demonstrates how Integral Research can be used as a form of action-inquiry within an organizational or professional context. The next article, “Press Play to Grow!: Designing Video Games as ‘Trojan Horses’ to Catalyze and Integrate Human Development,” by Moses Silbiger, presents an exciting and innovative proposal for how video games might be designed to leverage interior growth and development on a macro scale. Beginning as a six-method research study for his class at JFKU, this research project seemed to ignite Silbiger’s passion and open up a whole professional trajectory for him, which he continues on today, nearly three years later. Distilling his original 200-page formal research study down into a summative discussion, Silbiger offers a (relatively) concise tour de force that demonstrates the kind of integrated narrative that conducting such preliminary x

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research can enable. This thorough and compelling proposal is also noteworthy in that it offers a somewhat rare perspective linking individual-interior growth and transformation with collective-exterior technological systems. Moreover, Silbiger’s article provides a good example of how Integral Research can serve to support the kinds of innovative solutions to contemporary global issues that we are in need of—in this case, leveraging the massive techno-economic force of the video game industry in service of human development. The final article in this issue is Terri O’Fallon’s “Developmental Experiments in Individual and Collective Movement to Second Tier,” which reports the results of seven years of groundbreaking developmental action research conducted in the “real world” context of her integrally informed educational program, Generating Transformative Change (GTC). Participants in the GTC program were given a developmental test—the Sentence Completion Test international (SCTi)—upon entry, during, and after completing the program to test for developmental changes. The results are exciting: “Individuals grew a stage or more and groups grew one stage within the two-year period” (p. 149). In addition to these fascinating “third-person findings,” O’Fallon’s research likewise makes an important contribution by describing how the results of a psychometric like the SCTi (third-person) can be interwoven with self-observation (first-person) and dialogical meaning-making (second-person) to ongoingly evolve the theory, practice, and method of a research endeavor. The issue concludes with Lauren Tenney’s book review of Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer’s Integral Research: A Global Approach towards Social Science Research Leading to Social Innovation (2008, Trans4M). Lessem and Schieffer’s book is an important contribution to the field. In addition to providing a solid overview and introduction to this intriguing and sophisticated meta-methodological framework, Tenney highlights the need for scholar-practitioners within the Wilberian tradition of Integral Research to familiarize themselves with alternative integral/integrative models. There is much potential for fruitful dialogue and synergy across integrative research models and I am particularly excited to see what might emerge as Lessem and Schieffer’s integral research stream begins to converge in deeper dialogical contact with the Wilberian one. As I hope to have conveyed here, exciting things are happening in the world of Integral Research—the field is evolving and building momentum. I sincerely hope that you will participate, in whatever way is right for you, in this unfolding endeavor at the leading edge of research. The Integral Research Center seeks to support such participation as a major hub for a growing global community of integral researchers. We have recently posted an Integral Research Bibliography (www.integralresearchcenter.org/source), along with a number of other resources, which we hope will serve you in your integral endeavors. Come check out—and join in—our ongoing conversation in support of Integral Research and planetary action.

REFERENCES

method approach to investigating phenomena. Constructivism and the Human Sciences, 11(1),

Edwards, M. (2008). Where is the method to our integral madness? An outline for an integral meta-studies. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), 165-194. Edwards, M. (2010). Organizational transformation for sustainability: An integral metatheory. New York, NY: Routledge. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2006). Integral research: A multi-

79-107. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2008). Editorial introduction. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), v-xii. Lessem, R., & Schieffer, A. (2008). Integral research: A global approach towards social science research leading to social innovation. Geneva, Switzerland: Trans4M.

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INTEGRALLY RESEARCHING INTEGRAL RESEARCH Enactive Perspectives on the Future of the Field Nicholas Hedlund

ABSTRACT In this arcle, Integral Research is engaged as both meta-methodological injuncon and object of inquiry. My aim in doing so is to highlight ways in which applied methodological selfreflecon might serve to 1) illumine areas of Integral Research in need of clarificaon and development and 2) disclose provisional perspecves on, and thereby help to enact, the opmal evoluon of the field. With respect to methodology, I made use of informal first-, second-, and third-person methods. My first-person methods included reflecve inquiry relave to the research queson, as well as reflexive epistemological inquiry into the structures of my own awareness as a researcher. My second-person research made use of dialogical “interviews” with a number of leading scholarpraconers in the field. My third-person research consisted of an online empirical survey of the Integral Research community. Key aspects of my data were then asystemacally interwoven into a number of reflecons on the state and future of the field. I begin by contextualizing Integral Research in relaon to complex, 21st-century planetary challenges. Next, I discuss the current definion of Integral Research, highlighng some of its potenal limitaons before offering a provisional spectral definion model. Finally, I discuss the applicaon of Integral principles to the phases of the research process, including research design, data analysis/coding, epistemic reflexivity, and metavalidity. KEY WORDS: coding; Integral Research; meta-validity; mixed methods; reflexivity

The complexity of our research problems calls for answers beyond simple numbers in a quantitative sense and words in a qualitative sense. – John Creswell and Vicki Plano Clark1 [In the 21st century], there will be an urgent need for scholars who go beyond the isolated facts; who make connections across the disciplines; and who begin to discover a more coherent view of knowledge and a more integrated, more authentic view of life. – Ernest Boyer2

W

e live in a world ridden with increasingly urgent planetary problems. The unprecedented complexity of these global challenges—from climate change to terrorism to global economic turmoil—profoundly transcends the boundaries of any of our traditional academic disciplines and specialized research methodologies. That is, these real-world problems are far more complicated and messy than can be adequately delineated by any single disciplinary lens or research methodology. These planetary problems are multifaceted, interwoven gestalts—thus demanding the coordination and integration of multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives in order to generate effective solutions that account for their myriad dimensions. Correspondence: Nicholas Hedlund, John F. Kennedy University, Department of Integral Theory, 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523-4817. E-mail: nhedlund@ju.edu. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(2), pp. 1–30

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And yet a tremendous gap between the current capacity of our dominant traditions of inquiry and knowledge acquisition and the demands of our planetary problems remains: in very general terms, the methodological purview of our traditions of knowledge acquisition is either insufficiently inclusive (modern scientism/ methodological monism) or insufficiently integrated (postmodernism relativism/methodological pluralism). As a result, they appear to be largely inadequate in fostering a coherent coordination and integration across disciplinary and methodological boundaries, and thus in addressing our most vital global challenges in any substantive sense. Given the urgency of our problems, coupled with the general reductionism and fragmentation plaguing our traditions of knowledge acquisition, a robust and sophisticated research framework is needed to hold the complexity of such planetary issues.3 We need a research framework that can integrate—and bring coherence to—the cacophony of perspectives relevant to our challenges such that we are empowered to effectively address those problems and enact their evolutionary potentials. Furthermore, we need a research framework that is not only inclusive, but also rigorous, ethical, and inspiring.

Integral Research and the Need for Integrated Knowledge Aptly, just such a research framework has been emerging in recent years—that of Integral Research (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006a, 2008a, 2008b).4 While there are a number of important and complementary integrative frameworks and paradigms emerging across the planet, including mixed methods approaches (Creswell, 2003; Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998, 2002), developmental action-inquiry (Torbert, 1991, 2000a, 2000b, 2001, 2004; Torbert & Fisher, 1992), action research (Chandler & Torbert, 2003; Reason & Bradbury, 2001; Reason & Torbert, 2001), transdisciplinarity (Nicolescu, 2008), critical realism (Bhaskar, 1986, 2002a, 2002b), and certain participatory and emancipatory approaches, I feel that Integral Research is currently one of the most sophisticated and inclusive research frameworks available, and holds a deep and far-reaching promise to meet our need for integrated knowledge and planetary action.5 In my view, Integral Research has the potential to: 1) emerge as a uniquely powerful framework for logically and systematically coordinating the cornucopia of methodologies burgeoning forth since the 1960s; 2) fulfill the deep need for a systematic and operationalized framework for integrated knowledge acquisition that effectively includes and transcends the core epistemological demands of both modernity and postmodernity; 3) support the emergence of an integral worldview/collective self-understanding; and 4) serve as a meta-methodological scaffolding that can support the cross-paradigmatic coordination so urgently needed in addressing contemporary planetary problems. Therefore, I contend that Integral Research is one of the most promising emerging research frameworks and should generally be considered a salient approach for scholar-practitioners interested in generating innovative and effective solutions to planetary challenges.6 Nonetheless, it is important to note that Integral Research currently has yet to actualize some of the deeper aspects of its promise as specified above. It is, in many ways, still an emerging field in need of further maturation before it can enact its deeper potentials. While the pioneering work of Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c) and others (e.g., Hochachka, 2005, 2008) has initiated the establishment of the field by beginning to apply Ken Wilber’s (2002a, 2006) theoretical vision of an Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP),7 much work remains to be done to ground and translate that vision into an operationalized praxis for enacting knowledge claims that can pragmatically inform global discourse. In other words, Integral Research is in need of further theoretical clarification and further “nitty-gritty” operationalization if it is to fulfill the need for a viable framework of integrated knowledge acquisition.

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For example, Integral Research appears to hold the potential to coordinate diverse qualitative and quantitative method-perspectives, meaningfully interweaving each of them into a more comprehensive synthesis. Until more detailed, nuanced, and systematic frameworks and methods have been developed for the integration of data sets, however, such potential to generate authentically integrated knowledge claims remains, to a certain extent, an abstract philosophical vision. Similarly, until rigorous frameworks clarifying the relationship between the multiple forms and levels of validity claims associated with distinct methodological and disciplinary traditions have been delineated and operationalized, aspects of the potential of Integral Research will remain relatively unfulfilled. Yet given that it is situated within the metatheoretical field of Integral Theory—a field rich with insight and principles with which to inform such operationalization—Integral Research appears to be naturally poised to grow and mature into such a robust and practically grounded framework. In this way, Integral Research can become increasingly guided by the metatheoretical principles associated with Integral Theory and IMP at each phase of the research process.8 This will happen, in my view, largely as Integral Research reflexively enacts a critical hermeneutic circle with itself and comes into deeper dialogical contact with the larger spheres of insight constituted by Integral Theory and integral studies.9

Critical Reflectivity and the Evolution of Integral Research Given this context of the deep need for such a sophisticated—and more adequately operationalized—integrative research framework, my aim in this article is to engage a process of critical reflectivity vis-à-vis Integral Research.10 Generally speaking, the field of Integral Research is in need of such collective critical reflectivity and development—making object the unconsciously produced constraints, de facto dispositions, and tendencies in which it is embedded—so that it can more consciously and more effectively enact its potential and evolutionary trajectory as an emancipatory force. Specifically, however, it is my intention to reflect with an eye for the ways in which I might contribute to Integral Research’s maturation into a more nuanced, rigorous, and pragmatically operational academic approach. Ultimately, I thereby seek to support the enactment of its potential to effectively address a number of urgent theoretical and planetary problems. To do so, I turn Integral Research in on itself, reflexively engaging it as both meta-methodological injunction and object of inquiry. That is, I make use of Integral Research as a methodological approach with which to explore the field of Integral Research itself. My aim in doing so is to highlight ways in which such applied meta-methodological self-reflection might serve to 1) illumine areas of Integral Research in need of clarification and development; and 2) disclose provisional perspectives on, and thereby help to enact, what I see as the optimal evolution of the field. While this inquiry involves a descriptive-explanatory disposition in relation to the current state of Integral Research (synchronic analysis), my primary disposition and interest is a prescriptive-normative and critical-emancipatory one vis-à-vis the future trajectory of the field (diachronic analysis). That is to say, while I will briefly reflect on the current state of Integral Research (what is), the predominant focus of this article is to explore the future potential of the field to serve as an ethical and emancipatory force (what ought to be). From this evaluative disposition, I offer some theoretical-reflective musings on relevant issues for the future of Integral Research; specifically, I offer provisional data-reflections centered on a discussion of the definition of Integral Research as well as the application of integral principles to the respective phases (or aspects) of the research process. In the latter discussion I also touch upon issues related to research design, data analysis/coding, epistemic reflexivity, and validity/meta-validity. Having stated the background context, rationale, and aim of this article, it is now appropriate to present my Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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methodology as well as my data-reflections on the state and future of Integral Research. With respect to my methodology, some implications of post-metaphysical/enactive ontology will be explored briefly and my theoretical-reflective knowledge claims situated within key injunctive conditions of their enactment.11 Following that, my data-reflections will be presented, beginning with the definition of Integral Research. I will then reflect on the application of integral principles to the phases of the Integral Research process. Within that context, I will specifically reflect briefly on the areas of research design, data analysis/coding, epistemic reflexivity, and validity/meta-validity, respectively. Finally, in the conclusion, the results of this research are reflected on in light of their broader implications for the evolution of Integral Research.

Methodology This study employs a somewhat novel methodological approach that I call situated-theoretic inquiry, which can best be understood relative to Integral Research’s substantive commitment to a post-metaphysical/enactive position (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006a). Within the context of Integral Research, such a post-metaphysical commitment first and foremost translates into a demand to make transparent salient epistemological structures and methodological injunctions through which emergent ontological data-perspectives (or objects) are enacted. From an enactive perspective, a detailed delineation of such key conditions is a pre-requisite for any truth claims to obtain substantive ontic validity (Wilber, 2006). As such, it is my intention in this section to summarize aspects of the methodological injunctions through which my data-reflections were enacted. Some epistemological conditions of my enactment of various perspectives on the future of Integral Research will be briefly specified in the context of my thoughts on the reflexive dimension of Integral Research. In some ways, this article can be interpreted as a classical theoretical reflection that has been transformed into a post-metaphysical research study, or situated-theoretic inquiry. In approaching this project, I considered writing a more traditional theoretical piece that did not make explicit reference to the methodological injunctions or epistemological conditions of my enactment. However, in considering this, it occurred to me that doing so would be to merely conceal the contexts in which my theoretical reflections are generated, which in my view would be less than optimally post-metaphysical. Conversely, I contemplated the potential acceleration in the evolution of our discourse as an integral community if our theoretical reflections (which constitute the majority of our scholarly publications) were to be grounded in a transparent disclosure of some salient methodological and/or epistemological conditions, even to some very rudimentary extent.12 In my view, all theoretical reflections are always grounded in various forms of qualitative and/or quantitative research, albeit informally conducted (e.g., reviewing the extant literature [third-person], dialoguing with colleagues [secondperson], personal reflections [first-person]). In this post-metaphysical spirit, I will now delineate some key methodological conditions of my enactment of perspectives on the state and future of Integral Research. I conducted first-, second-, and third-person research into the future potential of Integral Research. The raw data-perspectives enacted were then selectively sampled or extracted in a semi-structured, summative manner. That is to say, I engaged an approach of asystematically interweaving (i.e., “cherry picking”) key aspects of my primary data to generate a number of secondary data-reflections on the state and future of the field. My first-person data was brought forth via a semi-structured reflective inquiry relative to the research topic concerning Integral Research’s future trajectory as well as reflexive research into the structures of my own awareness as an epistemic subject. More specifically, with regard to the former, between March, 2009 and June 2010, I generated a number of synthetic reflections (recorded in my research journal) based on my personal experience as an integral researcher and my readings from the integral, mixed methods, action research, science and technology studies, and critical theory literature. With respect to the latter, I also conducted an 4

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updated Integral Psychograph Assessment (V. Esbjörn-Hargens, in press) in certain lines based on previous reflexive research (Hedlund, 2008) and engaged in a partial reflexive epistemological inquiry process, as articulated in the data section found below. My second-person research made use of dialogical hermeneutic encounters, or informal “interviews” regarding the broad state and future development of Integral Research with a number of leading scholar-practitioners in the field, including Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Jeffery A. Martin, Gail Hochachka, Zachary Stein, and Annick de Witt. For my third-person research, an online empirical survey of members of the Integral Research community was conducted in June, 2010. The survey was based on an “exploratory design” (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007) and consisted of 27 questions exploring a variety of topics and themes derived from my first- and second-person research. There were 46 respondents.13 Having sketched the basic contours of my methodology, let us now turn to my data-reflections on the state and future potential of Integral Research, beginning with its definition.

Data-Reflection # 1: Defining Integral Research The relevance of the definition of Integral Research should be contextualized within a basic understanding of the history and emergence of the field, which has been initially brought forth largely due to the efforts of integral scholar-practitioner Sean Esbjörn-Hargens. Inspired by Wilber’s (2002a, 2006) articulation of IMP, Esbjörn-Hargens forged an initial outline for the field of Integral Research, largely as an operationalization of a number of aspects of IMP in the context of mixed methods research.14 Shortly thereafter, Esbjörn-Hargens proposed and began teaching a number of courses in the Integral Psychology master’s program at John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) as well as Fielding Graduate University. In many ways, Esbjörn-Hargens’ initial outline of Integral Research, reflected in the structure of the courses, laid down a distinct pattern with respect to the nature and applied definition of Integral Research, since the vast majority of Integral Research studies carried out to date have followed this general pattern.15 Esbjörn-Hargens’ structure invites researchers to explore a single phenomenon through six distinct methods (two first-, second-, and third-person methodologies, respectively). The two first-person methods (falling within zones 1 and 2, or the methodological families of phenomenology and structuralism) have been operationalized primarily in service of the principle of reflexive research (i.e., for the researcher to research ways in which their own unique history and structures of awareness impact their enactment of the phenomenon they are exploring).16 The two second-person methods (falling within zones 3 and 4, or the methodological families of hermeneutics and ethnomethodology) have been operationalized largely in terms of selective sample interviewing and participant-observation approaches (e.g., ethnography, focus groups), respectively. Finally, the two third-person methods (falling within zones 6 and 8, or the methodological families of empiricism and systems theory) have been put into practice largely as basic survey research and systems analysis. Reflecting his operationalization of IMP embodied in the structure of his courses, in 2006 Esbjörn-Hargens published an article in Constructivism in the Human Sciences, marking the emergence of Integral Research as a framework and potential field in its own right. However, it was not until the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice published two special issues on Integral Research (Vol. 3, No. 1 and Vol. 3, No. 2) in 2008 that the field was officially launched, as a number of scholar-practitioners began to initiate a discourse by contributing their original research and reflections (Black, 2008; Cohen, 2008; Eddy, 2008; Edwards, 2008; Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c; Fuhs, 2008; Golin, 2008; Hedlund, 2008; Hochachka, 2008; Kelly, 2008; Luftig, 2008; Martin, 2008; Stein & Heikkinen, 2008). In his article, Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a) offers a preliminary definition of Integral Research:

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Integral Research (IR) is an emerging approach to mixed methods that is explicitly grounded in Integral Theory and makes use of its post-metaphysical position and its practice of Integral Methodological Pluralism to provide a multi-method approach [for] investigating phenomena. (p. 89)17 Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a) then elaborates on this definition: One of the basic premises of Integral Research is that any phenomenon under investigation should be examined simultaneously or concurrently from 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-person methodologies…. At the very least Integral Research would involve picking a method from 1) Phenomenology or Structuralism, 2) Hermeneutics or Ethnomethodology, and 3) Empiricism, Autopoiesis Theory, Systems Theory, and Social Autopoiesis Theory. (pp. 89-90) Esbjörn-Hargens (2008b) is explicit that this definition “is to serve as a starting point” (p. xi) while making an appeal to the community for the need to explore and critically reflect on the definition of Integral Research.18

Limitations of the Current Definition of Integral Research In the spirit of critical reflection and constructive discourse, I see the current definition of Integral Research as a useful starting point, and one that indeed highlights elements of what makes Integral Research unique. However, as the field has developed over the years, it has become apparent that this definition, at least as a minimal definition, may have some notable limitations or drawbacks that should be considered. As such, it is my intention to reflect on our current definition of Integral Research, problematizing aspects of it and attempting to illustrate some of its potential limitations in a number of contexts. More specifically, the predominant concern that I would like to address has to do with the current definition’s demand that Integral Research necessarily include first-person (subjective), second-person (intersubjective), and third-person (objective) methods. While I feel that all three forms of inquiry are invaluable, the inclusion of which potentially leading to a more comprehensive understanding of a given object of inquiry, I have begun to personally reflect (in my research journal), observe (in my survey results), and hear from others in the field (in my interviews) that this definition of Integral Research is often seen to have some significant limitations, ranging from the more pragmatic to the more philosophical.19 Beginning with the more practical constraints, I have observed and heard from others in the field that the current definition of Integral Research is often seen as prohibitively complex, and demanding in terms of constraints of time and funding. As social scientific researcher Annick de Witt (personal communication, June14, 2010) notes in relation the current definition of Integral Research: I see a number of problems with this definition. Most obviously, I think this definition may pose pragmatic constraints on researchers who aspire to do Integral Research, since doing rigorous, well-thought-through research in the three domains is often only feasible when done sequentially, and demands significant amounts of time, effort, and funding that are not necessarily available. So this definition may actually inhibit capable researchers, who would otherwise be interested in pursuing an integral approach to research, from exploring the field.

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As de Witt implies, the current definitional demand for first-, second-, and third-person methods may not have strong functional fit relative to the practical constraints of time and funding that many researchers face. Such a relative lack of functional fit may thereby inhibit the field from gaining more widespread appeal, particularly within traditional academic contexts. Moreover, through informal second-person encounters with other researchers, I have caught wind of a similar critical reflection being put forth in relation to mixed methods research, stating that mixed methods may be seeing a leveling off of its rising popularity due to its multi-methodological demands. It is important to note that if the minimal definition of mixed methods (the mixing or combining of at least one qualitative and at least one quantitative method) is less complex than that of Integral Research, and it is purportedly losing steam as a result of its perceived demands, then such a definition of Integral Research may not be the most skillful one from a pragmatic point of view.20,21 Another potential limitation of the current definition to consider has to do with the constraints of length imposed on research articles seeking publication in peer-reviewed journals. To what extent can a formal Integral Research study be adequately detailed in 20 to 25 pages (i.e., can it simultaneously meet the standards of rigor demanded by academic institutions and make use of first-, second-, and third-person methods)? In my view, accomplishing such a task within the context of a typical peer-reviewed journal article seems nearly impossible, since the degree of depth typically required for such rigorous, formal studies generally precludes the possibility of endeavoring to include such methodological span.22 In this way, the current working definition of Integral Research may—in practice—privilege relatively informal studies on the one hand, and relatively shallow studies on the other.23 Therefore, to the extent that Integral Research is interested in gaining credence and generating appeal within more traditional academic settings, its current definition may function as somewhat of a limiting factor. The related issue of methodological expertise is another important area of consideration with regard to the first-, second-, and third-person demand embedded in the current definition of Integral Research. Conducting rigorous, formal research with most methodologies typically requires significant training and cultivation of requisite capacities. I feel that to the extent we are interested in developing Integral Research into a more academically robust and rigorous approach, we need to consider the importance of cultivating substantive methodological and disciplinary expertise—and that means that we should likewise consider the ways in which a first-, second-, and third-person minimum demand may deter researchers from doing so. While there are likely researchers that have the capacity to develop the kind of methodological and disciplinary expertise to support a high-quality multi-method Integral Research study without succumbing to the tendency to produce research that falls short of established standards of rigor, this may be more the exception than the norm. As such, I feel that the Integral Research community would do well to consider the implication that the current definition implicitly excludes researchers who might choose to focus on only one or two methodologies in an effort to cultivate the kind of expertise necessary to enter into the established academic discourse. In my view, we need to consider that much of the multi-methodological and inter/multi/cross/transdisciplinary research, despite its growing momentum, often remains viewed with some degree of suspicion by traditional academic audiences—and that such suspicion may reflect more than just an anachronistic modernist tendency for specialization, but may also reflect an important concern for quality control and rigor that necessarily must be honored and included. As a respondent to my empirical survey stated: I question your [current first-, second-, and third-person] definition. It seems to imJournal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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ply that a methodologically plural approach is always preferable to a single methodology. I might argue that what Integral Theory needs is more and better research that is firmly grounded in the best of single disciplines and methods. I think it’s easy to do “plural” research that is much lower in quality, because it assumes that a surface level understanding of a method is adequate (and it basically must be surface if you are going to try to do several methods, since becoming expert in a single methodology pretty much takes a Ph.D....). I’d rather see more practitioners get serious about single methods. Not to say that having 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd- person practice isn’t appropriate—that can certainly feed good disciplinary research. But frantically trying to be multi-disciplinary leads too often to pre-disciplinary train wrecks.24 As this passage illustrates, those interested in conducting formal academic research might do well to consider first cultivating substantive expertise within single disciplines and/or methodologies before attempting to become trans-/multi-disciplinary or conduct complex, multi-methodological research (Stein, 2007). Otherwise, we run the risk of presenting what very well could be pre-disciplinary/methodological research as trans-/ multi-disciplinary/methodological—which could legitimately be seen as suspect. The broader point here, however, is that the current definition of Integral Research is not inclusive of single- or even double-method approaches, which I feel is a major limitation that may unnecessarily alienate a major population of academic researchers that might otherwise take interest in—and contribute to—the field. A broader meta-theme that I see running through the aforementioned pragmatic limitations of Esbjörn-Hargens’ (2006a) initial definition is that it may run the risk of fostering a default privileging of span over depth. As I hope to have illustrated above, there very well may be instances in which researchers might better address their research questions and contribute to their field by scaling back from the inclusion of first-, second-, and third-person methods to employing just one qualitative and one quantitative method in a manner informed by an integral sensibility, (e.g., systematically contextualizing the partiality of methods, data, and interpretations within the IMP map; applying integral principles such as non-exclusion [the inclusion of first-, second-, and third-person perspectives] to multiple phases of the research process; and converging the data sets into well-integrated knowledge claims grounded in rigorous validity and meta-validity criteria). Furthermore, there may also be contexts in which researchers can better contribute to the discourse by working with only one or two qualitative methods in such an integral manner.25 In the end, however, I feel that the above concerns reflect deeper issues vis-à-vis the current definition of Integral Research. A more fundamental reflection on the definition of Integral Research necessarily must address questions related to the purpose and function undergirding the construction of our definition. In my view, our definition of Integral Research is a formalism attempting to operationalize an integral sensibility and worldview in relation to research. As such, its primary purpose and function is to support the enactment of integral performances in relation to research—to support a global community of scholar-practitioners to conduct research from a sensibility that could be considered to be authentically integral. What I mean by “authentically integral” will be addressed below, but the key point is that I feel we should be critically reflective with regard to the extent to which it effectively delivers on its purpose and function, which I presume is to support truly integral performances in relation to research. In this light, an important point of reflection is as follows: to what extent can the current definition’s demand for the inclusion of first-, second-, and thirdperson methodologies in a research project ensure that a study will be integral in a substantive sense? While in my view the inclusion of such multiple methods does indeed tend to support aspects of an integral sensibility in relation to research, I also feel that it falls short of its purpose in a number of ways. Most importantly, 8

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it falls short due to its implicit focus on one phase in the research process (i.e., design) which does not necessarily support the researcher to authentically internalize and apply integral principles through the entirety of the research process. For example, the current definitional demand does little to support the systematic integration of data sets into integrated knowledge claims, which I feel is a key element of an integral performance in relation to research, and as mentioned above, one of the greatest potentials of Integral Research. In my analysis of Integral Research studies that have been carried out to date, there appears to be a pervasive tendency to insufficiently integrate the various first-, second-, and third-person data sets.26 As such, many integral researchers have gone to great lengths to carry out such multi-method research—which has indeed been highly valuable—and yet largely have fallen short of the promise of Integral Research to enact authentically “mixed” or integrated knowledge claims.27 In some ways, this tendency for insufficient integration of data sets calls into question the degree to which the knowledge claims generated by Integral Research carried out in this way could be considered to be integral in a structural sense. A pluralism of data-perspectives that have not been systematically and substantively interwoven into a coherent differentiated-integrated gestalt seems to be more closely aligned, in some respects, with a postmodern mode of knowledge acquisition than an integral one. Conversely, a research study that involves only one method, but is deeply imbued with an integral, enactive disposition, applies integral principles at multiple phases, and adequately and reflexively contextualizes and links its emergent data-perspectives within a larger cross-paradigmatic edifice (i.e., situates the data within the conditions of its enactment, acknowledges its partiality in relation to the IMP map, and draws linkages to complementary and contrasting data-perspectives in the literature), could be considered, in my view, to be significantly “more integral.” As I have attempted to illustrate in the above example, the current definition may not be the most effective formalism to deliver on its purpose and function. In order to bring greater coherence to the field of Integral Research and enact its deeper potentials to generate rigorously integrated knowledge claims and support integral performances in relation to research, I feel that we need a definitional formalism that more effectively connects us to the structural essence of what an integral approach to research consists of. That is, we need a definitional formalism that can more effectively scaffold integral performances in relation to research. If effectively constructed, I feel that our definition of Integral Research can be enacted as a psychoactive attractor—exerting a developmental pull on researchers—thereby supporting increasingly optimal, integral performances in the domain of research. Therefore, such a definition could possibly increase the already marked transformative potential of Integral Research for the researcher her/himself.28 Having summarized a number of issues related to the potential limitations of our current definition of Integral Research, I will now offer a provisional sketch of a framework that might address some of these concerns while building on the initial definition articulated by Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a). My intention is not to offer a final definition of Integral Research, but to initiate a discourse in relation to this topic.

A Spectral Definition of Integral Research I propose a provisional spectral definition (or model) of Integral Research that reframes the present working definition in a broader context. While Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a) makes reference to Integral Research as “scalable,” noting that one could conduct a study using multiple methods in each of the eight zones of IMP, even the low-end of this scalability may nonetheless be seen by some as overly demanding relative to the concerns outlined above. As such, I have envisioned a four level, holarchical “spectrum of Integral Research” Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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definitional model (see Fig. 1). It is my intention that such a spectral model, as opposed to a mere alternative definition, might serve as an invitation for researchers to bear in mind the more complex, higher reaches of the Integral Research vision while simultaneously serving to create a space in which important research contributions that might fall short of the current definition’s methodological demands might be included.29 Below, I outline key aspects of each level of Integral Research. Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

q Reflexively situated

q Reflexively situated

q Reflexively situated

q Reflexively situated

and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and (some of) its principles q At least some reflexive disclosure of aspects of the epistemological and methodological conditions of enactment q Makes use of qualitative or quantitative methodologies

and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and (some of) its principles q Reflexive disclosure of aspects of the epistemological and methodological conditions of enactment q Makes use of at least one qualitative and one quantitative methodology q Systematically integrates data sets

and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and (some of) its principles q Reflexive disclosure of aspects of the epistemological and methodological conditions of enactment q Makes use of first-, second-, and thirdperson methodologies q Systematically integrates data sets

and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and (some of) its principles. q Substantive reflexive disclosure of aspects of the epistemological and methodological conditions of enactment. q Makes use of multiple first-, second-, and third-person methodologies (zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8) q Systematically integrates data sets

Figure 1. A spectral model of the four levels of Integral Research. IMP—Integral Methodological Pluralism.

Level One Level one in the spectrum model, which also serves as a proposed minimal definition of Integral Research, specifies those research approaches that make use of the meta-methodological framework and principles of IMP to inform and reflexively situate the researcher’s approach to the primary phases of the research process. These phases include research design, implementation, data analysis, interpretation, and validation. As such, level one Integral Research is not defined by the degree of methodological span employed in a study, and thus does not necessarily need to make use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Rather, at level one, Integral Research is defined in relation to the interpretive-perspectival depth and epistemic-methodological transparency with which the researcher understands and reflexively situates the whole of the research process.30 For example, a qualitative study that makes use of multiple first-person methodologies (e.g., zone 1 systematic introspection and zone 2 structural self-assessment) yet situates its epistemological, methodological, and ontological partiality (i.e., what is not being included and why) within the IMP map could be considered a level one Integral Research study.31,32 An essential feature of the new minimal definition of Integral Research that I am proposing here is its explicit grounding in the (evolving) principles and sub-principles of IMP, including non-exclusion (e.g., multiple perspectives, metapatterning, synthesis/condensation), un/enfoldment (e.g., true but partial, holarchical development), and enactment (e.g., situated knowledge, reflexivity, performativity, injunctive knowledge). These principles, in my view, are not definitive nor exhaustive, but rather serve as a starting point for our discourse. 10

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There are a cornucopia of implicit and explicit principles that can be drawn from a number of sources within the broad discursive sphere of Integral Theory/IMP—and applied in creative ways to serve the enactment of integrated knowledge claims in the context of research.33 Therefore, it should be noted that further articulation of the range and meaning of such integral principles, as well as their operationalization in the context of Integral Research, is an important area in need of development and clarification. Nonetheless, in my experience, such theoretical development and clarification need not precede efforts of application, since tremendous gains can be had through the systematic application of only one or two well-established principles (e.g., nonexclusion and enactment). With respect to the grounding of Integral Research in the meta-methodological map of IMP, I feel it is important to note the distinction between Wilber’s particular interpretation and exposition of IMP and IMP as a more complex object (or “multiple object”) that can support multiple enactments (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2010). That is, I feel that the field of Integral Research should be engaged in an ongoing critical-sympathetic reflection and theoretical clarification in relation to the IMP map—and indeed there have already been important contributions that have initiated such discourse, including the work of Jeffery A. Martin (2008), Wendelin M. Küpers (2009), and Mark Edwards (2008, 2010). In my view, Wilber (2002a, 2006) offers a highly comprehensive meta-methodological map that provides researchers with a systematic way to understand the interrelationships between the various methodological families, yet integral researchers might do well to keep in mind that there are other noteworthy meta-methodological perspectives that might enrich our discourse and practice (e.g., Chandler & Torbert, 2003; Karlsson & Wistrand; 2006; Lessem & Schieffer, 2008). As such, conducting Integral Research does not imply an uncritical subscription to the whole of Wilber’s interpretation and exposition of IMP, the AQAL model, or the postulations of his particular metatheoretical narratives. That is, Integral Research, paralleling the developments in the field supported by the 2008 Integral Theory Conference, is an evolving field that has decoupled itself from Wilber’s interpretation and exposition of IMP, yet takes it as a key ground and focal point for its discourse.34 Integral Research is therefore open to ongoing reinterpretations, refinements, and original contributions to the discourse that complements Wilber’s scholarship. In summary, level one in the spectrum model provisionally frames a new general definition of the field as follows: Integral Research is an approach to research that is reflexively situated and informed at all major phases of the research process by Integral Methodological Pluralism and its principles.35 Articulated with more nuance, Integral Research is an approach to research that is reflexively situated (epistemologically, methodologically, and ontologically) and informed at all major phases of the research process (design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and social validation) by the evolving meta-methodological map and principles of IMP, including non-exclusion (e.g., multiple perspectives [1-2-3-p], metapatterning, synthesis/condensation), un/enfoldment (e.g., true but partial, holarchical development), and enactment (e.g., situated knowledge, reflexivity, performativity, injunctive knowledge, transparency). Furthermore, I propose that there are at least four degrees of complexity in which such research can be conducted, with this general, cross-level definition constituting the first level.

Level Two Level two builds on the first in that it refers to research approaches that are reflexively situated and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and its principles. However, a definitive feature of level two research is that it makes use of at least one qualitative and one quantitative method. In this way, level two Integral Research represents a convergence of a basic mixed methods approach with an approach Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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informed by IMP. An additional key feature—and one that I would like to propose as crucial for levels two, three, and four (and multi-method level one research)—is that of substantive and systematic integration of discrete data sets. How specifically to foster such integration across data sets is a crucial question for Integral Research, and one that deserves attention and reflection. In many ways, as I have alluded to above, a pivotal promise of Integral Research is its potential to enact authentically integrated knowledge claims. In my view, this potential will be delivered to the extent that our data sets are actually integrated in sophisticated and rigorous ways that take into account the complexities of the various forms of what I am calling domain-specific and domain-general validity, or meta-validity (see below for a discussion of validity).

Level Three Level Three again holarchically includes the elements of the prior two levels while simultaneously integrating a more complex methodological element. That is, level three Integral Research refers to research that is reflexively situated and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and its principles, systematically integrates data sets, while additionally specifying the use of first-, second-, and third-person methodologies. In this way, level three Integral Research is methodologically similar to the original definition put forth by Esbjörn-Hargens (2006). In my view, unless there are theoretical or practical reasons not to do so, level three Integral Research should be the aim of all researchers. Clearly there is a kind of emergent jump in terms of the degree of methodological comprehensiveness that comes into being at level three, and my intention in offering this spectral model is certainly not to devalue the potential value of such perspectival span. Rather, my intention is more along the lines of highlighting the value of including interpretive depth as a means to more effectively serve our intended purpose and function in terms of how we define, and therefore conduct, Integral Research. Moreover, I hope to do so without reducing or compromising the benefits of its more methodologically complex formulations.

Level Four Level four in the spectral model refers to the relatively most comprehensive and complex form of Integral Research.36 Such research is reflexively situated and informed at all major phases of the research process by the IMP map and its principles, systematically integrates data sets, while broadening the methodological structure from the use of at least one first-, second-, and third-person methodology to the use of at least one methodology from each of the six methodological families (and their respective zones) that currently have been operationalized within the context of Integral Research (i.e., zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8). While an ideal level four study would make use of all eight methodological families, to date zone 5 (autopoiesis) and zone 7 (social autopoiesis) “remain obscure to most Integral Researchers” (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008, p. xi). The clarification of how to operationalize these zones is a key area that needs to be addressed as the field evolves. It is worth noting that the iTEACH project at JFKU is conducting the first ever Integral Research project that aims to make use of methods from all eight zones of IMP. Hopefully, as the various forthcoming research reports from this project are published, some light will be shed with respect to the operationalization of zones 5 and 7, as well as the structure of level four Integral Research in general. In any case, at present, the most comprehensive form of Integral Research that is practically operational for the community at large involves the simultaneous use of six distinct methods (two first-, second-, and third-person methodologies). As such, level four Integral Research is methodologically similar to the structure that Esbjörn-Hargens has taught in his courses at JFKU and Fielding. Having outlined key aspects of the history and emergence of the field of Integral Research; specified its current definition as proposed by Esbjörn-Hargens; reflected on some of its potential limitations of the current 12

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definition; and delineated an outline of my proposed spectral definition of Integral Research, it is now appropriate to move onto my next data-reflection regarding the application of integral principles to the various phases of the Integral Research process.

Data-Reflection #2: The Phases of Integral Research An additional area of Integral Research in need of theoretical clarification is the articulation of increasingly rich interpretations of how to apply integral principles to each phase of the research process. In his discussion of the future of Integral Research, Esbjörn-Hargens (2008b) cites the application of integral principles to the various research phases, including “literature review, research design, data analysis, interpretation, validity, [and] discussion,” as a key area for further theoretical development (p. xi). Within the context of this topic, I feel that, in some ways, the very definition and operationalization of Integral Research to date can be seen as an initial enactment based on application of certain integral principles (and metatheoretical constructs) primarily to the area of research design. In this light, it seems that we, as a community of scholar-practitioners, should avoid the tendency to unconsciously reify the contours of Integral Research as it has been brought forth to date and instead attempt to engage in an ongoing, iterative process of critically reflective discourse and action in relation to the application of integral principles to research in its various phases. In this spirit, this section is a preliminary musing with respect to how we might begin to consider some of these issues. The need for a more detailed consideration of the application of integral principles to the research process was first brought to my attention by Esbjörn-Hargens as he mentored me through my first Integral Research study at JFKU. Since then, I have become increasingly attuned to the importance of such clarification and have been developing a number of reflections through informal action-inquiry in the context of conducting, observing, and teaching Integral Research. The following musings should be understood as provisional, cursory sketches of some of those reflections offered with the intention of galvanizing further communal reflection and dialogue. I will begin by addressing the area of research design.

Research Design With respect to research design, it is my intention to highlight what I see as the overarching descriptiveexplanatory disposition in which the discourse of research design is generally embedded.37 I feel this is an important and valid point to make in relation to the broader field of mixed methods in general, as well as in relation to the historical patterning and current state of Integral Research in particular. As far as I can tell, research design is approached by most integral researchers largely in terms of its technical structural aspects (e.g., forging a particular multi-methodological, IMP-based pathway through a concurrent triangulated, convergence–design model).38 While this is clearly a crucially important and valid aspect of research design, it is not the whole story. In addition to the technical aspects of research, there are also normative and emancipatory aspects that I feel should be explicitly and consciously considered in the context of Integral Research design. For example, when looking at research design we can reflect on our underlying ethical and emancipatory interests and consider our technical design in that light. As such, I would propose that integral researchers creatively consider how research can be designed to synergistically serve deeper normative, emancipatory, and aesthetic interests. That is to say, we should ask ourselves how we can go beyond merely considering the technical adequacy of our research structure as a means to the end of effectively disclosing what is true (descriptive), but also ask ourselves how we can do so such that it becomes morally good (prescriptive) and beautiful (expressive) in its broadest sense. In this way, principles such as non-exclusion and evaluative disposition/judgment can be applied to research design, Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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thereby activating the potential for Integral Research to become a more skillful means for the researcher to serve their own (presumably worldcentric) normative vision. These principles can simultaneously catalyze emancipatory movement that results in socio-political, cultural, and psychological well-being and development—including for the researcher her/himself. Integral Research, when held as such, can transform the act of research itself from a drab modernist task of world-describing into a conscious, participatory process of world-enacting in service of individual and collective emancipation. Finally, I feel that the implications of such an enactive, emancipatory understanding of Integral Research are deep and far-reaching, and I am aware that I am only pointing to the tip of the iceberg. As such, it is my hope that my comments simply serve to stimulate the discourse around the profound implications and complexities of enactment in relation to the normative/axiological dimension of research.

Data Analysis (Coding) In relation to data analysis or coding, integral researchers to date have done little to explore the ways in which integral principles could be more explicitly and skillfully applied. What follows are some preliminary musings with regard to how we might begin to do so relative to the principles of meta-patterning, non-exclusion, and enactment, beginning with meta-patterning. With respect to the principle that I call meta-patterning, Integral Theory posits that there are at least five key recurring meta-patterns, or “elements,” which constitute essential aspects of any occasion: quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types (Wilber, 2006). In the context of coding, any of these five key recurring meta-patterns can be used as an a priori or “protocol” heuristic for coding data (Saldana, 2009). These elements of the AQAL model can be held, for purposes of coding, as major units of organization and can be coded for in the data. For example, an integral researcher could code raw data (e.g., a transcript) from a zone 3 interview, analyzing the raw data in terms of quadrants/quadrivia (e.g., labeling passages that deal with Upper-Left quadrant psychological content; Upper-Right quadrant behavioral content; Lower-Left quadrant cultural content; or Lower-Right quadrant systems content). This kind of quadratic or quadrivial analysis (Fuhs, 2008) could be seen as a variation of “IMP coding,” the novel coding method pioneered by Edward Kelly (2008) and Jeff Cohen (2008) that makes use of all eight zones. One approach to applying the Integral principle of non-exclusion to coding that we have been developing at the Integral Research Center is that of reviewing the extant coding literature, identifying the many distinct methods, and then organizing those methods in terms of various elements of the AQAL model. Building on the important work of the researcher Johnny Saldana (2009), who has identified 28 distinct coding methods, the Integral Research Center has begun to compile an inventory of additional methods as well as to sketch the outlines of a number of new Integral approaches. Furthermore, applying the principle of multiple perspectives within the context of these 28-plus coding methods might suggest the value of making use of multiple coding methods relative to a single data pool. For example, one could choose a more inductive, grounded theory– oriented coding method to generate a number of initial codes or labels and then could apply a more deductive, theoretically structured approach to coding those labels into categories, then categories into themes. At the very least, being aware of the multiplicity of coding approaches available could allow Integral Researchers to justify their choices and situate the partiality of their data analysis therein. The principle of enactment can be applied to coding in terms of an emphasis on reflexivity in service of situating the researcher’s interpretations and illuminating their idiosyncratic elements. The word “coding” is of Greek origin, meaning “to discover,” yet from a post-metaphysical perspective, coding is as much about 14

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enacting, disclosing, and bringing data-perspectives into being as it is about “discovering.” In this way, the application of the Integral principle of enactment vis-à-vis coding highlights the epistemological and methodological orientation of the researcher in participatory interaction with the data. Such an understanding of coding is grounded in an Integral Post-Metaphysical perspective that reality (ontology) is not simply a singular pre-given perception but can support multiple enactments (methodology) by inquiring subjects (epistemology) (see Appendix A). In other words, ontological objects are brought forth through the structures of the epistemological subject and the methodological injunctions with which they are enacted and therefore disclosed (Hedlund, 2008, p. 46). Within the context of coding, Saldana (2009) proposes that “the act of coding requires that you wear your researcher’s analytic lens. But how you perceive and interpret what is happening in the data depends on what type of filter covers that lens” (p. 6). As such, self-reflexively exploring the structure of the epistemic “filter(s)” and “lens’” through which data perspectives are enacted can be seen as a foundational element of an Integral approach to coding. More specifically, reflexively referencing salient ways in which the researcher’s epistemic lens is impacting the enactment of their coding in the discussion/interpretation of the data could be a powerful post-metaphysical move. However, the extent to which this would be useful depends on a number of contextual variables, including the aims of the study, the audience in question, rhetorical strategy, and so on. Moreover, reflexive research into the epistemological structures of the researcher can be used to engage a systematic method for mitigating the otherwise ubiquitous challenge of inter-individual variability. Integral Research thereby holds the potential to bring more reflexive transparency, and thereby integrity and rigor, to the overall research process. This might also serve to increase the legitimacy of qualitative methods in particular, which remain somewhat marginalized in the eyes of many traditional quantitative researchers.39

Epistemic Reflexivity Given that the denial of the ontological reality of interiority cannot be maintained from a rational-objective point of view (and is necessarily a pre-rational, mythic conjecture), Integral Research takes the position of acknowledging and even highlighting the role of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the context of research.40 Doing so, at least in accord with its post-metaphysical, enactive position, does not debunk scientific research or challenge its authority to make valid, generalizable truth claims and authentic progress. Rather, Integral Research highlights the crucial importance of conducting reflexive inquiry in relation to the epistemic structures of the knowing subject. That is to say, Integral Research highlights the importance of researching the researcher (Hedlund, 2008) so as to both situate one’s knowledge claims therein, but more importantly perhaps, also to mitigate inter-individual variability and subjective bias and thereby make research more “objective” in an epistemological sense. So, we have essentially three broad choices in terms of how we choose to relate to the issue of interiority: 1. Deny the rational and empirically demonstrable existence of subjectivity and intersubjectivity. This position is philosophically untenable and categorically incommensurate with a rational worldview. Pragmatically speaking, subjective or hermeneutic bias persists unchecked, unconsciously and unreflectively shaping the disclosure and interpretation of data and thereby undermining claims to relative objectivity. 2. Champion the existence of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and the constructed nature of knowledge, claiming an epistemological relativism. This position is Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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internally inconsistent and riddled by what has been referred to as the “performative contradiction” (Habermas 1987, 1990; Taylor, 1989). Pragmatically, this largely derails the possibility of any meaningful descriptive-explanatory knowledge production and quickly implodes, often leaving a worldspace ridden with nihilism and other unsavory results. 3. Acknowledge the empirical realities of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and objectivity and the interpretive features of any occasion, reflexively research the interior conditions of any phenomenal enactment, and employ methods such as the iterative-reflective approach to systematically mitigate subjective/inter-individual bias and thereby increase the relative epistemological objectivity (Hedlund, 2008). Pragmatically speaking, this approach takes into account the core insights or evidence highlighted by the other two (the denial of inter/subjectivity and the championing of inter/subjectivity) and can thereby be legitimately seen as more empirically sound, more rational, and more objective.41 Beyond striving to comply with such largely modernist validity criteria per say, Integral Research is also interested in epistemic reflexivity, perhaps more profoundly, as a means to deepen and enrich the dialogical process connected to the final stage of the research process—that of social validation. Epistemic reflexivity should be about more than just identifying synchronic individual “locations,” but also diachronic collective/ historical traditions. Our knowledge claims are, in my view, necessarily embedded, to some extent, in the historicity of traditions and there is no “correct” or “final” understanding of any given phenomena. We as researchers are epistemologically fallible subjects and therefore valid theory remains open to new evidence and future interpretations from new perspectives: knowledge acquisition is necessarily an ongoing, iteratative, and dialogical process. As such, in many ways, a primary function of reflexivity in the research process is to enhance the discourse surrounding the relative validity, utility, strengths, and limitations of the knowledge claims enacted by a given researcher. When there is some degree of transparency and disclosure regarding the varied epistemic contexts in which data, and finally, knowledge claims are being generated, the conversation becomes much more meaningful, engaging, and honest. Put simply, it can be rather difficult to assess aspects of the relative validity of the “view from nowhere” that many researchers implicitly assume in the absence of any reflexive transparency (Edwards, 2010). Relative to other research communities that I am currently aware of, I feel that integral researchers generally excel in the area of reflexivity. Nonetheless, I feel that we should continue to increase the degree of transparency that we are bringing to our studies. In that light, I will now look more directly at the question of how to operationalize the principle of epistemic reflexivity in the context of research. I will do so by briefly sketching some key reflection categories relative to the aforementioned reflexive epistemological inquiry process, with the primary intention to “stretch the canvas” and incite reflection in terms of the possibilities for epistemic reflexivity that we might consider when conducting our research. Subsequently, I will personally sketch some salient features of my own awareness that helped to fashion and bring forth the data-reflections detailed in this article. As such, I hope to further situate my knowledge claims therein. However, due to practical constraints, I will do so in a highly cursory manner, while pointing readers to my prior reflexive research for a more detailed delineation (Hedlund, 2008). The following categories could be considered by integral researchers with respect to reflexive epistemological inquiry: axiological (core values and knowledge constitutive interests);42 emancipatory (normative dispositions, passions for transformational service); soteriological (liberational, spiritual, or religious inspirations 16

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and orientations); ontological (theoretical backgrounds and pre-understandings, assumptions about the data, assumptions about how the data is interpreted [e.g., what’s meaningful/not meaningful]); cultural (geospatial region [north, south, east, west], national culture, local culture, ethnic background); socio-economic (class, techno-economic milieu); political (partisan orientations/identifications, political milieu); generational (e.g., baby boomer, generation X, generation Y); historical-autobiographical (personal narrative vis-à-vis the research topic); developmental (cognitive, interpersonal, self-identity, values, morals, needs, somatic, emotional, aesthetic, psychosexual); and typological (Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, quadratic orientation). These categories are not exhaustive nor systematically formulated, but have proven useful in my own reflective inquiry.43 My intention here is simply to stimulate our discourse around the question of how best to engage this important aspect of the Integral Research process.

Issues of Validity and Meta-validity In my view, the area of meta-validity, as a sub-field of what the researcher Gene Glass (1976, 1977) refers to as “meta-data analysis,” is of crucial importance in terms our collective enactment of Integral Research as a more rigorous enterprise of integrated knowledge acquisition. The primary issue for theoretical clarification, as I see it, involves the unresolved tension between the various discrete forms of validity. On the one hand, there are domain-general validity claims, or meta-validity criteria, which allow us to make hierarchical distinctions between valid and invalid knowledge claims regardless of the particular object domain (or horizone) under investigation. Such universal meta-validity frameworks have been proposed by various theorists, all of which are necessarily rooted in some form of intersubjective, dialogical process. Most notable for Integral Research, in my view, is that of Habermas (1984) as well as Wilber’s framework of the three strands of valid knowledge, which Edwards (2008, 2010) has convincingly expanded to include a fourth, interpretive strand. On the other hand, there are also validity criteria that are not common across the three domains (domain specific validity claims). Such validity criteria are primarily related to the idiosyncratic textures and contours associated with each distinct domain, or zone, of inquiry. The meta-validity criteria operate on the domain-specific criteria, and thereby holarichally include and transcend them. So, a key issue for Integral Research has to do with the development of an operationalized framework with which to relate these validity criteria. While there have been attempts to construct a unified validity framework within the mixed methods community that I find instructive (e.g., Dellinger & Leech, 2008), I am not aware of a framework that can satisfactorily relate cross-domain meta-validity criteria with domain-specific criteria (at least in the way I am conceptualizing the issue here). For example, it is not clear exactly how to relate the validity claim of truthfulness (zone 1) with the broad claim to generalizable-descriptive knowledge (associated with Wilber/Edwards’ four strands of valid knowledge). Additionally, there are a number of other forms of validity claims that need to be considered—and integrated—in this context: validity claims associated with particular methodological/philosophical traditions (methodological validity), particular injunctive methods (method-specific validity), as well as disciplinary validity criteria (disciplinary validity). I am currently fleshing out a proposal for such systematic interlinking and non-reductive integration of these various validity claims, which I hope to share at some point. Suffice it to say that I feel this topic deserves significant attention and remains a key area for Integral Research to address if it is to actualize its potential to generate rigorous and systematically integrated knowledge claims. Having offered a number of initial data-reflections on the definition of Integral Research and the application of integral principles to the various phase of the research process, it is now appropriate to turn to a brief concluding discussion. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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Conclusion I began this article by underscoring the necessity for new integrative research frameworks that can help operate on and coordinate the cacophonous diversity of perspectives across boundaries—whether disciplinary, methodological, or otherwise. These research frameworks are needed in order to attempt to facilitate mutual understanding and multi-lateral action in relation to our urgent planetary problems. Because such mutual understanding and action is largely “over our heads,” to borrow a phrase from Harvard developmentalstructuralist Robert Kegan (1994), we are in deep need of various forms of theoretical and methodological scaffolding that can help to enact integrated knowledge claims, cross-paradigmatic coordination, and thereby skillful solutions to our global challenges. Integral Research was then highlighted as an emerging meta-methodological framework that holds significant potential to help address these urgent needs by generating integrated understandings and skillful solutions. However, the need for further development in order to enact its potential was likewise articulated. In support of this development, I then engaged a process of critical reflectivity in relation to the current state of Integral Research and some key areas in need of clarification and development. Such reflectivity was intended to inform a discussion of its future potential and optimal evolution as a field. From such an emancipatory disposition, I interwove aspects of the results of my first-person inquiry, second-person dialogue, and third-person survey research into a number of integrated data-reflections. With respect to data-reflection #1, which deals with the definition of Integral Research, a variety of potential limitations of the current definition were discussed. In particular, some limitations connected to the definition’s demand to make use of first-, second-, and third-methodologies were highlighted. These included constraints of time and funding, length limitations in peer-reviewed publications, issues of methodological expertise, a privileging of span over depth, and questions of the relationship between the current definitional formalism and its purpose and function. It was posited that the current definition tends to emphasize methodological span (as opposed to interpretive-perspectival depth), focuses largely on the phase of research design, does little to support the systematic integration of data sets, and generally may not be the most effective construct for serving the proposed purpose of Integral Research—to support or scaffold Integral performances in relation to research. In response to these potential limitations of the current definition, an alternative four-level spectral definition of Integral Research was proposed. The first level, which also serves as a general definition, reads as follows: Integral Research is an approach to research that is reflexively situated and informed at all major phases of the research process by the evolving meta-methodological map and principles of Integral Methodological Pluralism. The second level holarchically envelops the first, while additionally specifying the use of at least one qualitative and one quantitative method as well as the systematic integration of data sets. The third level further complexifies the structure, making use of first-, second-, and third-person methods, while the fourth level utilizes multiple first-, second, and third-person methods (for a minimum of six). Furthermore, I proposed that while my alternative spectral definition is anchored at all levels in IMP, Integral Research should understand itself as an evolving field that has decoupled itself from Wilber’s particular interpretation and exposition of it, and welcomes further clarification and development. With respect to data-reflection #2, which deals with the phases of research, I offered a number of reflections regarding some of the key issues connected to each phase that I feel the Integral Research community should be attending to. Next, I offered some cursory musings on how we might begin to do so by applying integral principles to those phases. Regarding research design, I discussed the value of the researcher considering 18

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multiple evaluative dispositions, including not only a descriptive-technical one, but also—most notably—a normative-emancipatory one. I also raised some complex questions for Integral Research to grapple with in the coming years regarding the implications of enactive ontology in relation to the normative/axiological dimension of research. In terms of coding, I discussed the need to explore how Integral principles (e.g., non-exclusion and enactment) could be applied therein. I mentioned approaches such as quadratic and IMP coding, before offering some thoughts on enactment in relation to coding. I then discussed the importance of epistemic reflexivity and transparency relative to conducting epistemologically sophisticated research, particularly with regard to the discourse of social validation. A framework for a reflexive epistemological inquiry practice was then sketched. Finally, I clarified the basic distinction between validity and meta-validity before specifying three additional categories that should be considered as the field moves forward: methodological validity, method-specific validity, and disciplinary validity. It important to emphasize that all of the data-reflections/interpretations presented in this brief study should be understood as situated, enactive perspectives on the state and future of Integral Research disclosed through a complex, idiosyncratic epistemic-injunctive constellation. Namely, the data-reflections presented were shaped by my particular epistemic patterning (e.g., developmental, typological, etc.) and brought forth through the somewhat novel methodology (i.e., 1-2-3-p situated-theoretic inquiry) specified above. As such, I invite you to consider my transparent disclosure of this reflexive data as you assess the relative merits of my offering to the academic conversation. I feel that such increased disclosure would profoundly serve our community in generating a more transparent and reflective—and therefore meaningful and emancipatory—discourse of Integral Research. The data-reflections in this study seem to converge to reveal a vision of Integral Research as an increasingly reflexive, rigorous, and emancipatory framework supporting integrated knowledge acquisition and global action. While I have offered a number of specific formulations hoping that they may be of value in and of themselves, they are nonetheless intended primarily as catalysts. They are therefore offered in the spirit of supporting us, as an Integral Research community, in engaging a deeper collective reflectivity and cultivating a more robust discourse in relation to the evolution of this promising new approach. It is my sincere hope that this inquiry might therefore serve as a step, however small, towards enacting a more powerfully Integral future for the field of Integral Research—and thereby for the planet.

Acknowledgments I owe my thanks to my co-researcher and beloved partner Annick de Witt, who made a number of important contributions to this article in terms of both content and process. In addition to thinking along with me as the article was in its formative stages and offering her keen editorial feedback on multiple earlier drafts, I am deeply grateful for Annick’s unwavering love, encouragement, and practical support through this process. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague Sean Esbjörn-Hargens for inspiring my passion for Integral Research, for all his support, and for the many rich dialogues that have informed this article. I would like to acknowledge and thank Mark Edwards, Gail Hochachka, Jordan Luftig, Jeffery A. Martin, Zachary Stein, Lauren Tenney, and Ken Wilber for their contributions to the field of Integral Research and for generously participating in the dialogues that helped shape this article. Finally, I would like to thank Lynwood Lord for all his work and support during the editorial process.

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Appendix A Reflexive Inquiry in Coding The following are a number of factors (organized according to the quadrants) that can be considered in engaging an Integral Post-Metaphysical approach to coding: Psychological-Enactive Factors in Coding (Upper-Left quadrant) • What is your felt-sense of some of the most significant ways that your coding has been influenced by the uniqueness of your subjective being and history? • What is your felt-sense of the underlying interests driving your research (e.g., how they relate to your history and background, object relations, shadow dynamics, etc.) that may be influencing how you are coding your data? • In what ways are your passions and/or spiritual intuitions influencing your approach to coding? • In what way is your approach to data analysis influenced by career interests and ambitions? • What are the horizontal structures of knowing that you, the researcher, tend to inhabit (e.g., the Enneagram, Myers Briggs, etc.)? And how specifically do they influence your data interpretation in the coding process? • What are the vertical structures of knowing (e.g., levels in the various lines of development) that you tend to inhabit to help you shape and fashion the dataperspectives that are generated through your coding process? Cultural-Enactive Factors in Coding (Lower-Left quadrant) • What is the shared “normal” scientific paradigm I am operating from? In what ways might I tend to disregard or pre-filter anomalous data-perspectives? • How does my cultural background influence my enactment of my coding process? What are the norms and values within the various sub-cultures you are embedded in and in what ways are they influencing your approach to coding? ο Example 1: Culture of Scientism influences research as a tendency to deny or hide cultural and psychological dimensions/factors influencing research—the tendency to overlook this very conversation! ο Example 2: What are the norms, values, and assumptions associated with the culture of the particular academic setting you are embedded? Behavioral-Enactive Factors in Coding (Upper-Right quadrant) • What are some of your habitual behavior patterns that influence your approach to coding the data? (e.g., work habits, organizational skills, attention to tracking details in data collection and analysis) • What are some salient cognitive biases that impact your perception and how do they influence your coding? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases for a list of cognitive biases) • What is your level of reading speed and comprehension and how does that influence your relationship to the coding process? • What is your level of technological fluency and skill (e.g., with coding software, recording devises, etc.) and how does that impact the data-perspectives brought forth through your coding? Sociological-Enactive Factors in Coding (Lower-Right quadrant) • How do the sociological dynamics of the educational system you’re enmeshed in influence your research and approach to coding? • How does your funding source(s) influence your approach to coding the data? • How do techno-economic factors (e.g., being enmeshed in a industrial-capitalist economy) influence your approach to research and coding? • How do political dynamics (at the local, state/provincial, national, or international level) influence your approach to coding? 20

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See Creswell and Plano Clark (2007, p. 13). See Boyer (1994, p. 118). 3 On the one hand, the broad sphere of academically legitimized and institutionalized traditions of inquiry have, in practice, generally limited the domain of valid knowledge acquisition to the exceptionally narrow purview of the descriptive and sensory-empirical, reflecting their residual alignment with the philosophy of positivism and their concomitant embeddedness in the ubiquitous worldview of scientism. On the other hand, since the 1960s, the relatively monolithic edifice of the research enterprise has crumbled in the face of burgeoning research specializations and emerging methodologies associated with the rise of qualitative research. Although this proliferation did tend to widen the sphere of valid inquiry in certain ways, inviting further inclusivity of diverse methods, it also tended to incite paradigm wars and has left the overall landscape of inquiry ridden with pervasive fragmentation. 4 It should be noted that the Wilberian-based framework pioneered by Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a) is not the only integrative research framework to go by the name of Integral Research. Researchers Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer (2008) likewise have developed a sophisticated meta-methodological approach to research, as articulated in their book Integral Research: A Global Approach towards Social Science Research Leading to Social Innovation. For an insightful overview of Lessem and Schieffer’s work, see Lauren Tenney’s book review in this issue (pp. 161-169). 5 Of course, my comments here regarding the relative merits of Integral Research reflect a personal judgment that should not be taken at face value. Rather, I invite you, the reader, to critically consider this judgment in light of your experience as you read this article, and as you observe/participate in the discourse and application of Integral Research over time. 6 This is not to suggest that Integral Research should be the only integrative research framework. In fact, I feel that a pluralism of research frameworks will serve the development of a broader field of integrative research, each serving as a vantage point from which to critically and appreciatively reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the others. 7 Wilber is the primary founding theorist within the field of Integral Theory. See Wilber (1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2000d, 2000e, 2001, 2003, 2006). Also see Wilber and Walsh (2000). 8 Likewise, I believe that we need to facilitate a deep encounter between Integral Research and research approaches and norms that are currently well established in academia (such as mixed methods). 9 Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (personal communication, December 7, 2009) has articulated a distinction between Integral Theory and integral studies as follows: 2

Integral Theory is used to refer to Ken Wilber’s writings and those scholar-practitioners who are contributing to the development of the AQAL model through application, theoretical extension, and constructive critique. In contrast, integral studies is the wider category and is used more generally to include the writings of Wilber as well as individuals with their integrative visions like Rudolph Steiner’s esoteric cosmology, Jean Gebser’s social-cultural analysis of worldviews, Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga psychology, Ervin Laszlo’s TOE based in physics and systems thinking, William Torbert’s Developmental Action Inquiry, and Don Beck’s “Spiral Dynamics Integral” model of value systems. Also, integral studies can be broadly construed to also include metatheory (e.g., George Ritzer’s work in sociology), critical realism (e.g., Roy Bhaskar’s work in philosophy of science), and science and technology studies (e.g., Bruno Latour’s work in the sociology of scientific knowledge). 10

In order to enact and accelerate the field’s development, I concur with Esbjörn-Hargens (2008) that the future of Integral Research will largely be forged through the development of three primary interrelated areas: critical reflectivity, theoretical clarification, and application. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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Since a detailed discussion of Integral Post-Metaphysics and enactment is beyond the scope of this article, please refer to Habermas (1992), Esbjörn-Hargens (2010), Esbjörn-Hargens and Wilber (2006), and Wilber (2001, 2002a, 2002b, 2006). In the context of this article, a brief overview will have to suffice. Wilber’s Integral Post-Metaphysics (phase-5) stresses that any approach that fails to grapple with post-Kantian critiques of epistemology is not feasible in the postmodern world of inquiry. Reality (ontology) is not simply a pre-given perception but is enacted or cocreated (methodology) by the inquiring subject (epistemology). In other words, ontological objects do not exist apart from the structures of the epistemological subject and the methodological injunctions with which they are enacted and therefore disclosed. As Wilber (2006) suggests, “various a priori categories of the knowing subject [as well as the methods engaged] help to fashion or construct reality as we know it” (p. 231). And these structured constructions recursively bring forth new realties that, through a series of co-creative iterations, move from a highly free, chaotic space to highly structured reified patterns that then exhibit a force of greater determinism in terms of guiding the evolutionary trajectory of the next creative moment. So a priori categories (such as structures of consciousness) generally only exist if they have been laid down evolutionarily as co-created “Kosmic habits” (p. 272). However, once they have been laid down, they do indeed exist independently of human interpretation. In short, we do not perceive a pre-given world, but interpret and therefore co-create reality; the perspective-methods (including structured a priori categories) we bring to any occasion actually enact or bring forth particular aspects of reality. Wilber’s articulation of Integral Post-Metaphysics highlights the impossibility of research to simply reflect a pre-given reality. Rather, a post-metaphysical approach to research must specify the particular perspective-method, or “Kosmic address,” with which phenomena have been enacted and disclosed. Without a detailed delineation of the conditions and procedures required to enact a particular reality, any ontic claims are essentially hollow metaphysics. This is summarized by Wilber’s dictum: “The meaning of a statement is the injunction of its enactment” (p. 268) (i.e., devoid of injunction, devoid of meaning). And this is key with regard to research; without the specification of the injunction, any assertion must be jettisoned. Integral Post-Metaphysics, therefore, replaces “problems of proof with problems of specifying Kosmic addresses and injunctions for enacting them” (p. 273). So to paraphrase integral scholar-practitioner Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (2006b), a post-metaphysical approach specifies what is being looked at (i.e., the Kosmic address of the referent or object of the signifier of the perceived), who is doing the looking (i.e., the Kosmic address of the perceiver or subject), and how they are doing the looking (i.e., detailing the precise injunction/method of enactment). 12 Esbjörn-Hargens (2010) offers a notable model for a basic (or minimally demanding) specification of some of the conditions of enactment in his recent article, “An Ontology of Climate Change: Integral Pluralism and the Enactment of Multiple Objects”: I have enacted this article within the theoretical context of Integral Theory. Within this context I have brought my own background and embodied structures of consciousness (the Who); taken up an integrative synthesis of insight from critical realism, actor-network theory, science and technology studies, and ontological politics (the How); and focused on the global phenomenon of climate change as an exemplar of a multiple object (the What). Note there is a fractal quality to examining any one of the three variables. For example, to examine my own “Who” out of a commitment to reflexivity would involve myself (the Who) using some methods (the How) to examine myself (the What). (p. 168) Even such a basic specification of the Who, How, and What would, in my view, be a profound step toward the emergence of a more critically reflexive discourse in the integral community. 13 An e-mail invitation to take my empirical survey was sent out to all the students in the Integral Theory (online) and Integral Psychology (residential) programs at John F. Kennedy University who have taken an Integral Research course. Also, all of the students who have taken an Integral Research course at Fielding University, as well as the “Integral Scholars” listserv associated with the Integral Research Center, were likewise invited to take the survey. 14 For an overview of Esbjörn-Hargens’ initial vision and operationalization of Integral Research in the context of his 22

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courses at John F. Kennedy University, see Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a). It should be noted that Gail Hochachka (2005, 2008, 2009) has been concurrently developing a more applied, informal, and action-oriented approach to Integral Research in which she makes use of multiple first-, second-, and third-person methodologies. Specifically, she works with three domains of reality (personal, interpersonal, and practical) and applies two methodologies, or what she calls “lines of inquiry” to each domain: 1) personal: experiential inquiry (zone 1), developmental inquiry (zone 2); 2) interpersonal: interpretive inquiry (zone 3), ethnomethodological inquiry (zone 4); 3) practical: empirical inquiry (zone 6), and systems inquiry (zone 8). Note these six methods used by Hochachka are the same used by Esbjörn-Hargens (2006) in his original definition of Integral Research. In my view, Hochachka’s work should be on the radar of all integral researchers, and particularly those with an interest in social action-research applications. 16 Each of these methodological families are generic terms that cover many distinct methodological traditions, which in turn potentially cover multiple particular methods. For example, with respect to the methodological family of phenomenology, there are a number of methodological traditions such as Husserlian phenomenology, systematic introspection, psychological phenomenology, and so on. Within each of those methodological traditions, there may be a number of distinct methods (e.g., reflective inquiry, journaling, autobiographical analysis, etc.). 17 Esbjörn-Hargens (2006a) goes on to mention a number of the “influential currents and pioneering efforts that Integral Research builds on and situates within Integral Theory” (p. 89). In that light he mentions William Torbert’s Developmental Action-Inquiry (1991, 2000a, 2000b, 2001, 2004; Sherman & Torbert 2000), Goethian Science (Seamon, D., & Zajonc,1998; Bortoft, 1996), William Braud’s (1998; Braud & Anderson, 1998) Integral Inquiry, and Gail Hochachka’s (2005) work in Integral International Development. 18 It is worth noting that a slight variation on Esbjörn-Hargens’ (2006a) definition of Integral Research has been published online by the Integral Research Center (www.integralresearchcenter.org), where Esbjörn-Hargens is founder and senior research (and I am associate researcher). That definition, which at the time of publication was posted on their web page, is as follows: 15

Integral Research (IR) is an emerging approach to mixed methods that is explicitly grounded in Integral Theory and makes use of its post-metaphysical position and its practice of Integral Methodological Pluralism to provide a multi-method approach that weaves together 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person methods. IR makes use of multiple methods (qualitative and quantitative) as a way of exploring the multi-faceted and multidimensional nature of complex phenomena. I see this definition largely as a more fine-tuned version of Esbjörn-Hargens’ (2006) definition that carries no notable structural differences. 19 This view was also echoed, to some extent, in my survey data: 63.2% of respondents agreed that the methodological demands of the current definition are “limiting due to constraints of time”, while 42.1% agreed that it is limiting “due to the challenges of generating sufficient funding.” 20 According to researchers R. Burke Johnson and Anthony Onwuebuzie (2004), mixed methods is defined as follows: The class of research where the researcher mixes or combines quantitative and qualitative research techniques, methods, approaches, concepts or language into a single study.... Mixed methods research also is an attempt to legitimate the use of multiple approaches in answering research questions, rather than restricting or constraining researcher’ choices (i.e., it rejects dogmatism). It is an expansive and creative form of research, not a limiting form of research. (p. 17) 21

Esbjörn-Hargens (personal communication, May, 18, 2010) offers an additional perspective to the discussion of the pragmatic viability of Integral Research relative to constraints of time and funding: Integral Research is more flexible than standard mixed methods in that there are ways to Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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do Integral Research without a lot of funding and time; the online Integral Research course at JFKU demonstrates this. Of course the more time and money you have the more robust your Integral Research can be. But Integral Research as I envision it democratizes the research process and makes it scalable so you can do it in an informal way or a formal way. In other words, you don’t need more than a few months and a few hundred dollars to do first-, second-, and third-person methods. One way to do it is to do a robust second-person approach—employing standard qualitative methods for the second-person dimension and then adding in an informal or formal first- and third-person dimension. So, Integral Research can easily transform any research effort into an Integral one and it can obviously take more time and more money than even the most elaborate mixed methods approaches. The power of Integral Research is in part due to its flexibility and scalability. 22

As de Witt (personal communication, June 4, 2010) states in relation to what she sees as the limitations of publishing research that includes first-, second-, and third-person methods in a single study: “Peer-reviewed journals tend to work with length limitations for articles that won’t make it easy to report all your methods, or even present the results from a single method contextualized in your other data, in one article.” 23 It should be noted, paralleling the quotation from Esbjörn-Hargens in endnote 20, that there may indeed be ways to successfully include first-, second-, and third-person methods in a formal, rigorous study that can be written up at a publishable length. For example, if one of the methods is framed as the primary method and the other two are framed as secondary methods (i.e., they not employed as means of generating rigorous knowledge claims in their own right, but rather as supportive or complementary relative to the primary method). This might be done in the context of a study employing an empirical (third-person) survey as its primary method, but also make use of (second-person) interviews in an exploratory manner to help inform the survey design, as well as some basic (first-person) reflexive research for the purpose of situating knowledge claims and/or mitigating subjective epistemological bias/interindividual variability. 24 This passage was given by an anonymous survey participant responding to the question, “In your view, how should Integral Research be defined?” 25 To provide but one example, I have conducted a first-person study (Hedlund, 2008) that made use of two qualitative, first-person methodologies (phenomenology and structuralism), and yet was deeply informed by the principles of Integral Theory and IMP. It is my opinion that this study, making use of only first-person methods, likely made a more substantive contribution to the field within the constraints I was working within, than an eight method/eight zone study would have. 26 Esbjörn-Hargens (personal communication, June 4, 2010) feels that this tendency for insufficient data integration is largely a function of the way he has taught his Integral Research courses coupled with their relatively demanding “six methods in six months” structure. He and I are currently exploring how to redesign the course to allow more emphasis to be placed on the integration of multiple data sets and not just the collection of multiple data sets, as has been the case up until this point. 27 Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) point to the distinction between multi-method research and mixed methods research. The former involves the inclusion of multiple methods in a single study, whereas the latter involves an authentic “mixing” or integration of the methods or data sets. In light of this distinction, it is interesting to note that Esbjörn-Hargens’ (2006a) article refers to Integral Research as a “a multi-method approach to investigating phenomena.” In many ways, I feel that this description of Integral Research is an apt one to describe the predominant approach pursued by most Integral Researchers to date, which has indeed tended towards more of a multi-method approach. Furthermore, it is also worth noting that Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) offer a similar distinction between two broad categories of mixed method studies: mixed studies and quasi-mixed studies, the latter of which refers to studies wherein substantive integration of the data sets and findings/interpretations does not occur. So again, most Integral Research conducted to date would likely fall within the category of quasi-mixed. However, as I am 24

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attempting to suggest in this article, it is my hope that the next phase of the field can enact Integral Research as a more authentically mixed method or integrated approach to investigating phenomena. 28 In response to the following question from my empirical survey, “Did you find your Integral Research study to be personally transformative (either vertically or horizontally) for you as a researcher?”, 94.7% of respondents answered “yes.” 29 It is my conviction that research firmly grounded in the principles of Integral Theory and its enactive disposition should not be excluded from the purview of Integral Research solely because it is does not make use of at least three distinct (first-, second-, and third-person) methods. 30 Situated-theoretic inquiries, like the one I am modeling in this article, would also generally fall into the category of level one research. Due to their relatively informal and asystematic nature, some of the higher level demands such as systematic data integration may not be well-suited to this kind of inquiry. 31 The acknowledgement and statement of a rationale for what is being excluded in a given Integral Research study is a crucial characteristic of Integral Research, in my view. In a dialogue regarding my proposed spectrum model with Esbjörn-Hargens and Wilber, Esbjörn-Hargens (personal communication, May 25, 2010) stated the following: Integral Research is research informed by IMP and Integral Theory in such a way that it allows the researcher to not only be aware of what they are including, and therefore to include more because you have a bigger map, but also to be equally aware of what you are excluding. That is a very different approach to research than anything else I see out there, where there isn’t an awareness or an interest in what is being excluded. Thus, what is absent can be as important as what is present. 32

See Hedlund (2008) for an example of such a level one Integral Research study, according to the definitions put forth in my proposed spectrum model. 33 Mark Edwards (2010) has identified a number of “metatheoretical components” of the AQAL model in addition to the standard five elements of quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types. He includes perspectives; agency-communion; growth-integration; transformation-translation; relational exchange; and transition process (pp. 73-74). In my view, these components could be seen as principles that could be applied in various ways to each stage of the research process. Moreover, the kind of approach Edwards has pursued to identify such principles seems promising as a method for identifying additional principles of Integral Theory/IMP. 34 As Forman & Esbjörn-Hargens (2008) highlight with respect to the evolution of the field of Integral Theory supported by the 2008 Integral Theory Conference: One of the major aims of the conference in general… is to decouple Ken Wilber and Integral Theory. We bring a deep honoring of what Wilber has enacted through his writings and activities and an excited anticipation of any new writings he generates. He is without a doubt the most important theorist associated with Integral Theory and there is no reason to assume this will change anytime soon. But to this orientation we also bring a desire to make sure Integral Theory receives the benefit of many contributors. In other words, we do not want Integral Theory to be a ‘one man show.’ We are fine with ‘Wilberian Theory’ being synonymous with ‘Integral Theory’ as long as ‘Wilberian Theory’ is understood to mean ‘AQAL Theory’ and not meant as ‘Ken’s Theory.’ So, while Wilber might be the originator of Integral Theory, as Freud is the originator of psychoanalysis, he does not own Integral Theory. In our view, Integral Theory will only thrive insofar as valuable contributions to its criticism, clarification, application, and expansion come from many individuals working within its context and not just taking aim from the outside (e.g., by people who have never really tried applying the AQAL model to some contemporary issue). While we welcome insights from ‘outside,’ it is our experience that they are of less value than those that come Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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from a committed place to improve Integral Theory by turning Integral Theory onto itself: an act of theoretical-applied self-reflection. 35

Notably, Ken Wilber (personal communication, May 25, 2010) developed the concept of what he calls Integrally informed research a few years prior to the publication of this article. He also notes that the notion of Integrally informed research has been implicit in how he has conceived of IMP from the time of its inception. The concept of research as “Integrally informed” appears to be closely related to, and resonant with, the view of Integral Research I am espousing here. For Wilber (personal communication, May 25, 2010), Integrally informed research is not necessarily linked to the use of multiple methodologies: Whatever method is chosen, and it can be anywhere from one to eight, it is done with all eight zones and perspectives in mind and its results are equally and likewise situated within all eight zones, so that guarantees integrated data… In any given project, Integrally informed research is not necessarily mixed. The project could be just empirical—it could use just one of the 8 methods, if it is Integrally understood. So it is ideal to use all four quadrants or all 8 zones, but it is not necessary. It is necessary to have an AQAL framework in mind and thus Integrally inform your work at all phases… at design, application, and interpretation.

As such, for Wilber Integrally informed research “is any research that is in fact informed by the full AQAL map and that uses… [some of its] …elements in its design, implementation, and interpretation.,” which he notes can be “anywhere from one element of the Kosmic address to all forty.” Similar to the spectral definition of Integral Research and a number of the points I am making in this article, Wilber states (personal communication, May 25, 2010) that, “you can do Integrally informed research with just empirical methods, or Integrally informed research with phenomenological methods. And so you can go after depth instead of span, but in terms of span you have to know the context, you have to know how it fits in the AQAL framework.” Wilber likewise proposes that within such an approach: Our data remains integrated and our results remain integrated, our interpretations remain integrated, if every stage is Integrally informed. And so that is what makes Integrally informed a little bit different than just an overall Integral Research that includes all six or all eight zones. 36

A fifth level in the spectral model would move increasingly towards inclusion all of the major constituents of what Wilber (2006) calls the “Kosmic address” of a holon. As Wilber (personal communication, May 25, 2010) notes, “Something like a totally Integral Research would include not only all eight zones, but all the levels in all eight zones, all the lines, all the states, all the types, across all major validity claims and all major judgments: cognitive, normative, and aesthetic. In other words, that total research determination would give the overall Kosmic address of any holon.” 37 In some ways, my discussion regarding the definition of Integral Research can be seen as a critically reflective and constructive assessment of one aspect of how we might apply integral principles to the foundational domain of research design (if conceived broadly enough). And there is clearly much more that could be said about the relationship between an underlying research worldview and the elements that compose a research study’s design. However, due to the pragmatic constraints of this article, I will not address this further here. 38 See Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) for a discussion and overview of many of these technically oriented research design models in the context of mixed methods. 39 The theme of the marginalization of qualitative methods in more traditional academic institutions echoes some of the comments made by Jeffery A. Martin (personal communication, January 3, 2010) in our interview/dialogue. 40 Because Integral Research, as the systematic application of critical reason within the context of a descriptiveexplanatory disposition, does not arbitrarily restrict the application of this faculty to the natural-objective domain of inquiry, it is arguably more rational than typical empiric-analytic modes of science that remain unreflectively 26

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embedded within the culture of scientism. My use of relatively modernist, third-person scientific language in this context is inspired by a point made by Jeffery A. Martin (personal communication, January 3, 2010). Martin emphasized the potential value of highlighting the rhetoric of “objectivity” in relation to the potential of Integral Research to “control for subjective bias” within qualitative research and thereby generate greater appeal within academic institutions that continue to underfund and generally marginalize qualitative approaches, a point also resonant with Kagan (2009). Clearly, this, like any rhetorical strategy, has advantages and disadvantages. But my broader point is that the question of rhetoric in relation to communicating Integral Research is an important one for collective reflection. 42 As Habermas (1968) argues in Knowledge and Human Interests, all research is interest bound. More specifically, he asserts that research is actually driven by, and inextricably bound to, pragmatic concerns, or what he calls “anthropologically deep-seated knowledge constitutive interests.” 43 In terms of my reflexive epistemological inquiry process, I will limit myself, due to practical constraints, to the disclosure of data related to developmental lines in the context of conducting an Integral Psychograph Assessment, as well as a typological assessment, from a prior study (Hedlund, 2008). Below are the results of the triangulated (first-, second-, and third-person) assessment, which at the time of publication was roughly two years old and therefore may be subject to significant changes upon re-assessment (progressive or regressive). This assessment attempted to catalogue the vertical bandwidth in which my awareness tends to be structured in various lines. According to the assessment I often: inhabit a (turquoise altitude) cross-paradigmatic cognitive structure (Commons, Richards & Armon, 1984); relate from an entry global perspective (teal altitude) in the interpersonal line (V. Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008); identify with an entry Autonomous (teal altitude) self-sense (Cook-Greuter, 2002); hold FlexFlow (teal altitude) values (Beck & Cowan, 1996); operate from an entry Universal Ethical Principles (teal altitude) structure in the moral line (Kohlberg, 1984); orient towards (turquoise altitude) Self-Actualization needs (Maslow, 1970); experience my body through the (teal altitude) Flow Body structure in the somatic line (V. Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008); operate from Emerging Emotions (orange altitude) in terms of my emotional intelligence (V. Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008); and relate to the domain of aesthetics in terms of an entry (teal altitude) Re-creative structure (V. Esbjörn-Hargens, 2008). Since the completion of my Integral Psychograph Assessment in 2008, I have re-taken Susanne Cook-Greuter’s Sentence Completion Test international (SCTi), while also re-engaging in first-person and second-person assessment according to the same method specified in my prior research. The triangulated, averaged results suggest a increase in vertical development from the previously assessed entry Autonomous structure, to a full Autonomous structure (teal altitude). As it is beyond the scope of this article to speak to the nuances and complexities vis-à-vis such psychometrics, suffice it to say that I hold these results lightly (i.e., as perspectivally situated, provisional estimates). For more information on the Integral Psychograph Assessment, see V. Esbjörn-Hargens (in press). In my prior study I also conducted a typological assessment. In that study, the results of my “1-2-3-p” triangulated Enneagram assessment conclude that my personality resonates with, and is predominantly structured by, aspects of the Enneagram type seven, known as the “Enthusiast” (Riso & Hudson, 1999). These results are likely to remain valid, as the general consensus in the Enneagram community holds that one’s primary Enneatype is static and does not change over the course of one’s adult life. 41

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165-194. Edwards, M. (2010). Organizational transformation for sustainability: An integral metatheory. New York, NY: Routledge. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2006a). Integral research: A multimethod approach to investigating phenomena. Constructivism and the Human Sciences, 11(1), 79-107. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2006b). Integral ecology: A postmetaphysical approach to environmental phenomena. AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 1(1), 305-369. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2008a). Editorial introduction. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 3(1), v-xii. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2008b). Editorial introduction. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 3(2), v-xii. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2008c). Integral ecological research: Using IMP to examine animal consciousness and sustainability. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1), 15-60. Esbjörn-Hargens, S., & Wilber, K. (2006). Towards a comprehensive integration of science and religion: A post-metaphysical approach. In P. Clayton & Z. Simpson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of science and religion (pp. 523-546). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2010). An ontology of climate change: Integral pluralism and the enactment of multiple objects. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(1), 143-174. Esbjörn-Hargens, V. (2008). Psychograph assessment for Nicholas Hedlund. Unpublished document. Esbjörn-Hargens, V. (In press). Psychograph as map, matrix, and mirror: An introduction to the integral psychograph assessment. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. Forman, M., & Esbjörn-Hargens, S. The academic emergence of integral theory: Reflections on and clarifications of the first biennial integral theory conference. Retrieved September 18, 200 from http:// www.integralworld.net/forman-hargens.html. Fuhs, C. (2008). Towards a vision of integral leadership: A quadrivial analysis of eight leadership books. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1),

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139-162. Glass, G. V. (1976). Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research. Educational Researcher, 11, 3-8. Glass, G. V. (1977). Integrative findings: The meta-analysis of research. Review Of Research In Education, 5(5), 351-379. Golin, C. (2008). Integral life practice inquiry: An integral research approach to personal development. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1), 163-183. Habermas, J. (1968). Knowledge and human interests. Boston: Beacon Press. Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action: Reason and the rationalization of society. Boston, MA: Beacon Press Habermas, J. (1987). The philosophical discourse of modernity: Twelve lectures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Habermas, J. (1990). Discourse ethics: Notes on a program of philosophical justification. In J. Habermas, Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Habermas, J. (1992). Postmetaphysical thinking: Philosophical essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hedlund, N. H. (2008). Integrally researching the integral researcher: A first-person exploration of psychosophy’s holding loving space practice. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), 1-57. Hochachka, G. (2005). Developing sustainability, developing the self: An integral approach to international and community development. Victoria, British Colombia: University of Victoria, POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. Hochachka, G. (2008). Case studies in integral approaches in international development: An integral research project. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), 58-108. Hochachka, G. (2009). Depth and dynamism of integral applications in international development. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 4(2), 125-150. Johnson, R. B. & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33, 14-26. Karlsson, F., & Wistrand, K. (2006). Combining method engineering with activity theory: Theoretical grounding of the method component concept.

Journal of Information Systems, 15(1), 82. Kagan, J. (2009). The three cultures: Natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities in the 21st century. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kelly, E. (2008). An integral approach to the Buffett phenomenon: A proposed mixed methods study. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), 109-128. Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Küpers, W. M. (2009). The status and relevance of phenomenology for integral research: Or why phenomenology is more and different than an “upper left” or zone 1 affair. Integral Review, 5, 51-95. Lessem, R., & Schieffer, A. (2008). Integral research: A global approach towards social science research leading to social innovation. Geneva, Switzerland: Trans4M. Luftig, J. (2008). Living for playing, playing for a living: An integral research study. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1), 61-104. Martin, J. A. (2008). Integral research as a practical mixed-methods framework: Clarifying the role of integral methodological pluralism. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(2), 155-164. Maslow, A. H. (1970). Religions, values, and peak experiences. New York, NY: Arkana. Nicolescu, B. (2008). Transdisciplinarity: Theory and practice. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2001). Handbook of action research. London: Sage. Reason, P., & Torbert, W. (2001). The action turn: Toward a transformational social science. Concepts and Transformation, 6(1), 1-37. Riso, R., & Hudson, R. (1999). The wisdom of the enneagram: The complete guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types. New York, NY: Bantam. Saldana. J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Seamon, D., & Zajonc, A. (Eds.). (1998). Goethe’s way of science: A phenomenology of nature. Albany, Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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NY: SUNY Press. Stein, Z., & Heikkinen, K. (2008). On operationalizing aspects of altitude: An introduction to the lectical assessment system for integral researchers. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3, 105-138. Stein, Z. (2007). Modeling the demands of interdisciplinarity: Toward a framework for evaluating interdisciplinary endeavors. Integral Review, 3(1), 91-107. Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (1998). Mixed methodology: Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Tashakkori, A. (2002). Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of modern identity. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press. Torbert, W. (1991) The power of balance: Transforming self, society and scientific inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Torbert, W. (2000a). Transforming social science: Integrating quantitative, qualitative, and action research. In F. Sherman and W. Torbert (Eds.), Transforming social inquiry, transforming social action (pp. 67-92). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Torbert, W. (2000b). A developmental approach to social science: A model for analyzing Charles Alexander’s scientific contributions. Journal of Adult Development, 7(4), 255-267. Torbert, W. (2001). The practice of action inquiry. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of action research (pp. 250-260). London: Sage. Torbert, W. (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transforming leadership. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koeler Publishers. Torbert, W., & Fisher, D. (1992). Autobiographical awareness as a catalyst for managerial and organizational development. Management Education and Development Journal, 23(3), 184-198.

Wilber, K. (1999a). The collected works, Volume 1. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (1999b). The collected works, Volume 2. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (1999c). The collected works, Volume 3. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (1999d). The collected works, Volume 4. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000a). The collected works, Volume 5. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000b). The collected works, Volume 6. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000c). The collected works, Volume 7. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000d). The collected works, Volume 8. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000e). A Theory of Everything. Boston, MA. Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000f). Integral Psychology. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2001). On the nature of a post-metaphysical spirituality. Retrieved November 18, 2009 from http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/misc/habermas/index.cfm/. Wilber, K. (2002a). Introduction to excerpts from Volume 2 of the Kosmos Trilogy. Retrieved February 20, 2010 from http://www.wilber.shambhala. com/html/books/kosmos/. Wilber, K. (2002b). Excerpt D: The look of a feeling: The importance of post/structuralism. Retrieved February 20, 2010 from http://www.wilber. shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/. Wilber, K. (2006). Integral spirituality: A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Boston, MA: Integral Books. Wilber, K., & Walsh, R. (2000). An integral approach to consciousness research: A proposal for integrating 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person approaches to consciousness. In M. Velmans (Ed,), Investigating phenomenal consciousness. London: John Benjamin.

NICHOLAS HEDLUND, M.A., is associate researcher at the Integral Research Center and adjunct professor of Integral Theory at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. He is associate organizer of the biennial Integral Theory Conference and associate director at the Integral Ecology Center. As a doctoral student at the California Institute of Integral Studies, his research explores the intersections of psychological development, worldviews, and eco-social wellbeing. Nicholas is also the founder of Integral Synergy Consulting, through which he serves as a coach and consultant. 30

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TOWARD AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO STANDARDIZED TESTING Using the Integral Model to Improve Test Performance and Evaluate Current Testing Methodologies Brooks Suttle

ABSTRACT This arcle uses the Integral model and the eight zones of Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) to explore the landscape of standardized tesng. The main inquiry is centered around three elements: 1) what makes a parcular student a “good tester,” 2) pracces and methodologies that can contribute to higher scores, and 3) sociocultural concerns about the tests and the predominant role they play in the admissions process. The work of Stanley Kaplan, a pioneer in the field, is used as an illustraon for how IMP can deepen understanding and reveal why parcular approaches have proven effecve. In the individual dimensions, IMP also suggests new ways to supplement exisng methods. Finally, in looking at the collecve dimensions, aenon is paid to the apparent bias that manifests as consistent racial/ethnic discrepancies in scores. KEY WORDS: intelligence; Kaplan; LSAT; SAT; standardized test

I

n this article, I present an Integrally informed overview of various issues involved in standardized testing.1 Overall, my inquiry is divided into two distinct but interrelated parts—the individual and collective dimensions. In the former, I inquire into ways that educators in this field might use an Integral approach to develop more successful methods of test preparation. This will involve the question of what makes someone a “good tester” in addition to cognitive ability alone, and also what we can do as Integrally informed teachers to help foster those qualities in our students. By looking at standardized tests from the eight zones of Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP), I believe we can gain a more comprehensive perspective on the ways that each dimension of our being contributes to higher scores (Wilber, 2006). Indeed, IMP offers a powerful new framework for “examining the exams” in multiple dimensions, including the mental, physical, emotional, and sociocultural factors that come into play both in preparation and during the test itself. For the second part of my inquiry—the collective dimension—I look at the broader social and cultural implications of standardized testing for higher education programs. Numerous studies in the academic literature reflect troubling questions about the underlying value and validity of the tests as measures of human potential, and there is much controversy regarding the faith that our nation’s top schools place in them for the purposes of granting admission. Indeed, one could argue that such questions are inherent in any methodology that purports to be a quantitative, predictive measure of a student’s potential for future “success.” Although there do not seem to be any comprehensive solutions to these problems as of yet, I believe that the Integral model offers the most promising means available for finding new ways to create a more equitable and bal-

Correspondence: Brooks Sule, 7110 Renaissance Way NE, Atlanta, GA 30308. E-mail: [email protected]. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(2), pp. 31–53

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anced system—one that is more comprehensive, more accurate, and indeed more relevant to the admissions processes for which the tests themselves are designed. To be sure, standardized testing is a complex and controversial subject that requires far more than a single article for a full treatment. As such, the current inquiry is by no means meant to be exhaustive. Because of the large scope of this inquiry, this will necessarily be more akin to a “view from 10,000 feet” than a detailed topographical map, as there are numerous questions about standardized testing that are ripe to become whole articles in and of themselves. While I will attempt to address as many of these issues as I can, some must necessarily be left for another day. Suffice to say for now that, for better or worse, standardized tests play an essential role in the admissions process for almost all of today’s higher education programs, and it is undeniable that a student’s score matters immensely in terms of the opportunities available to them as a result of their performance. In order to look for ways that we might better help students to prepare, I will attempt to distill my experience over 18 months teaching for Kaplan into an overview of the various issues, questions, methods, and concerns that I encountered along the way. Overall, I can say that my efforts to embody second-tier principles and practices in my teaching were often more challenging than I anticipated. This is understandable, however, given the amber/ orange altitude “center of gravity” the average LSAT student, and indeed the legal profession as a whole, tends to exhibit. My own inquiry began over two years ago as a research project for a graduate-level course on IMP, which I had the good fortune of participating in as a student in the Integral Theory master’s program at John F. Kennedy University. As it happened, my class assignment to apply IMP to a field I was involved in came just when I had been hired by Kaplan, Inc. to be an instructor for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). My new job was a matter of some concern for me, as I had no previous experience in the field of education and was unsure how to prepare myself for a somewhat frightening leap into the unknown. Being a novice educator, I had many questions about standardized tests, as well as some assumptions that were rooted in my own experiences over the years. Although I had scored well on the LSAT, I was not convinced that this would necessarily translate into an ability to teach others to do the same. In fact, I was not entirely convinced that the LSAT was something that could be taught at all. Needless to say I felt anxious and afraid at the prospect of being responsible for the success of a group of students—students who had paid a significant tuition, and who would be relying on me to lead them through a truly challenging and consequential exam. In short, I was not sure that I had “what it takes” to be a teacher. What I did have, however, was a strong faith in the power of the Integral framework to provide guidance in unfamiliar territory. Thus I decided to use my assignment as an opportunity to seek some insight into what being an Integrally informed LSAT teacher was all about. In pursuing this topic, I soon discovered that there was far more to it than I had initially supposed. For example, I realized that I had unknowingly shared in a common but ultimately erroneous assumption that these types of tests are a relatively neutral barometer of certain discreet cognitive traits. To the contrary, the more I learned about standardized tests, the more their myriad dimensions—ranging from the intellectual, behavioral, and cultural factors affecting an individual’s performance, to the abstract rule-systems governing the tests themselves, to the broader social implications and concerns pertaining to the aptitude-testing industry as a whole—began to seem increasingly complex, interrelated, and hardly “neutral” at all. As it so often goes when the Integral model is brought to bear on common phenomena, my single overarching query had divided 32

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like a complex fractal into a multitude of interconnected facets, revealing a wide spectrum of novel questions about what preparing for success on a standardized test really entails. In some ways, then, this inquiry had the curious effect of leaving me with more questions than answers in the end. Looking back on my experience with Kaplan, there were times when I met with great success, but also those when I felt like I was making no difference at all. Moreover, because I was not at liberty to design the curriculum myself, I was necessarily somewhat limited in my endeavors. Working Integral principles into a class had to be done implicitly, as a private practice rather than a theoretical presentation. Nonetheless, the classes I taught became a weekly theatre in which I could observe many of the ideas contained in this article in real time. In the process, they also inspired a few modest insights into how these curriculums might be better designed. Most of all, however, they offered me the opportunity to engage in what I believe to be the single most important element of any integral curriculum—the intention of the teacher to embody an integral perspective themselves, regardless of who the students are or what material is being taught. In the coming pages, I take a broad look at as much of the territory surrounding standardized testing as possible. I begin with a general overview of standardized testing as it stands today, and consider the role of these tests in the context of college and graduate school admissions. I then look at the history of the tests themselves, and use IMP to analyze how a dominant figure in the field, Stanley Kaplan, managed to singlehandedly revolutionize (and in many ways undermine) the testing industry through the development of his pioneering approach. The IMP framework will help give us a clearer picture of where the strengths in the Kaplan Method are, and also provide some insight into how the curriculum could be more integral, inclusive, and ultimately more effective. Next I examine in more detail what a systems-view of the LSAT looks like, and then proceed through the four quadrants to see what they disclose about how the individual, behavioral, cultural, and social dimensions of standardized testing operate in tandem to influence a student’s overall success. In the individual dimensions, I inquire into the qualities and behaviors that high-scoring students possess, and consider how these might be better developed through Integrally informed curriculums. In the collective dimensions, I address some of the difficult and contentious issues surrounding the cultural and systemic causes of racial discrepancies in standardized test scores. Finally, I offer my own conclusion as to what an Integral response to these challenges might entail.

Current Perspectives on Standardized Testing In recent years, standardized tests such as the LSAT and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have become notorious in the academic and educational fields. One commentator aptly referred to the former as a “cultural lightning rod” (Henderson, 2003, p. 977). Another noted that “a half century after its creation, experience with the LSAT has revealed abuses that the creators and early critics of standardized tests might not have anticipated” (Haddon, 2006, p.45). Indeed, if there is one thing we know for certain about standardized tests, it is that they are nothing if not controversial. In particular, there has been increasing debate over what, exactly, the tests purport to measure, and few have been able to offer a convincing response. Part of the problem seems to lie in the definition of “intelligence” itself, which has gone from being thought of as an innate, unalterable faculty in the early 20th century, to being recontextualized as a dynamic, diverse, and multi-faceted conglomeration of a wide array of independent skills and abilities (Gardner, 1999). In the most current psychological models, intelligence manifests not only along the cognitive “line” of development, but Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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along emotional, interpersonal, and moral lines as well, to name only a few (Wilber, 2006). Furthermore, we now know that a person can be highly developed intellectually, but exhibit low or even retarded development along other lines, any one of which can be an important element to overall “success” in a given field. While the conventional wisdom still holds that standardized tests are a reliable measure of a person’s potential for future academic and professional success, this new understanding of intelligence suggests that the majority of an applicant’s skills are not being accounted for by the entrance exams. One might even speculate that the negative reputation often attributed to attorneys (or the familiar joke that a bus full of lawyers heading over a cliff is a “good start”) is partially the result of a law school admissions process that pays lip-service to “holistic” evaluation but, practically speaking, tends to select on the basis of cognitive intelligence alone.2 From an integral perspective, it seems obvious that a test which limits its measurement to the cognitive line will in fact be a poor predictor of a student’s true potential. Thus with so many schools employing these partial methods for evaluating applicants, it is no wonder that the “predictive value” of standardized tests has been refuted by a range of empirical studies (e.g., Kinsler, 2001; Mosle, 2002). With regard to the predictive value of the LSAT in particular, one of the more extensive empirical studies on the subject found that it correlated significantly only with first-year grades (Thomas, 2003). Beyond that, the author concludes that law schools’ reliance on the LSAT as a reliable predictor of overall law school performance “is without merit or validity” (Thomas, 2003, p. 1021). To continue with our integral analysis, we might say that the LSAT lacks predictive value because it is blind to a wide spectrum of skills and abilities which compliment, supplement, and support the cognitive capacity of students who are successful over the long-term. Yet it is precisely this type of aptitude—that which cannot be measured on a three-hour multiple choice exam—that an Integrally informed admissions process would seek to include, choosing applicants with greater range and balance even if it means sacrificing some degree of raw intellectual power. However, as two distinguished law professors have noted, the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings—in which the average LSAT scores of a school’s student body factor heavily in its national rank—create an “institutionalized pressure” to over-rely on these tests (Haddon, 2006, p. 62). So long as schools have an incentive to choose brains over balance, these problems will most likely persist, having a negative effect on both students and the profession as a whole. In the words of Professors Haddon and Post (2006): To the extent law schools and prospective employers over-rely on the LSAT as a broad-based predictive measure, they fail to give appropriate consideration to other attributes and skills that are important to success before and after graduation. The LSAT does not measure motivation, perseverance, character, imagination, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, oral communication and listening skills, or empathy for clients—a whole range of qualities that are important to consider in determining who is accepted to law schools and eventually who obtains a legal job. (p. 60) In contrast to the current models, a more integral admissions process would acknowledge that each of the characteristics mentioned by Haddon and Post constitute distinct lines of development within the overall personality structure of the applicant. This is not to say that the tests should be totally discounted or discontinued, however, but only that they should be viewed more equitably within a larger framework that takes the whole student into account. A truly integral assessment would thus incorporate alternative measurement devices 34

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in addition to cognitive-based tests—such as the Sentence Completion Test Integral developed by Susanne Cook-Greuter, or the Lectical Assessment System developed by Kurt Fischer—to help create an “Integral Psychograph” that charts the applicant’s overall development in terms of their altitude across a wide variety of lines (see Torbert, 2004; Stein & Heikkinen, 2008; Wilber, 2006). In response to the growing body of critical research, some schools have indeed begun to alter their admissions policies, although this seems to be limited mostly to colleges in regard to the SAT. For example, the University of California schools (in true West Coast fashion) recently began to call for a more “holistic” approach to college admissions—one with a significantly decreased emphasis on standardized test scores (Bartlett, 2006). Alternatively, one recent proposal for reform has suggested a change in the way that the scores themselves are reported—as simply “below average,” “average,” or “above average”—to prevent schools from over-relying on them for admissions decisions (Haddon, 2006). Considering the long-standing, pervasive, and institutionalized reliance on standardized testing, however, it seems unlikely that major reform will occur any time soon. Thus while their ultimate fate is yet unknown, the fact is that standardized tests, and in particular the LSAT, remain one of the primary determining factors in the evaluation process for admission to higher education programs. In the meantime, then, it seems a useful endeavor to seek the most effective methods possible to help students prepare. In that spirit, let us turn now to the work of Stanley Kaplan—a pioneer in the field of standardized test preparation, whose methods remain one of the most successful means available for helping students attain higher scores.

A Brief History of the Kaplan Method At the time it was created (and for many decades afterward) the SAT was thought to be a valid, reliable, and essentially foolproof means of assessing a student’s potential. This notion was based on the belief that one’s score could not change significantly no matter how many times the test was taken. The SAT was purported to measure an “innate ability,” and test-makers insisted that “coaching was unnecessary and produced insignificant results” (Kaplan, 2001, p. 41). As Nicholas Lemann (1999) writes in his history of the SAT, The Big Test: The whole idea of psychometrics was that mental tests are a measurement of a psychical property of the brain, analogous to taking a blood sample. By definition, the test-taker could not affect the result. More particularly, the E.T.S.’s [Educational Testing Service’s] main point of pride about the SAT was its extremely high testretest reliability, one of the best that any standardized test had ever achieved... So confident of the SAT’s reliability was E.T.S. that the basic technique it developed for catching cheaters was simply to compare first and second scores, and to mount an investigation in the case of any very large increase. E.T.S. was sure that substantially increasing one’s score could be accomplished only by nefarious means. (pp. 112-113) Such was the opinion of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the mid-20th century. But this opinion was not shared by Stanley Kaplan, who in 1938 had begun to tutor students in his basement on methods and practices they could use to improve their scores. What Kaplan (2002) believed, and later proved, was that “the skills and concepts, the habits of mind, the ways of thinking that are considered essential for success at all levels of higher education, can be learned, and can be taught” ([video], 6m 40s). Although past test questions Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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were not made available by the ETS before the 1980s, Kaplan managed to glean enough information from his students at post-test “pizza parties” to begin to analyze them and devise teaching methods to improve success (Kaplan, 2001). Through several revealing quotes, we can begin to use IMP to reconstruct and explore what Stanley Kaplan was up to. A review of Kaplan’s method through the lens of IMP might look something like this: by using the zone 3 (interior collective) method of hermeneutics, Kaplan engaged his students in dialogue after they had taken the test, using their phenomenological zone 1 (interior individual) recollections of the test questions to inform a burgeoning theory of the “system” embodied by the SAT exam (zone 7, exterior systems view). What Kaplan realized was that while the content of the questions changed from test to test, their structure and internal rules usually did not, and in that sense one could begin to prepare for consistent question-types regardless of their substantive content. Kaplan recounts in an article by Malcolm Gladwell (2001), “I spent hours trying to understand the design of the test [zones 7 and 8], trying to think like the test makers [zones 1 and 2]” (p. 1). Gladwell continues: The SAT was a test devised by a particular institution [zone 8 social systems view], by a particular kind of person, operating from a particular mind-set [zone 2 structuralist view]. It had an ideology, and Kaplan realized that anyone who understood that ideology would have a tremendous advantage. (p. 1) Kaplan’s overarching belief, then, was that a systematic study of the SAT exam could lead to a familiarity with the types of questions it contained. By keeping “meticulous records” of students’ performance before and after coaching (a zone 6 methodology), it was discovered that the average score improvement was well over 100 points (Kaplan, 2001, p. 54). This research ultimately informed a zone 7 systems view of the inside of the SAT, which we could think of as the implicit, invisible patterns of rules and relationships that govern the internal dynamics of the exam—those hidden, systemic structures which underlie the exterior form and particular content of any given set of questions on a standardized test. Thus by enacting this view, practicing it through zone 6 study behaviors, learning the strategies and mnemonic devices particular to the Kaplan method (i.e., zone 3, an interior culture of shared meaning), and attaining a zone 1 understanding and familiarity with the test from a first-person perspective, students’ confidence vis-à-vis the test overall increased as they learned to recognize both what kind of answer the test-makers were likely to be looking for, and what common wrong answer traps they should avoid. Guided by the AQAL model, we might confirm further why this would be the case. The phenomenological experience of confidence and self-assurance on the part of the test taker (zone 1), for example, could be seen through zone 6 empirical methodologies to correlate with lower levels of anxiety-producing chemicals in the brain. Viewed in both the interior and exterior dimensions, “confidence” will tend to correlate in the UpperRight (UR) quadrant with various physiological behaviors (e.g., calm, measured breathing and lowered heart rate), and be reflected in the Upper-Left (UL) quadrant by the student’s felt sense of a more clear and focused mental state. Because these two dimensions of “confidence” co-arise, moreover, a student is not limited to developing the trait through mental exercises alone. The Kaplan approach (and many others) implicitly recognizes this by focusing not just on intellectual preparation, but on behavioral components of the students’ performance as well. Successful preparation programs thus teach everything from simple practices like skipping over instructions, to more involved processes whereby the students learn techniques to pace themselves better during the exam.

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This latter skill is especially important on a test like the LSAT, where strict time limitations make it unusual for the majority of students to even read all the questions in a given section before having to guess on a significant number of them for lack of time. Indeed, one problem that has been pointed out in the LSAT’s claim that it measures reasoning ability alone is that it fails to take this element of test-taking speed into account in its design and scoring procedures. As William Henderson (2003) writes: Although it may be intuitively appealing to assume that speed is simply a component of a candidate’s underlying reasoning ability (i.e., I.Q., fluid intelligence), this view lacks empirical support. Within the field of psychometrics, test-taking speed and reasoning ability are viewed as distinct, separate abilities with little or no correlation. (p. 988) In other words, reasoning ability (UL) and test-taking speed (UR) are two separate dimensions of a student’s performance, and both need to be trained separately in an effective preparatory curriculum. To that end, I would offer that one reason Kaplan’s approach has been so successful is that it focuses in large part on maximizing test-taking efficiency. By doing so, Kaplan students gain an advantage over others who have not prepared for this under-acknowledged aspect of the exam. In some cases, students are even able to make up for weaknesses in reasoning ability by knowing how to effectively “cut their losses,” and mastering the ability to “play the numbers” well over the course of the entire exam. At this point, we can begin to see more clearly why Kaplan’s approach was so revolutionary. It was not that he managed to out-smart the tests on their own terms, so much as he was able to construct an approach that came at them from a higher-order perspective. Like the character Neo in The Matrix, Kaplan saw through the tests into the underlying system that governed how they operated in any particular manifestation. His approach was not infallible, of course, as no approach can promise perfect success every time, but Kaplan nonetheless proved that these tests were also not infallible—that one’s supposedly “innate” capacity for reasoning and analysis could be developed in ways that the tests’ original creators had failed to anticipate. Gladwell (2001) comments: [Kaplan’s] great contribution was to prove that the SAT was eminently coachable— that whatever it was that the test was measuring was less like a blood sample than like a heart rate, a vital sign that could be altered through the right exercises (p. 1). In light of Kaplan’s insight that test-taking could be taught, the pertinent question then becomes, “But how?” What, exactly, are the right exercises for improving one’s score? Of course, I will not be disclosing the details of particular lessons or techniques here, but what I will say is that Kaplan’s method is respectably empirical, rooted in a “systems approach” to the test as a whole, learned through repeated work with previous test questions, and reinforced by familiar mnemonic devices and exercises in efficient test-taking behavior. In a general sense, the LR systems-approach to standardized testing that Kaplan developed forms the foundation of his curriculum, and has proven over time to be highly successful in achieving its stated goal—higher scores. Specifically, by taking into account both an outside perspective (zone 8) on the institution of the ETS, as well as an inside perspective (zone 7) on the internal syntactical rules which govern the tests, Kaplan was able to overcome the conventional wisdom of his day and become the first to create effective methods that produced measurable and consistent results. As evidence of his success, these techniques have continued to be developed, updated, and imitated for over 70 years.

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A Systematic Approach So what exactly does a zone 7 approach to these tests look like? Gladwell’s article points us to the following example. Let us take as a starting point this sample problem from an actual SAT exam, cited by David Owen in his book None of the Above (cited in Gladwell, 2001, p. 1): 25. In how many different color combinations can 3 balls be painted if each ball is painted one color and there are 3 colors available? (Order is not considered; e.g. red, blue, red is considered the same combination as red, red, blue.) A) 4͒ B) 6͒ C) 9͒ D) 10 ͒E) 27 In approaching this question from a zone 7 perspective, we do not need to take out our pencils and begin doing calculations to come up with an answer. We do, however, need to have an understanding of some of the general guiding principles of the SAT as a whole. We must know something about the various rules that are internal to the test itself, and govern the way that questions are usually posed and solved. These, it should be noted, are exactly the rules that Kaplan first helped to elucidate for the benefit of distressed high-school students everywhere. Owen points out that there are two important things to note, the first being that this was the last in a 25-question math section. As a rule, the SAT (indeed almost all standardized tests) presents questions in order of increasing difficulty, so we can assume that this is not meant to be an easy question. It is, rather, meant to stump the “average” student, and this is the second thing we should keep in mind. Namely, that the answer will not be one that at first might seem the most likely, or that a guessing student might get correct without really knowing why. So what is the correct answer? Well, a student with sufficient knowledge of the SAT’s “system,” who has practiced with similar questions many times before, might follow a similar line of reasoning as the one Gladwell (2001) describes here: With these two facts in mind, Owen says, don’t focus on the question. Just look at the numbers: there are three balls and three colors. The average student is most likely to guess by doing one of three things--adding three and three, multiplying three times three, or, if he is feeling more adventurous, multiplying three by three by three. So six, nine, and twenty-seven are out. That leaves four and ten. Now, he says, read the problem. It can’t be four, since anyone can think of more than four combinations. The correct answer must be D, 10. (p. 1) What we have seen in this example is a way of arriving at the correct response without actually having performed the necessary calculations. Although it is always good to check your work, time pressures can often preclude the opportunity to do so. At the very least, this kind of reasoning allows us to eliminate the answers that are most likely incorrect, and can decrease the odds against us when we must make an “educated guess.” This is an essential skill in tests where wrong answers are penalized, and a useful one even when they are not. Indeed, examples of this kind fill the preparation manuals of the various curriculums, and it is exactly this kind of reasoning which enabled Kaplan to teach students what was thought to be “unteachable.” In other words, 38

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to help students improve their scores he did not have to drill them in math problems, but rather arm them with an understanding of how the SAT itself tends to operate on a systematic level. That is why Kaplan’s approach is at its root a zone 7/8 methodology, with the other zones (zone 6 practices, zone 3 shared meanings) primarily being used to help the students internalize the rules that are themselves internal to the tests. In the view enacted by these zone 7/8 methodologies, we can see that it is exactly because the SAT is a system—governed by particular rules, created by a particular institution, permeated by a particular ideology— that a system could be devised by someone like Kaplan which would prove so successful. His enactment of a systems-perspective on the test as a whole (rather than a zone 6 analysis on the content of its various forms alone) was a unique innovation. More importantly, it was one that the test’s original creators failed to anticipate because they were not viewing it from the same perspective. Indeed for many years Kaplan was considered subversive, called a “quack” and a “liar,” and his methods dismissed as simply “ridiculous” (Kaplan, 2001). In Integral Theory terms, we could say that the test’s creators were embedded in these perspectives, and thus were unable to hold them as an object within a broader awareness. Had they been able to do so, they might have noticed that they were not really testing “intelligence” at all, but merely a student’s ability to take a standardized test. This circular and partial vision is reminiscent of Harvard psychologist E.G. Boring’s response to early critics of the Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.) test, when they inquired as to what exactly the “intelligence” being tested was. “Intelligence is what the tests test” was his simple reply (Gardner, 1999, p. 13). In his book Intelligence Reframed, Howard Gardner (1999) relates this story and then offers the following observation: So long as these tests continued to do what they were supposed to do—that is, yield reasonable predictions about people’s success in school—it did not seem necessary or prudent to probe too deeply into their meanings or to explore alternative views of what intelligence is or how it might be addressed. (p. 13) As we now know, the questionable history of these tests’ “predictive ability” has made such an inquiry both necessary and prudent, and while Gardner has dedicated his career to probing the question of what exactly intelligence is, others, like Stanley Kaplan, have focused on the tests themselves. Although he himself admits that the current methods are not perfect, Kaplan is quick to assert that he is “in love” with these exams. He feels that, even with their complications, the standardized tests still offer the most effective method currently available to assess, in an egalitarian way, the underlying reasoning ability of any given student (Kaplan, 2001). As we will see later, however, the accuracy and “egalitarian” nature of this assessment is a matter for some debate. In the spirit of developing a more integral curriculum, we can conclude our look at Kaplan’s LR-centered methodology by inquiring into dimensions that may be under-represented in the current approach. As we have seen, Kaplan emphasizes the view from the LR in particular, supplementing this with UR study behaviors learned in a supportive and encouraging LL environment. What, then, of the UL? Notably, some Kaplan courses do find ways to address the interior, individual dimension of the students’ preparation, albeit in a somewhat cursory fashion. For example, an online “stress reduction” workshop is available and highly recommended, offering practical advice for students on how to keep calm during the exam (e.g. steady breathing). Indeed, the longer and more intensive, “extreme” version of the LSAT course also includes a 10-minute guided meditation in one of the final classes, incorporating breath work, visualizaJournal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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tion, and positive intention-setting in a surprisingly integral approach to managing test-day jitters. Still, these exercises are presented more as an aside than as a core component of the course, and the overall methodology seems to depend on the idea that progress in the other zones will ultimately “spill over” into the internal domain in the form of increased confidence. Yet an Integral approach calls on us, as educators, to ask how we can engage this interior dimension more directly. How do we, in other words, help students enact as many perspectives as possible in the most balanced way we can? By staying current on the most up-to-date research, we should seek not only to develop new methods but to expand the time-tested ones as well to be more effective, and more integral, in their application. To get an overview of what this might entail, we will now take a closer look at what an Integral approach to standardized test preparation might look like, beginning with the individual dimensions.

Individual Dimensions What makes someone a good test-taker? Sheer cognitive intelligence? A photographic memory? Good study habits? Laser-like concentration and the endurance to maintain that focus for long periods of time? A relaxed attitude and an ability to manage stress? An artistic flair for accurately filling in tiny bubbles at high speed? Or is it simply a matter of inheriting good genes? Clearly there are many potential answers to this question, and, despite the arguments of some, it is hard to maintain that any single one of them is the whole truth. Rather, they each provide us with true-but-partial perspectives on what contributes to success in different dimensions of our being. Using IMP as a map, the four zones in the individual domain (i.e., the UL and UR quadrants), can thus give us a better grasp on what each one of these perspectives has to offer, and suggest domain-specific practices that a student might use to prepare for their chosen test.

The Interior Domain To begin with, a zone 1 approach would look to the internal, first-person awareness of the student, and observe that high scorers are generally free of excessive anxiety and fear regarding their chosen test (though, in my experience, a “healthy” sense of fear can be beneficial for maintaining motivation). Successful students possess a certain inner confidence that they are well-prepared, that they know what they are in for and will be able to perform to the best of their ability. To prepare in this dimension of our being, we might utilize meditation practices in order to develop a capacity for concentration, sustained attention, and “one-pointedness” of mind. Phenomenologically, we might inquire into the actual feeling of fear as it arises in our experience, learning to manage it over time through familiarity and conditioned acceptance. We might also utilize the various techniques known as “shadow work” to get at the underlying causes of our anxiety, working through them and releasing them by better understanding their source (Wilber, 2006). Shifting to a third-person perspective on the individual-interior dimension, a zone 2 structuralist approach would point out that scoring well on the LSAT requires at least an orange altitude, formal-operational level of cognition (Wilber, 2006) (i.e., the ability to make abstractions and operate on them in relation to one another is an essential component to performance on graduate-level standardized tests). While most aspiring law school applicants are probably at or above this level of cognitive development, this zone 2 approach becomes increasingly important when dealing with high-school age students preparing for the SAT. As the research of Robert Kegan (1994) has shown, many of these teenagers are still struggling to make their way out of a “third order” worldview (or amber altitude), in cognitive as well as along other lines. For this reason, attempting to use the same methodologies and teaching styles for these teenagers as would be appropriate for an LSAT class would be throwing the metaphorical ball way over their heads. Zone 2 perspectives on cognitive develop40

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ment, then, offer us a way to tailor educational curriculums to the students they are intended to teach. Given that, from a zone 2 perspective, the cause of actual structural development in the ego—the “quantum leap” to a higher order of awareness—is still mostly amorphous and unknown, zone 1–centered practices would probably play the more important role in an integral curriculum as far as the students themselves are concerned. Furthermore, the benefit of such practices would extend far beyond the boundaries of a single exam, and serve the student well in almost all aspects of their life and work. Yet the awareness engendered by enacting these perspectives is not innate—methods for developing them must be learned and diligently practiced for their benefit to be felt. It is not enough to assume that qualities like self-awareness and the ability to manage stress will develop automatically as a result of effort in other areas. A truly Integral approach would require that the interior landscape of the student be addressed directly, through frequent personal feedback and prolonged inquiry over time. To that end, we might envision the ideal college or law school “preparation” program as being less like a series of study sessions before a single exam, and more like an extended, ongoing coaching program that would last for the duration of the student’s academic career. This would necessarily also entail an expansion of the goals of the program itself, in order to address and develop the other important interior qualities that contribute to success in addition to the cognitive line. Although this is admittedly a somewhat idealistic notion, this does not mean that current programs could not utilize some of these methods in a more limited way. In addition to teaching basic meditation practices, I would argue that adopting zone 1 approaches to help students explicitly recognize their own underlying goals would prove immensely beneficial. In her article “Enhancing Law School Success,” Leah Christensen (2009) looks at how a student’s “goal orientations” correlate with their LSAT scores, and at the further implications of this orientation for their overall academic career. Christensen bases her analysis on the work of Dr. Carol Dweck, who differentiates between two broad and “qualitatively different classes of goals” found in students—“performance-oriented” goals, and goals focused more on “mastery” (p. 57). It is the latter which tends to engender lasting success and satisfaction, characterized by an understanding that “the key to success is not ability so much as it is whether one looks at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something that can be developed” (p. 58). Performance-oriented students tend to over-rely on test scores as measures of their self-worth, and have difficulty engaging in new challenges when they are not already assured of success. By contrast, mastery-oriented students engage in learning for learning’s sake, actively seeking to discover new knowledge and understanding, and persisting in spite of the fact that at times they may appear ignorant, become confused, or make mistakes (Christensen, 2009). Unfortunately, however, it is the former class of students which I most often saw in my Kaplan classes. The sheer weight of the LSAT in determining academic opportunity understandably instills a sense of fear in students’ minds, and when these fears relate to “not measuring up” they seem to inhibit students’ improvement over time. More than once, I saw looks on students’ faces when I gave them back their initial diagnostic tests that seemed to reflect the belief that they “just didn’t get it.” Often, I would have the sense that these students had given up before they even began to learn. On the other hand, I can recall one student who scored relatively low on her early exams, but always seemed to respond with a sense of, “Oh well, I’ll just do better next time.” Characteristic of mastery-oriented students, she seemed to have a more playful and balanced attitude toward the test overall, and was willing to, frankly, be wrong much of the time. On her final diagnostic, the student scored in the 99th percentile with an increase of over 20 points from her first attempt. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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In contrast, I repeatedly witnessed students who began as relatively high scorers beat themselves up over single points and careless mistakes. These students tended to burn themselves out, taking full-length practice exams for three, four, or (in one case) six days in a row, increasing nothing but their own sense of frustration. While this evidence is admittedly anecdotal, it has confirmed for me that a student’s internal “posture” toward the test, or how they hold it within their awareness and in the context of their lives as a whole, is a key determining factor in how effective their preparation will be. As such, discovering effective methods for dealing with these issues—for helping students explicitly acknowledge and own their internal apprehensions and expectations and goals—represents an important and under-utilized aspect of test preparation that deserves further research. To step back from the zone 1 discussion for a moment, I must acknowledge that it is hard to separate the role that internal pressures play in students’ performances from the role of the LSAT in the admissions process overall. Ultimately, the real solution may not lie in developing more effective stress-reduction techniques but rather in reforming the tests themselves. By far the most troubling aspect of Christensen’s (2009) research is that her results showed a slight but significant negative correlation between mastery-orientation and LSAT scores. That is, students with higher scores were more likely to be performance-oriented, and thus less prepared for the rigors of law school and practice, than the mastery-oriented students who tended to be more successful in their overall academic careers. Thus Christensen’s (2009) findings represent yet another compelling reason why “it is time for LSAC—the institution that creates and administers the LSAT—to seriously consider revising the exam to more accurately reflect the full range of skills required to succeed in law school (and in the practice of law)” (p. 90). Until such time, however, individual instructors can look for ways to create a more integral classroom experience for students, balancing the overall objective to perform well on a particular exam with a more masteryoriented atmosphere in which to pursue that goal. Christensen’s (2009) article addresses this issue as well, citing one study which found that mastery- or performance-oriented classrooms can emerge from the ways that teachers use time in their classrooms; distribute authority; recognize, group, and evaluate students; and design classroom tasks: “[In mastery-oriented classrooms,] the teacher promotes the idea that the students progressively master content and improve skills through hard work” (pp. 83-84). Christensen (2009) notes that a key aspect of this particular pedagogical method is to “teach toward an intrinsic motivation—which benefits not only the students but the professor as well” (p. 85). It is this “intrinsic motivation” that I believe a more whole student–oriented curriculum can engender through the inclusion of zone 1 approaches. Moreover, these could help students come to recognize up front whether the LSAT, and law school, is really something they want to pursue, thus saving them the inevitable suffering that occurs when such a realization comes too late. Finally, to be effective such methods would seem to demand that the instructors themselves seek to embody a more integral awareness by, for example, creating their own Integral Life Practice (Wilber et al., 2008). This would seem essential to developing an ability to competently and compassionately appreciate the individual student’s needs, to meet them where they are, and to guide them effectively in a more balanced approach to their endeavors.

The Exterior Domain We have been talking about the interior (UL) dimension of the individual test-taker, but the exterior (UR) dimension is equally important to an integral curriculum. As outlined above, these methodologies generally focus on behavioral practices like following study schedules and rote-memorization practices, as well as breathing exercises, proper diet, regular physical exercise, and other commonly-known stress-management 42

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techniques. However, there is one tool which I believe could be highly effective in an integral curriculum that remains as yet undiscovered in the test-preparation industry—namely, the Holosync method developed by Bill Harris of the Centerpointe Research Institute. Holosync uses relatively recent discoveries in zone 6 brainwave research, and a deceptively simple yet innovative use of sound waves (known as “binaural beat” technology), to externally induce neurological states that are conducive to focused attention and learning (Harris, 2007). Moreover, over time one becomes increasingly able to evoke these interior states without relying on the external stimulus. While strict, peerreviewed research is not yet available on Holosync, the anecdotal evidence supports the idea that the technology can rapidly accelerate the development of one’s capacity for prolonged, focused concentration as well as an overall reduction in the effects of stress on one’s life (Harris, 2007). Although the Holosync program is intended primarily to supplement meditation practice, I believe that it could have a significant effect in helping students prepare for these stressful exams. Meditation and Holosync can be conceptualized as externally-based, UR behavioral techniques that benefit the practitioner through their correlative manifestations in the interior dimension. These represent powerful tools, old and new, for developing the sort of levelheaded focus that success on a standardized test demands. Both powerfully intense and eminently calm, the state of mind engendered by consistent contemplative practice is a predictable and reliable result of disciplined internal preparation—an internal state that seems necessary, from an integral perspective, for true peak performance on a given test. The long-term effects of using Holosync-supplemented meditative practices toward the improvement of test scores would be a fascinating area for continuing research. However, as it stands today, such an approach is woefully under-represented in modern curricula for test preparation. A particularly challenging obstacle may lie in the pervasive amber/orange center-of-gravity in achievement-oriented students, which is notoriously averse to these types of practices as being either blasphemous or so much pseudo-scientific, “New Age” fluff. Yet this is all the more reason why this area is ripe for empirical research. To be sure, the average LSAT student is so desperate for ways to improve their score that they would be willing to embrace any new technique if there is adequate, peer-reviewed research to show that it could help. At the same time, however, these techniques require consistent, disciplined effort to truly be effective, which may be hard to produce in groups mostly motivated by a short-term desire to receive a high score. For my part, I received a mixed response of awkward laughter and blank stares when I had my students stay after class for a 10-minute presentation on how binaural beat technology could help them with their scores. Yet even within the bounds of current preparation methodologies, zone 6 perspectives on the exterior behavior of high-scoring students can offer enormous insights, as the map provided by IMP can help to isolate particular variables in students’ study habits. For example, comparisons could be made between students based on a ratio of score improvement to hours spent practicing, with an Integrally informed assessment enabling researchers to better control for individual differences among various scales. At the individual level, we could ask whether a person does better in the morning or in the evening, on a full stomach or when slightly hungry, and include these factors in their personal study design. We could evaluate their particular learning style—aural, visual, spatial, kinesthetic—and potentially develop custom curriculums tailored to their own particular needs. As a simpler suggestion, journaling by students over the course of their preparation would be a well-advised practice for investigating this dimension, particularly when used in conjunction with the UL processes already discussed.

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To shift now from the practical to a more theoretical perspective, an outside view of the exterior dimension as revealed by zone 6 research methodologies can provide interesting insights into the physical structures that correlate with high intelligence. One such study, utilizing positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brain, is summarized below. In a related PET investigation—perhaps his most intriguing to date—[Richard J.] Haier finds that a harder-working brain, not a more efficient brain, appears to facilitate superior mathematical ability in males, whereas the reverse holds for females. Haier’s group obtained brain scans from 44 male and female college students during a mathematics reasoning test. Half of these students—11 men and 11 women— scored above 700 (out of a possible 800) on the math portion of the SAT. The rest had average scores on the same test, none of them exceeding 540. High-SAT men displayed large increases in energy use throughout their brains; brain activity rose to a lesser extent in men with average SAT scores. In contrast, high-SAT women displayed marked drops in cerebral exertion, except for a small island of heightened activity in the caudate nucleus. A smaller dip in glucose use and less caudate nucleus agitation characterized average-SAT women. (Bower, 1994, p. 2) As we see here, a zone 6 perspective can help disclose the physical, chemical, and genetic correlates to strong test performance that might be used to inform curriculum design. Moreover, these studies can help tease apart type differences that may be important to developing more effective learning behaviors and classroom techniques based on those differences. In fact, these methodologies may very well reveal fundamental genetic differences that would require an entire restructuring of the test procedures to “level the playing field,” as it were, and not privilege any particular type. Type differences, of course, are both an UL and UR phenomenon. In the UL we might think of these distinctions as acquired personal preferences, whereas in the UR they are more of an innate learning style (e.g., aural or kinesthetic). In either case, however, they can present some unique challenges that I suspect nearly every classroom educator must face. I can recall a pair of student evaluations I received after one of my first classes. One said that I “obviously cared a lot” about the students’ progress, but that I needed to be more efficient— that is, to worry less about soliciting student responses and just “lecture from the book.” The other student informed me that they found the classes to be “boring,” that I was “moving too quickly” through the material, and that I should “slow down” and do more to encourage class participation. Given that these two positions were irreconcilable, this became one of my first lessons in just how difficult teaching can be. Perhaps this dilemma is inherent to the education process itself, particularly in large-scale, mass-market programs like Kaplan. However, an Integrally informed program could nonetheless include some preliminary evaluative measures (e.g., in-person interviews, surveys, sentence-completion tests) to get a better understanding of the particular learning styles, developmental levels, and other preferences that students may have. An explicit acknowledgement of type differences in individual students could help to mitigate the challenge of trying to teach “between” levels or types in a single class. Moreover, students could be grouped more effectively according to their preferences and learning styles. In considering what sorts of “groups” students work best in, we have begun to enter the communal dimensions of learning—the social and cultural context where the individual student’s preparation connects with others and the world at large. In many ways, these lower quadrants are more complex than the individual do44

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main, at least insofar as standardized testing is concerned. The Integral model would predict that the groups in which individual students are embedded—academically, professionally, culturally, socially, and so on—will have an invisible but influential effect on their performance. As we will see in the next section, recent research has served to confirm this hypothesis in surprising ways. In the collective dimensions, we are presented with an entirely different range of difficult questions on a much larger scale.

Collective Dimensions Although the individual aspects of test preparation are important, we cannot forget that education is a collaborative affair. That is, we cannot separate teaching and learning from the cultural and social contexts that each individual student is embedded in. As one example, Gladwell (2001) writes: The SAT was designed as an abstract intellectual tool. It never occurred to its makers that aptitude was a social matter: that what people were capable of was affected by what they knew, and what they knew was affected by what they were taught, and what they were taught was affected by the industry of their teachers and parents. (p. 1) The “industry of teachers and parents” is thus an important component in any educational curriculum. An integral perspective must recognize that the success of a given individual is due, in all but the most extraordinary of cases, at least in part to the encouragement and effort provided by the people and institutions around them. It is in this regard, then, that a lower-quadrant perspective can be useful in determining what kind of academic, familial, cultural, and social environments help to engender successful students. Unfortunately, these lower-quadrant perspectives have often disclosed a number of latent problems with standardized tests. The extent to which cultural (LL) and social (LR) factors can influence scores is a sensitive subject when it comes to intelligence testing, especially regarding equal access to quality education. Indeed, the high tuition costs of programs like Kaplan effectively prevent whole segments of the population from participating in them at all. This may help explain why the collected evidence reveals an undeniable discrepancy in scores among various racial and ethnic groups, although the exact reasons for this apparent bias have been debated for several decades. Whole symposiums have been held on the LSAT’s bias, for example, and the institutionalized discrimination that seems to result for certain students attempting to enter top law schools around the nation (Baynes, 2006). In spite of this attention, or perhaps because of it, scholars remain sharply divided as to the causes of and proper solutions to these problems. Many critics see affirmative action programs as the most practical solution, so as to compensate for bias and counter the over-reliance of schools on tests as a determining factor (Vernellia, 2006). Echoing our discussion of the questionable predictive value of the LSAT, these critics point to research showing that lower scores on that test do not actually translate into lower law-school performance or bar passage rates (Wightman, 1997). Yet today, almost all top law schools have terminated affirmative action programs in response to various court orders, popular referenda, and campaigns by public officials (Kidder, 2001). Moreover, this is not limited to law schools alone, as similar programs compensating for SAT scores have also been short-lived. Take, for example, the ill-fated “Striver” program developed by ETS in the late 1990s. As Nathan Glazer (1999) writes in an article for the New Republic, this was essentially “an adjustment of the SAT score to take into account a student’s socioeconomic background and race, increasing the scores of those whose socioecoJournal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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nomic background or race is considered to put them at a disadvantage” (p. 1). Although the Striver program was rooted in the noble desire to ensure a “level playing field” for everyone, some felt it was an effort by the ETS to “falsify the truth for the sake of appearances” (Campbell, 1999, p. 1). One way to interpret this comment is that the ETS was padding some scores to present the appearance of a better performance. Another way to look at this, however, is that the ETS was attempting to simply compensate for apparent test discrepancies without actually admitting that the tests themselves are inherently biased. To that end, Professor David Kaye, a member of the LSAC Test Development and Research Committee, made a prediction in 1980 that “with popular controls for college performance, the LSAT might not produce a racial screening effect at all” (Kidder, 2001, p. 1068). To the contrary, later research on this exact question appears to refute Kaye’s prediction (Kidder, 2001). Nonetheless, there is a persistent tendency of LSAC and other test-providers to interpret seeming inequities in test results as being due to social factors rather than the tests themselves. Phillip Shelton, President of LSAC, sums up this viewpoint: It would be contrary to basic premises of equality to suppose that a paper and pencil test of educational attainment could determine skin color among students who have been equally educated. Like college grades, test scores penalize blacks not because the tests measure innate intelligence or mental capacity, but rather because they measure abilities which are taught, acquired, and developed in formal education. A different, inferior education naturally tends to produce different, inferior scores. (Kidder, 2001, p. 1081) Shelton states further that “group differences in performance… almost certainly reflect differences in opportunities to acquire those skills. That is, these differences are real—they are not an artifact of the test itself” (Kidder, 2001, p. 1081). Clearly, the question of whether score discrepancies reflect actual differences in academic skills, or are instead due to some aspect of standardized testing itself, has far-reaching implications for the industry. In pursuing this question, moreover, the Integral model can be a powerful analytical tool for properly framing the debate. The four quadrants help significantly to differentiate and tease apart competing views, to better appreciate the full complexity of the issue, and better recognize how a particular view may represent only a portion of the overall truth. For this part of our inquiry, we should first place Shelton’s ideas within their historical context. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the debate over standardized testing was raging, there was a controversial view espoused early on by some scholars who believed that differences in test performance boiled down to innate, hereditary, genetic differences between racial groups (Kidder, 2001, p. 1080). From an integral perspective, we might note, this attempt to explain a complex phenomenon such as the one we are dealing with here in terms of simple physical differences in brain chemistry seems almost laughable in its gross partiality. Nonetheless, it had its adherents, and Shelton seems to have been partly responding to them by asserting that it was “acquired academic skills rather than genetically-linked differences” which determined test performance (Kidder, 2001, p. 1081). That is, Shelton completely discarded the UR as a contributing factor to score discrepancies. He instead supported a view which saw social problems in the LR (i.e., minority access to decent schools) as negatively impacting the UL cognitive development of those students. To be sure, there is certainly some truth to this assertion—that score discrepancies are partly due to underlying social issues like insufficient access to education, the state of the public school system and other LR factors—but this truth is only partial, and we want to include all the quadrants in our view. To that end, we can begin by noting that Shelton’s explanation touches on only two. 46

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Controversial though it might be, an Integrally informed analysis of test performance should not so easily discount the influence of the UR in contributing to discrepancies in scores. Given today’s understating of the human brain, however, it seems particularly simplistic and naïve to frame such differences along racial or ethnic lines. Still, there may very well be complex UR factors at play, genetic or otherwise, which are worthwhile subjects for zone 6 investigation. As one example, the cover story of a recent edition of Student Lawyer magazine takes up the issue of “mental doping”— the use of prescription ADD medications as performanceenhancing drugs for law school success—and whether it unfairly skewers exam results in the highly competitive atmosphere of legal education (Fenton, 2010). As another example, the PET scan experiments we looked at above seem to suggest that there may be some real differences in cognitive processing between genders. If this is the case, it has serious implications for how standardized tests are designed and conducted. If there are indeed fundamental, innate UR differences between individuals that cause significant discrepancies in scores, principles of equality demand that these tests be redesigned to produce a more neutral result. That is, in this view it is the tests themselves which are biased against particular groups, and changes should be made in the LR systems which govern the structure and make-up of the tests as well as their administration nationwide. Already, the LSAC has had to acknowledge that the strict time limitations on the LSAT exam has a discriminatory effect on students with diagnosed learning disabilities, and has been forced to make accommodations so that scores more accurately reflect the ability of these students. Controversy remains, however, regarding the LSAC’s practice of “flagging” these scores in their reports to the applicant’s schools, as well as in the fairness to other students of giving disabled test-takers significantly more time to complete the exam (Jolly-Ryan, 2007). Turning to the interior-collective dimension (LL), many critics maintain that there is a hidden cultural bias toward wealthy, white students in standardized tests. The original purpose of these tests, moreover, is itself a contested aspect of their cultural legacy. Those who support the neutrality of standardized tests insist they were originally designed “to create a ‘natural meritocracy’ by helping poor and middle-class students win admission to elite colleges that had previously been reserved for the sons of the East Coast establishment” (Mosle, 1999, p.1). In this view, “promoters of standardized tests are… lauded as reformers of… [an] admissions process that invited cronyism, nepotism, and irrational exclusionary prejudices” (Haddon, p. 45). Opponents of the tests, by contrast, vehemently assert an alternate view of the tests’ creators as “architects of quasi-scientific justifications for racist notions of intellectual inferiority and superiority” (Haddon, p. 45). Whatever the true motivations behind the tests’ original creators, the accusations of modern critics that focus on LL factors involve a far more subtle form of racial and ethnic bias. Claire Barliant (1999) summarizes one such view here: [C]hild psychiatrists theorize that impoverished minority kids realize by the third grade that they are being marginalized. Without exceptional parenting, these children are unlikely to jump faithfully into the waters of a mainstream education—and standardized tests presume the takers are already capable swimmers. (p. 1) This view echoes Shelton’s—that differences in test scores are the result of long-term deficiencies in education accumulated over a lifetime, and not due to bias within the structure and system of the test itself. Yet an integral perspective enables us to distinguish Barliant’s view in an important way. Namely, there is an interior dimension in play here—the child “realizes” he or she is being marginalized—which suggests there is more involved than the simple failure of an exterior educational system. “Marginalization” is more than Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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just social poverty, it is an interior experience of cultural exclusion as a result of one’s identification with a particular group. In an integral analysis, then, this begs the question of how a particular child’s experience as a “marginalized minority” affects their performance on a standardized test. In other words, how do these LL factors manifest in the UL? William Kidder (2001), in his article “Racial and Ethnic Differences and the LSAT,” presents some fascinating research on this very question. In integral terminology, we might describe it as focusing specifically on the way that LL cultural identifications interact with and influence the zone 1 UL experience of the actual taking of a standardized test. How does one’s cultural background, in other words, influence one’s interior experience of the “psychological atmosphere” in the exam room? Recounting the general assumption among test-producers that “giving a standardized test to students under identical testing conditions ensures that the test is a neutral, objective measure of abilities for different groups” (Kidder, 2001, p. 1085), Kidder introduces the work of psychologists Clause Steele and Joshua Aronson, which stands in direct opposition to the conventional wisdom. Kidder (2001) writes: Steele and Aronson use the term “stereotype threat” to describe how the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype about one’s group can interfere with performance on standardized tests by members of groups who tend to do less well on such tests. This phenomenon is not necessarily linked to the cultural attributes of any particular marginalized group. Rather, stereotype threat can affect any group where there exists a widely recognized negative stereotype about that group’s performance in a certain domain. (p. 1086) In looking at the individual dimensions, we considered what sort of phenomenological states (e.g., stress, confusion, frustration) could negatively affect a student’s performance. Here, with the inclusion of the LL dimension, we are presented with data that suggest there may be certain disruptive interior states that are unique to particular groups of students, and that these so-called “stereotype threats” result from the individual student’s own perception of how a group he or she self-identifies with is perceived by society. More importantly, these influences are often not a part of conscious awareness, but exist in the psychological shadow of the student as a sort of self- and culturally-imposed background hum that interferes with their ability to perform at their highest level. Indeed, this is a particularly compelling reason why incorporating UL shadow practices into test-preparation processes could help significantly to boost minority students’ scores. To develop empirical support for their hypothesis, Steele and Aronson devised some creative experiments that involved administering the difficult Graduate Record Examination (GRE) to different groups of students under various pretenses (Kidder, 2001). Specifically, they administered the test to two separate groups composed of a mixture of black and white college students who had been matched according to their SAT scores. One group was told that the test was to measure their intellectual ability, while the other was told that it was not indicative of ability and was instead an experimental problem-solving task. The results were as Steele and Aronson’s theory predicted—the former group showed lower scores by the black students while in the latter group the performances were equal (Kidder, p. 1086). Kidder (2001) interprets the results here: Whites performed no worse (actually they did insignificantly better) when the test was labeled as indicative of ability because, unlike African Americans, Whites are not under the stereotype threat spotlight in the domain of standardized test taking. Announcing the test as diagnostic of ability impaired both the accuracy and the rate 48

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at which African Americans completed the test. (pp. 1086-1087) In support of the second aspect of their thesis—that, in our terms, this effect is related to the LL phenomenon of “marginalization” in a general sense and not necessarily associated with a particular group—Steele and Aronson repeated this experiment in various other forms. The results were equally troubling: Similar results occur with respect to the standardized test performance of other populations vulnerable to a societal stereotype about the performance of their group, including Latinos on a difficult English test, women on an advanced mathematics test, and low-income French students on a difficult language test. Indeed, when White males with high SAT math scores were given a challenging mathematics test of GRE questions and were told that the study’s purpose was to understand why Asians perform better than Whites in mathematics, White male performance dropped significantly, while it remained equal in the non-diagnostic cohort. (Kidder, 2001, p. 1087) These findings seem to have enormous implications for the standardized testing industry, and call into question the very possibility that accurate, neutral, or truly objective measurements of cognitive ability can be produced. Indeed, they appear to offer empirical support for the somewhat counter-intuitive idea that “simply giving the same test to all applicants cannot ensure that all applicants will take the same test” (Kidder, p. 1086, note 131). Nonetheless, this notion remains a difficult one for many in the testing industry to swallow. LSAC’s official reasoning still holds that if identical LR conditions are established (i.e., same test content, same time limit, same procedures, etc.), the LSAT can be used to isolate and accurately measure the particular UL cognitive skills which it was designed to test while remaining free from cultural bias. Using integral terminology, the flaws in this model are easy to describe. We might say that LSAC is simply blind to, or unwilling to recognize, the LL factors which muddle this supposedly straightforward picture of the tests. A more accurate description, perhaps, might be that they are collapsing the Left-Hand quadrants into a single dimension. That is, the test-producers fail to acknowledge that the “abilities” they are testing have both an individual and a cultural dimension—that responses which are elicited from the students’ interiors and recorded as a series of bubbles in the exterior domain are always-already conditioned by LL factors that the test itself is blind to. Metaphorically, perhaps, we might describe what LSAC is doing as akin to looking at a photograph to determine the location of various rocks—some above water and some below—while denying evidence for the refraction of light. And then, as it were, LSAC presents these reports to the rock collectors of the world as a “neutral and objective measure” of their location. In sum, it seems that LSAC is mistaking neutrality in the LR domain for neutrality in the lower quadrants as a whole. But simply designing a test with no cultural- or socioeconomic-specific words, no sexist question stems, and comically abstract, racially- and gender-neutral names in the exterior form of the test nonetheless fails to account for inequalities in the LL dimension of the test-takers themselves. However, even if these are taken into account in the design of a new test, questions still remain as to whether a truly neutral measurement is possible at all. Perhaps, that is, the familiar principle which binds quantum physicists holds true for test-makers as well—that the very act of observation itself will influence the thing being observed. From our perspective, the real problem confronting the makers of standardized tests, and the admissions Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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deans who rely on them, is that there is no way to truly separate a single line of development in the UL from influencing factors—visible and invisible—in the UR, LR, and LL dimensions. The quadrants co-arise, as different faces of the same coin, and no methodology centered in one particular quadrant can isolate itself from all the others so as to obtain an objective view. A person’s genetic inheritance, their socioeconomic status, and their cultural/ethnic background experience always influence any snapshot we might take of their mental attributes, no matter what kind of “camera” we use.

Conclusion We have covered a lot of ground in our look at standardized testing, but sadly I am not sure there are many definitive conclusions to be drawn. Although the educational testing industry has been a part of higher education for almost a century, in many ways the field remains wide open and in the midst of constant change. This is true both in terms of how students prepare for the tests, as well as in regard to the tests themselves, and the many questions and problems we have covered are still far from concluded. Nonetheless, I think that this inquiry has been worthwhile, at the very least because it has shown that there are many fertile avenues still waiting to be explored. Furthermore, I hope it has become clear through this analysis how powerful a tool the Integral model can be for approaching these complex issues—as a means to not only reveal a clearer picture of the past but to provide guidance as we move into the future. In terms of the individual student, I think the most important step for these educational programs to take is to seek new ways to directly address the UL, interior dimension. Finding ways to help students better cope with the frustration and stress that often accompanies the learning process can be beneficial no matter what the curriculum. Moreover, by working to create a mastery-oriented atmosphere in the classroom, we can hope to instill that sense of “intrinsic motivation” in students that pursues learning for learning’s sake, and worries less about quantitative, “objective” measures of relative success. The key to this, I would argue, is the development of the teachers themselves as integral practitioners, which will enable the continuing development of ever-more sophisticated ways of recognizing and responding to students’ needs. In a broader sense, what can be done about the demonstrated tendency for standardized tests to produce cultural divisions in both performance and subsequent opportunity? Affirmative action programs are one response to this problem, but these too have been controversial and present significant complications in themselves. Another range of proposals has been offered by the Society for American Law Teachers, to 1) change the way scores are reported; 2) create a more realistic and useful definition of “merit”; and 3) if all else fails, abandon the LSAT altogether (Haddon, pp. 102-104). The first option seems reasonable, but still would create problems at the boundaries between even these broadly-defined categories. The third option seems unrealistic, and perhaps undesirable as well—there should be some method for assessing intellectual capacity included in the admissions process, so long as it is acknowledged to be the partial and flawed assessment tool that it is. Thus for my part, I would choose something similar to the second option, and advocate the design of an Integrally informed evaluation process for assessing the “whole student” across a wide range of skills, abilities, intelligences, and goals. This seems to me the best compromise—the lesser of a whole host of evils, if you will—and would at the very least ensure that no particular measurement is privileged over the others. Moreover, it would encourage constant self-evaluation and inquiry, and the search for who and what might still be getting left out.

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Over the long term, this necessarily entails a reduction in the current over-reliance on test scores as a means to evaluate applicants in the admissions process. While the practical means of accomplishing such a largescale change presents challenges of its own, the first step would seem to be toward untangling the institutional pressures currently bearing down on schools. Rankings which weigh so heavily on questionable factors cause schools to base their admissions decisions on numbers that have little predictive value for a determining a student’s overall potential for success. This over-reliance, as we have seen, can also unfairly exclude many students whose performance on standardized tests is not a true indicator of their abilities, whatever the true causes for this discrepancy might be. Fortunately, this seems to be the growing consensus among educators and education officials alike, as more and more who look at these problems begin to recognize the need for comprehensive change. In working toward that change, I will conclude by restating my firm belief that the Integral model is the single most effective framework available for managing the complexity that this involves, both at a theoretical level and in practical application. My hope is that, over the course of the preceding analysis, it has become clear why I believe this to be the case.

NOTES 1

For a comprehensive primer on Integral Theory, see Esbjörn-Hargens’ (2009). For a more in-depth look at the eight zones, IMP, and the AQAL model in general, see Wilber (2006). 2 To get a visual sense of the dispositive role that LSAT/GPA numbers play in law school admissions, compare and contrast the admissions graphs for various schools available at www.lawschoolnumbers.com.

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solving. Science News. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/ is_n15_v146/ai_15824131/pg_1. Campbell, D. (1999, Oct. 13). Striving for equality. The Harvard Salient. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~salient/issues/991013/upfront.html. Christensen, L. M. (2009). Enhancing law school success: A study of goal orientations, academic achievement and the declining self-efficacy of our law students. Law and Psychology Review, 33, 57-92. Edwards, P. (2006). The shell game: Who is responsible for the overuse of the LSAT in law school admissions? St. John’s Law Review, 80, 153-166. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2007). Integral teacher, integral students, integral classroom: Applying integral theory to education. AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 2(2), 72-103. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2009). An overview of integral theory: An all-inclusive framework for the 21st Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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century. Retrieved May 28, 2010 from http://integrallife.com/node/37539. Espinosa, L. G. (1993). The LSAT: Narratives and bias. American University Journal of Gender & Law, 1, 121-164. Fenton, A.P., & Wunderlich, J.M. (2010). Mental doping: The untold story of modern law school exams. Student Lawyer, 38(5), 17. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York, NY: Basic Books. Gladwell, M. (2001, Dec. 17). The examined life. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://www.gladwell.com/2001/2001_12_17_a_ kaplan.htm. Glazer, N. (1999, Sep. 27). Should the SAT account for race? The New Republic. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/ html/_tnr-should.htm. Haddon, P., & Post, D. W. (2006). Misuse and abuse of the LSAT: Making the case for alternative evaluative efforts and a redefinition of merit. St. John’s Law Review, 80, 41-106. Harris, B. (2007). Thresholds of the mind: How holosync audio technology can transform your life. Beaverton, OR: Centerpointe Research Institute. Henderson, W. D. (2003). The LSAT, law school exams, and meritocracy: The surprising and undertheorized role of test-taking speed. Texas Law Review, 82, 975-1051. Heriot, G.L. & Wonnell, C.T. (2002). Standardized tests under the magnifying glass: A defense of the LSAT against recent charges of bias. Texas Review of Law & Politics, 7, 467-485. Jolly-Ryan, J. (2007-2008). The fable of the timed and flagged LSAT: Do law school admissions committees want the tortoise or the hare? Cumberland Law Review, 38, 33-70. Kaplan, S. (2001). Test pilot: How I broke testing barriers for millions of students and caused a sonic boom in the business of education. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Kaplan, S. (2002). Democratizing American achievement [video recording]. Retrieved March 17, 2008 from http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum. php?lecture_id=1036 52

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Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kidder, W. C. (1999). The rise of the testocracy: An essay on the LSAT, conventional wisdom, and the dismantling of diversity. Texas Journal of Women and the Law, 9, 167-218. Kidder, W. C. (2000). Portia denied: Unmasking gender bias on the LSAT and its relationship to racial diversity in legal education. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, 12, 1-42. Kidder, W. C. (2001). Does the LSAT mirror or magnify racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment? A study of equally achieving “elite” college students. California Law Review, 89, 1055-1124. Kinsler, J. S. (2001). The LSAT myth. St. Louis University Public Law Review, 20, 393-416. Lemann, N. (1999). The big test: The secret history of the American meritocracy. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Mosle, S. (2002). The new (and improved) theology of the SAT. Slate.com. Retrieved March 9, 2008 from http://www.slate.com/id/2067219. Nussbaumer, J. (2006). Misuse of the Law School Admissions Test, racial discrimination, and the de facto quota system for restricting African-American access to the legal profession. St. John’s Law Review, 80, 167-183. Owen, D. (1999). None of the above: The truth behind the SAT. Lanham, MD: Rownam & Littlefield, Inc. Randall, V. R. (2006). The misuse of the LSAT: Discrimination against blacks and other minorities in law school admissions. St. John’s Law Review, 80, 107-153. Simon, R. J., & Danner, M. J. E. (1990). Gender, race, and the predictive value of the LSAT. Journal of Legal Education, 40, 525-530. Steele, C. M. (1999, August). Thin ice: “Stereotype threat” and black college students. Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved January 14, 2010 from http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/99aug/9908stereotype. htm. Stein, Z., & Heikkinen, K. (2008). On operationalizing aspects of altitude: An introduction to the Lectical™ Assessment System for integral researchers.

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1), 105-138. Thomas, D. A. (2003). Predicting law school academic performance from LSAT Scores and undergraduate grade point averages: A comprehensive study. Arizona State Law Journal, 35, 1007-1028. Torbert, B. (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transforming leadership. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Wightman, L. (1997). The threat to diversity in legal education: An empirical analysis of the conse-

quences of abandoning race as a factor in law school admission decisions. New York University Law Review, 72, 1-53. Wilber, K. (2006). Integral spirituality: A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Boston, MA: Integral Books. Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard, A. & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral life practice: A 21st-century blueprint for physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. Boston,MA: Integral Books.

BROOKS SUTTLE, B.A., has been an integral scholar-practitioner for over a decade, and was a participant in the Integral Theory program at JFK University. He has been an LSAT instructor for Kaplan, Inc., and is currently working toward his J.D. at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. Brooks is interested in exploring the intersection of law, religion, culture, politics and economics in a globalizing world, as well as an integral approach to learning and education.

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AN INTEGRAL INQUIRY INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADDICTION AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Kathleen Grillo

ABSTRACT This arcle examines the relaonship between addicon and emoonal intelligence using Integral Research. Six of the eight zones of Integral Methodological Pluralism are used in order to invesgate the nature of this relaonship. Data from each methodology suggest that addicon is correlated with deficits of parcular aspects of emoonal intelligence, and I conclude that the processes of addicon and emoonal intelligence are ulmately not separate. In addion, I conclude that Emoonal Brain Training is an effecve way to increase emoonal intelligence and alleviate addicve/compulsive behaviors. KEY WORDS: addicon; compulsion; emoonal brain training; emoonal intelligence; mixed methods research

T

he U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that nearly 1 out of every 10 Americans over the age of 12 has a problem with substance abuse (2007). With economic costs thought to exceed half a trillion dollars annually due to health care expenditures, lost productivity, and crime, it has become generally accepted that addiction is one of the most serious health and social problems facing the United States today (NIDA, 2007). In addition, there are millions more Americans who struggle with other compulsions such as codependency, overeating, gambling, and sex addiction. There are many different perspectives on what addiction is and how to treat it. NIDA takes a third-person biobehavioral view of the individual and defines addiction as a brain disease, caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, which is expressed as compulsive behavior. Others take a third-person perspective of the collective and believe that the reason Americans, who comprise only 4% of the world’s population, consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs (Califano, 1997) is because they are living in an “addictive system” (Schaef, 1987, p. 4). Some experts in the field take a second-person perspective and see addiction as a “family disease” (Wegscheider-Cruse, 1989) or even as an attachment disorder, where chemical relationships are substituted for human ones (Flores, 2004). First-person perspectives can range from viewing addiction as an impairment in affect regulation (Khantzian, 1999) to understanding it from a Buddhist standpoint as an exacerbated form of the desire for pleasure and aversion to pain that everyone experiences to some degree (Kornfield, 1993; O’Malley, 2004). An integral view recognizes that each of these perspectives, along with a multitude of others, are accurate and yet incomplete, each disclosing different facets of the same phenomenon (Wilber, 2006). As addiction is an integral event, the most successful treatment will no doubt accommodate and address as many of these perspectives as possible. Although multiple perspectives are needed to fully understand the process of addic-

Correspondence: Kathleen Grillo, 726 Live Oak Lane, Pinole, CA 94564. E-mail: [email protected]. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(2), pp. 54–73

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tion, this research will focus on the first-person experience of addiction and its relationship to the process of emotional intelligence. Most reputable treatments for addiction, including cognitive-behavioral approaches and 12-step programs, acknowledge the relationship between addiction and emotional immaturity and include the cultivation of skills related to emotional intelligence. Many experts believe that addicts often suppress uncomfortable feelings, keeping recognition of their affective state far from conscious awareness (Flores, 2004). There is high co-morbidity of substance abuse and mood disorders, thus it has long been posited that addicts may be selfmedicating in order to relieve emotional distress (Khantzian, 1999). Research has also found that negative, and even positive, emotional states are the strongest predictor of relapse (Marlatt & Witkiewitz, 2005). I first became interested in the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence after repeated attempts to modify my diet. I literally found this task to be impossible—I simply could not do it. My inability to refrain from eating certain foods reminded me of other experiences with compulsive behavior I had had in the past. I was raised in an alcoholic family and as an adolescent I developed my own problems with substance abuse and completed a year of outpatient treatment at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. Over the years, I have had what can be characterized as an addictive relationship with a myriad of things ranging from the life threatening to the relatively benign. As is common among those who struggle with addiction, when my more destructive behaviors were abandoned, less dangerous habits developed to take their place. In the addiction treatment field, this phenomenon is known as cross-addiction (Flores, 2004) In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is commonly referred to as “switching seats on the Titanic” because although one may have moved to a higher deck, they are inevitably “going down” (Ruden, 1997, p. 95). It would be fair to say that I have switched seats on the Titanic a number of times, and although I have overcome my more problematic addictive relationships, I still get that “sinking feeling” when it comes to food. I noticed that I can “use” food in much the same way I used alcohol or other drugs in the past (i.e., primarily as a way to manage stress and emotional discomfort). I started wondering about my own level of emotional intelligence and was curious about the relationship it may have to my past addictions and current compulsive behaviors around food. Although the association between low emotional intelligence and a tendency toward addictive behaviors has been documented (Trinidad & Johnson, 2001; Khanmohammadi et al., 2009), further research is needed to fully illuminate the nature of this phenomenon. In an attempt to shed more light on this relationship, the research question that guided my work was: What is the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence? Throughout this project, “addictive” or “compulsive” behaviors will refer to those patterns of being that are habitually engaged in despite negative consequences and multiple attempts at termination. Therefore, the definition is not limited to substance abuse and can include food, work, sex, gambling, spending, or relationship addiction (and it may also include an addiction to certain thoughts or feelings). As for emotional intelligence, I use the definition outlined by John Mayer and Peter Salovey (1997):1 Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth (p. 10). Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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In addition to this definition, Mayer and Salovey provide four branches of emotional intelligence with four representative abilities each. For this research, I was particularly interested in those abilities that have to do with internal emotional recognition and processing. I focused on five such abilities: 1. Ability to identify emotion in one’s physical states, feelings, and thoughts. 2. Ability to express emotions accurately and to express needs related to those feelings. 3. Ability to stay open to feelings, both those that are pleasant and those that are unpleasant. 4. Ability to manage emotion in oneself and others by moderating negative emotions and enhancing pleasant ones, without repressing or exaggerating information they may convey. 5. Ability to reflectively monitor emotions in relation to oneself and others, such as recognizing how clear, typical, influential, or reasonable they are. (Mayer & Salovey, 1997, p. 11) As is obvious from my research question, I assume that there is a relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence as a result of my first-person experience with compulsive behaviors as well as the existence of corroborating literature. I also believe that the interior-subjective experience of addiction is an integral part of what addiction is. In addition, I assume that when addiction is viewed through the methodology of phenomenology, the data disclosed will, in part, be feelings and therefore related to the emotional processing skills inherent in the definition of emotional intelligence. Because the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence is complex, I chose a research design that attempts to capture as much of this complexity as possible. Using Ken Wilber’s (2006) AQAL model as a guide, this article examines the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence from six different perspectives as revealed by their corresponding methodologies. Two modes of first-, second, and third-person inquiry were used to investigate the research question. To begin with, self-inquiry and autobiographical analysis were employed to explore the connection between the research topic and myself. Next, I used my Sentence Completion Test international (SCTi), Riso–Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI), and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) scores to expose the strengths and limits of my awareness in the context of this research. In addition, the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence was explored through an interview with Linda Williams, LCSW, a certified facilitator of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a cognitivebehavioral treatment for addiction that involves increasing participants’ emotional intelligence.2 My research question was also investigated through a 24-week participatory evaluation of EBT workshops. The next part of the research consisted of survey results from EBT participants and John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) students, as well as a review of two empirical studies on the effectiveness of EBT. Finally, a systems analysis was accomplished through a library/Internet search of articles related to the impact the American media may have on the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. This research project took place over a period of six months, from October 2007 to March 2008, in conjunction with the Integral Research course within the Integral Psychology program at JFKU.3 The following section introduces each methodology used in this study, including the respective research design, data analysis, and discussion of results. I have grouped these methodologies into first-, second-, and third-person perspectives, and present them in that order.

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First-person Methodologies First-person methodologies are important because they connect the researcher to the research topic by illuminating the interior-subjective dimensions of the observer from both the inside and the outside. According to Integral Theory, the phenomenon being observed can never be separated from the observer (Wilber, 2006). Therefore, it is essential to examine the awareness of the perceiver in addition to what is being perceived, as this awareness is actually co-enacting the phenomenon. For my phenomenological investigation, I employed autobiographical analysis and self-inquiry. The methodology-based question for these phenomenological investigations was, “What is my direct experience of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence?” For my structural analysis, I took a series of assessments that disclosed my current altitude of awareness, Enneagram type, and personality type. The methodology-based question for this inquiry was, “How does the structure of my own awareness impact my inquiry into the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence?”

Phenomenological Method and Research Design A phenomenological investigation of my first-person experience of the relationship between addiction and the aforementioned aspects of emotional intelligence was accomplished through self-inquiry and autobiographical analysis. I chose these modes of inquiry in order to reveal my connection to addiction as an ongoing struggle by highlighting the emotional aspects of both past and present experiences. These methods were well suited to my topic because they revealed how my personal experience with addiction shaped my inquiry from the very beginning. Unfortunately, these methodologies only reveal brief “snapshots” of interior life and cannot possibly capture the entirety of lived experience. The data for the autobiographical analysis were collected by reviewing structured journal entries that were written as part of my participation in EBT workshops, starting from June 2007 and continuing throughout the course of this research project. EBT is a two-year program that treats addictions and compulsive behavior by, among other things, increasing participants’ emotional intelligence through specific practices for identifying and dealing with feelings. In EBT, addictive or compulsive behavior is viewed as an external solution to what is essentially an unwanted internal experience (Mellin, 2003). Participants are given weekly prompts that include writing about their past experiences with addiction, as well as documenting their current emotional process. All journal entries begin with a short meditation and body scanning exercise in order to cultivate embodied memories that are emotionally charged. The data for the self-inquiry were collected by recording my first-person experiences with a practice of emotional processing skills in real time at least three times per week. When I felt emotionally out of balance (e.g., high levels of anger, sadness, fear, or guilt), I set aside time to engage in a cycle, which is the primary emotional processing tool employed by EBT. The format for a cycle is as follows: I feel angry that… I feel sad that… I feel afraid that… I feel guilty that… Are my expectations reasonable? Is my thinking positive and powerful? What is the essential pain? Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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What is the earned reward? What do I need? Do I need support? (Mellin, 2003, p. 369) I responded to each prompt in written form as many times as I felt was necessary to complete the inquiry. In addition, I practiced non-judgmental kindness towards myself, allowing myself to feel whatever emotions arose even if I believed they were immature, irrational, or socially inappropriate. These data were analyzed by coding 24 journal entries and 30 written cycles that were recorded over a period of 6 months. These codes were then labeled and sorted into broader themes. After the core themes were determined, they were compared, related, and used to shed light on the research question.

Phenomenological Research Data Data analysis of my journal entries and written cycles yielded several key themes, including 1) the use of addictive/compulsive behaviors to soothe/nurture myself and avoid feeling; 2) difficulty knowing how I feel or what I need; 3) growing up in an alcoholic family; and 4) having unrealistic expectations. The use of external solutions to soothe/nurture myself and avoid feeling. The first theme that emerged is that I had a long history of using external solutions to comfort myself when going through difficult emotions or as a reward to “celebrate” my positive accomplishments/feelings. In addition, my entries expressed a great deal of fear related to unpleasant emotions that were often accompanied by the belief that “my feelings will never end” or that “I will always feel this way.” In general, I had a strong desire to avoid highly charged unpleasant emotions, particularly anger, and often used external solutions to mitigate their symptoms. Difficulty knowing how I feel or what I need. A related theme that surfaced is that I often expressed having a hard time knowing how I feel or what my needs are. In some entries I reported feeling “bad” or “awful,” but I had no idea why or what incidents these feelings might be connected to. Similarly, I also wrote about feeling “numb” and not knowing how I felt at all. Both the negative experiences and the numbness were clearly associated with sensations, or the lack of sensation in my body. Furthermore, I repeatedly expressed frustration that I didn’t know what my true needs were (other than feeling like I “needed” to engage in an addictive/ compulsive behavior). This was often due to the fact that I did not know what I was upset about or why I had “shut down” emotionally. Growing up in an alcoholic family. Another major theme that came up repeatedly was an exploration of feeling like an “adult child” as the result of having been raised in an alcoholic family. If my parents did not have a high degree of emotional intelligence, they would have been unable to model the skills of emotional maturity for me. Similarly, if they were largely unresponsive to my feelings or needs, I may have a tendency to repeat this pattern within myself. In my journals, I wrote that I do not believe I ever internalized the “good mom” and “good dad” that are necessary for healthy psychological development. This left me feeling like a “child” who could not take care of her own needs and was waiting to be rescued by someone or something else (e.g., an addictive/compulsive behavior). Having unrealistic expectations. The final theme to surface was the pervasive presence of unrealistic expectations concerning not only how I should feel/be, but how the rest of the world should feel/be as well. These expectations were often related to the harsh, perfectionist demands of my inner critic. Some examples include 58

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“I shouldn’t feel angry about that,” “I should never make a mistake,” and “They should respond the way I want them to all of the time.” In addition, when it came to my expectations about the use of external solutions, it was often “all or nothing.” I tended to employ either indulgence (“I can eat the whole box of chocolate”) or deprivation (“I can’t have any chocolate ever”) and seemed to lack a more reasonable middle-ground (“I can have three pieces of chocolate”). The validity of these data is determined by the sincerity, integrity, honesty, and vulnerability of my journal entries (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). Throughout the research, I did my best to uphold these standards of validity and demonstrate that my journal entries contain these qualities. This included a commitment to fair presentation of the data that emerged, even when it was unflattering.

Discussion The themes I uncovered reveal that I have a direct experience of a relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. Indeed, I often engage in compulsive behaviors as a way of avoiding emotions that I find uncomfortable rather than staying open to them. I also have difficulty knowing how I feel, what I need, or how reasonable my expectations are. Taken together, these patterns suggest that I may lack sufficient mastery of the five abilities that are representative of emotional intelligence. When my interior-subjective experiences of addiction are looked at from an interior-objective perspective, specific thoughts, feelings, and sensation patterns emerge (e.g., not being able to recognize my emotions or having difficulty tolerating certain feelings). These patterns can be evaluated as exhibiting varying degrees of emotional intelligence. Therefore, it appears that my phenomenological experience of addiction, from an interior-subjective perspective, is not separate from the process of emotional intelligence. If I were to further investigate my first-person experience with the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence, I would focus on recording my feelings before, after, and during my engagement in any addictive/compulsive behaviors. I would also record my experience of using emotional processing skills as an alternative to these behaviors. Next, I will turn to the structural method and research design in an effort to understand how the patterns of my awareness have influenced my approach to the research question.

Structural Method and Research Design For structural analysis, I took Susanne Cook-Greuter’s SCTi because I believed it would provide insight into my current altitude in the self-identity line, or level of ego development. The other two instruments I used were the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (1999) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which provided insight into the typological structures of my consciousness. Taken together, these assessments provided a more complete picture of my strengths and challenges as a researcher. The SCTi was completed online in a single sitting that lasted approximately one hour. Both the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator and the MBTI were taken in written form in under one hour. I assumed that my center of gravity, as well as my typology, would influence how I interpret the meaning of “addiction,” “emotional intelligence,” or any of the data I obtained. I also understood that I would not be able to accurately interpret, or sometimes even register, phenomena that were beyond my current level of development. In addition, my level of development in specific lines (including cognitive, emotional, spiritual, interpersonal, etc.) would influence the type of data I sought, my ability to recognize data, and the way I interpreted data after they were collected. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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The results of the third-person data obtained from the above instruments were analyzed through a triangulation between first-person and second-person assessments of my altitude, Enneagram type, and personality type. After integrating these perspectives, I discuss the overall themes that emerged in regard to each instrument and how they revealed my strengths and weaknesses as a researcher.

Structural Research Data Sentence Completion Test international (SCTi). My SCTi results indicated that my current center of gravity for ego development was at the Achiever stage (Cook-Greuter, 2002). Initially, I was reluctant to accept the accuracy of these results because I identify cognitively with higher levels of ego development, including the Individualist and Strategist. Similarly, I have received feedback from others that they experience me as inhabiting a post-conventional stage of cognitive awareness. However, I hold open the possibility that although my level of cognitive awareness may (or may not) be higher, I could still be identified with the Achiever stage of ego-development. It is also important to note that if my center of gravity for ego development is at the Achiever stage, I should be operating at this altitude approximately 50% of the time, with the other 50% split evenly between the Expert and the Individualist stages of ego development (Wilber, 2003). Analysis of the Achiever stage indicates that my strengths as a researcher include the following themes: 1) a motivation to figure things out, always looking for root causes/reasons; 2) an interest in feelings, moods, traits, and motivations; and 3) a tendency to be responsible, conscientious, and expedient (Cook-Greuter, 2002). My limitations as a researcher include: 1) a tendency to be hypercritical/self-critical; 2) the suppression of negative pole and shadow side; and 3) a failure to recognize the constructed nature of beliefs and question the underlying assumptions of systems (Cook-Greuter, 2002). Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator. The results revealed that I identify as Enneatype 9, which is consistent with my first-person experience as well as others’ second-person evaluations of me. The strengths of being an Enneatype 9 include: 1) being a holistic thinker; 2) the ability to entertain multiple perspectives; and 3) the ability to synthesize different points of view or schools of thought (Riso & Hudson, 1999). The weaknesses of being an Enneatype 9 researcher include: 1) absent-mindedness and obliviousness to what is going on around me; 2) problems recognizing and processing emotions (especially anger); and 3) a predilection for narcotization/addiction and dissociating/shutting down (Riso & Hudson, 1999). I believe that these qualities support my ability to engage in mixed methods integral research, and they also enable me to relate the diverse data from different methodologies to my original research question. Furthermore, I believe that my Enneatype has a significant influence on why this topic is important to me (because my particular typology can leave me vulnerable to addiction). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Assessment results revealed my personality type to be INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging). Again, this is consistent with my first-person experience of myself as well as others’ second-person experience of me. The themes related to my strengths as an INFJ researcher include: 1) the ability to look at information from a global viewpoint and spot patterns and relationships; 2) intuitive understanding and insight into people/situations; and 3) a tendency to take work seriously and enjoy academic activity (Myers and Briggs Foundation, n.d). The themes related to my weaknesses include: 1) difficulty dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks; 2) a tendency to do things in excess; and 3) cutting corners or becoming preoccupied with unimportant details (Myers and Briggs Foundation, n.d).

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I can relate to having the ability to take a global viewpoint and recognize patterns/relationships, which is an asset to me as a researcher. I also have the ability to intuitively understand things without being able to explain how, which can lead me in new directions when it comes to research design and analyzing data. Furthermore, I do take work seriously and tend to enjoy academic activity. However, I do not enjoy the detailed tasks involved in research and can get the urge to “take the easy way out” if I am feeling overwhelmed. The validity of each of the aforementioned structural assessments is determined by the use of acknowledged test procedures and a triangulation between first-person and second-person modes of assessment (EsbjörnHargens, 2006). All of the assessments I chose were properly administered according to established standards. In addition, I considered whether or not the test results are consistent with my experience of myself as well as my colleagues’ experience of me.

Discussion I feel confident that each assessment provided insight into the structure of my awareness, and helped to provide a better estimate of where my consciousness lives in the AQAL matrix. The most useful insight for me was the apparent discrepancy between my sense of my level of cognitive development and my level of ego development as indicated by my SCTi score. It is important for me to be aware that just because I understand or resonate with something cognitively, that does not necessarily mean that I am able to embody it or “live from that place.” The SCTi served as an important reminder of that truth and has helped me to see my strengths and limitations more clearly. In addition, it is interesting to consider that my level of emotional development is intimately related to my level of ego development.4 If I were to continue my research into the structure of my own awareness, I would include additional assessments for the purposes of constructing a more complete Integral Psychograph. Some of these instruments may include Robert Kegan’s Subject-Object Interview as well as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test.

Second-person Methodologies Second-person methodologies explore how the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence shows up in mutual resonance with others. They accomplish this by revealing both the interior-subjective and interior-objective aspects of collective experience. Because there is no “I” without “we,” inquiry into the mutual understanding and shared experiences of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence will disclose perspectives that are fundamental in order to fully appreciate this phenomena. For my hermeneutic analysis, I conducted an interview with an EBT program facilitator who has expertise in the area of the research topic. The methodology-based question for this inquiry was, “What is our mutual understanding of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence?” For my ethnomethodological analysis, I explored patterns of meaning within a culture through EBT program participant-observation. The methodology-based question for this inquiry was, “How does the relationship between addiction and emotional show up in a group?”

Hermeneutic Method and Research Design A hermeneutic analysis of the second-person experience of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence was accomplished through an interview. This method was well suited to this research project Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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because it brought forth a mutual understanding of the subjective experience of the topic, enabling me to balance my own perspective with that of another. This method revealed an intersubjective understanding of the research topic, but because only one interview was conducted, this intersubjective understanding may not disclose data that are representative of the general population. I interviewed Linda Williams, LCSW, a certified EBT facilitator who was trained by Laurel Mellin, the creator of EBT and author of both The Solution (2000) and The Pathway (2003). I chose Linda because I assumed she had knowledge/experience of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence via her experience treating addiction. After the date and location were set for the interview, I sent Linda a confirmation e-mail and a copy of the release form (also via e-mail). In addition, I sent her the definitions of the terms addiction and emotional intelligence that I used for the purposes of this research. I also e-mailed her the interview questions so that she would have time to reflect on them beforehand. During the interview, I used primarily open-ended questions (Seidman, 2006). The following questions were included: 1. How do you define addiction? 2. How do you define emotional intelligence? 3. How do you understand the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence? 4. How do you experience the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence? 5. How might EBT increase emotional intelligence? 6. How do you define recovery from addiction? 7. What emotional processing skills do you feel are important for recovery from addiction? In order to accurately capture the data, I used a Class B digital recording device during the interview. I also brought a copy of the interview questions and a pen and paper to make notes during the interview (e.g., to record phrases or topics that I wanted like to follow-up on later in the interview). After the interview, I sent Linda an e-mail thanking her for her participation and to remind her that I would be e-mailing her the transcript for her review. The data for the hermeneutic analysis were collected by transcribing the interview in its entirety. The resulting transcript was analyzed after performing epoché, or doing my best to suspend judgment. Interesting passages were marked and then assigned labels. Labeled passages were then sorted into categories and grouped into broader themes. Once key themes had been established, they were compared and related to the research question.

Hermeneutic Research Data Data analysis of the interview transcript yielded four main themes: 1) the components of emotional intelligence; 2) how to overcome addiction; 3) factors that contribute to addiction; and 4) what recovery from addiction looks like. The components of emotional intelligence. According to our mutual understanding, the skills related to emo62

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tional intelligence include having an awareness of the body and bodily sensation. It is essential that a person is able to adequately feel their emotions before they are able to express and process them, which are also essential skills that are representative of emotional intelligence. Furthermore, once a person is able to feel, express, and process their feelings, they need to be able to discern what their related needs may be and how they can adequately meet these needs (e.g., if someone is feeling sad, they may need to cry or seek support from another person). In addition, being emotionally intelligent can be related to being a mature adult and having the ability to “self-parent” through the use of self-nurturing and effective limit setting. This also includes using the rational mind to confront and challenge unreasonable (and often unconscious) expectations about the self or world. How to overcome addiction. It was clear that we both saw strengthening the skills associated with emotional intelligence as an effective way to alleviate the desire to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors. This can be achieved through the use of cycles. However, we both acknowledged that there are “many paths” to recovery. In addition, mindfulness practices were seen as an essential component along with “embracing reality” and paying attention to physical health. Another main component of overcoming addiction is that it is possible to form new neural pathways through practice and repetition. This can lead to different reactions to triggers that would normally encourage addictive/compulsive behaviors. Factors that contribute to addiction. The factors that we both identified as contributing to addictive/compulsive behaviors include the desire to “avoid particular feelings and sensations” as well as an “inability to stay present for whatever is arising.” Other factors include codependency and the experience of being raised in an alcoholic family culture (or one that does not provide sufficient modeling of the skills related to emotional intelligence). In addition, the qualities of compulsive behaviors (e.g., the fact that they “work” in the short run by altering feelings/perceptions), as well as the cultural predominance of thinking (as opposed to feeling), can contribute to addiction. What recovery from addiction looks like. Linda and I both experienced recovery from addiction as including a strong connection to both the self (knowing how you feel/what you need) and the Self (an identity beyond the personal). Recovery is characterized by a freedom from compulsion/having the ability to choose, as opposed to a rigorous abstinence from something that you long to do. In addition, there are many rewards that spring from the ability to stay present/feel deeply, and “new ways of being” become possible. There also appears to be more of a balance between masculine and feminine energies involving the ability to both be nurturing and set limits with self and others. The validity of the above data is determined by mutual understanding, resonance, and participant verification (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). In order to make sure that the data I collected were both meaningful and symbolic of the interpersonal space I shared with my interviewee, I performed a participant check by e-mailing Linda the interview transcript and asked her to review the material and e-mail me if she did not feel it was accurate. As I did not receive a response, I assumed that she felt it accurately represented our conversation.

Discussion My interview with Linda revealed that she and I share a mutual understanding of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. Although our understanding of emotional intelligence had a slightly different focus (more emphasis on the body/descent into feelings) than the definition provided by Mayer and Salovey (1997), our definitions were remarkably similar. In addition, it was clear that we both recognized Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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how the phenomenological experience of addiction can be seen as lacking components of emotional intelligence. This is exemplified by a quote from Linda: So I think [addiction] follows losing touch with myself—people lose touch with themselves on a feeling level. And then, the pain of that then leaves you floating through life, crashing into this and that. You’re not connected with your own inner direction and so to ease the pain people will start with a number of addictions. I think if it’s too painful to feel what we are feeling, we’re really vulnerable to addiction. (transcript, p. 4) This type of mutual resonance around the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence has helped me to clarify how working with emotional processing skills can reduce addictive tendencies. According to this understanding, it appears that it would be unlikely that someone would be, in the same moment, manifesting a high degree of emotional intelligence and engaging in the process of addiction.

Ethnomethodological Method and Research Design The participant-observer technique was used for my ethnomethodological analysis of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. I chose this method of inquiry in order to illuminate the interiorobjective aspects of the collective experience of the research topic. This method has the capacity to reveal the cultural structures of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence in a particular EBT study group. Unfortunately, this approach may not reveal the cultural structures of the research topic in American culture at large, and the data collected may not be representative of the general population. In order to observe how the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence shows up in a group, I participated in an EBT group that meets for two hours a week in Corte Madera, California from June, 2007 through February, 2008. The group was facilitated by Linda Williams. There were seven group members, including myself, who each joined the group voluntarily in order to work with various addictions or compulsive behaviors they were currently engaged in. During each group meeting, members performed body-sensing exercises and “check-ins” about how they were feeling physically and emotionally. In addition, each member reported how they were doing with their external solutions (i.e., their addictive or compulsive behaviors) and whether or not they had engaged in any of these behaviors during the week. Group members were taught and encouraged to practice various emotional processing tools as an alternative to their addictions, including feelings checks (How do I feel? What do I need?) and cycles (Mellin, 2003). In every group, at least one member completed a full cycle that was guided by the facilitator. Afterwards, each group member had the opportunity to give a tender message and let the speaker know how their emotional work impacted them (Mellin, 2003). I documented my participation in the group by taking notes in my journal during each session. I began by recording primarily first-person aspects of the group, such as each member’s cycle and other members’ responses to it. After realizing that these notes were not necessarily highlighting the second-person dimensions of the group experience, I created three second-person categories that I could focus my observations on. They included: 1) how the group defined addiction and emotional intelligence; 2) how the group understood the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence; and 3) how the group experienced the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. I chose these categories because of their relation to the 64

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research topic and their ability to support me in future data collection efforts. All subsequent notes were taken in response to these categories. In addition, I recorded any thoughts based on these categories that occurred to me after the group ended and included notes on group practice norms. The data I collected before the implementation of categories was analyzed by coding my notes for these categories and recording the themes that emerged. The data that were collected after the assignment of categories were also analyzed for themes. After all the themes relating to each category were determined, they were related to the research question.

Ethnomethodological Research Data Analysis of the data revealed multiple themes related to each category. Rather than list each theme separately, I will discuss themes together as responses to the question asked in each category. How the group defined addiction and emotional intelligence. Addiction was generally defined as the use of any external solution (e.g. drug/alcohol abuse; compulsive eating/spending/gambling; sexual addiction; codependency). Furthermore, there was a general consensus that anything can be an external solution. The key to addiction is both the presence of excess and well as why that behavior is being engaged in (i.e., the behavior itself is not automatically an addiction/compulsion). Using an external solution was generally seen as relying on something outside the self, as opposed to internal resources, to cope with experience. The closest the group came to a consensus definition of emotional intelligence was: a series of skills including knowing how you feel, expressing your feelings, knowing what you need, and how to get those needs met. These views were supported by nods of agreement from the group while the facilitator or individual members spoke about their own experiences. How the group understood the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. There appeared to be group agreement that the greater amount of emotional processing skills a person has, the less desire they will have to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors. This does not mean they will never use external solutions, but that they will lack the desire to do so compulsively because their needs have already been met in healthy ways. If one is able to learn the developmentally appropriate skills of a healthy adult, they will no longer be interested in engaging in behaviors that do not truly satisfy their needs. Therefore, the cultivation of emotional intelligence is seen to alleviate addiction, but the lack of addiction is not necessarily an indicator of emotional intelligence. How the group experiences the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. As EBT takes approximately 18 months to complete, and the amount of training each group member had varied from 3 to 12 months, there were some differences in experience among group members. All group members appeared to have an increase in their emotional processing skills related to emotional intelligence, including a greater ability to recognize how they felt and expressed their emotions. Approximately half of the group members experienced a significant decrease in their dependency on external solutions as a result of using these skills. Others experienced a slight decrease, while some reported they still actively struggled with these behaviors. However, there was group consensus that as mastery of emotional processing skills was achieved, they provided a viable alternative to the use of external solutions. There appeared to be a general experience that as emotional intelligence increased, the use of external solutions decreased. The validity of the data is dependent on my ability to accurately observe the group dynamics and symbolic Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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coherence of the group culture. Validity is also assessed through the quality of documentation, length of engagement, group acceptance, and member checks (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). As I participated in the group for nine months, I believe that I was able to achieve a prolonged engagement with a high level of acceptance. In addition, I recorded over 80 pages of notes and was able to check the accuracy of my observations with other group members.

Discussion The themes that surfaced indicate that the group experienced a strong relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. In many ways, this is not surprising because each group member elected to work with their addiction/compulsion via a method that focuses on the cultivation of emotional processing skills. The finding that as the group experienced greater mastery of emotional processing tools they had less desire to engage in compulsive behavior supports the notion that these two processes are related to one another. Furthermore, it attests that working with emotional intelligence through the process of EBT is an effective way to alleviate addictive/compulsive behaviors.

Third-Person Methodologies Third-person methodologies were essential to this project because they capture the objective realities of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. They accomplish this by disclosing the exteriorobjective elements of this relationship in both the individual and collective. As the subjective and the objective co-arise and are mutually interdependent, it is important to inquire into the exterior realities of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence in order fully comprehend the nature of this phenomenon. For my empirical analysis, I performed a survey analysis as well as a review of two empirical research studies of EBT participants. The methodology-based question for this analysis was, “How do people experience the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence?” As a systems analysis, I focused on how the American media may influence the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. The methodology-based question for this analysis was, “What is the impact of the media on the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence?”

Empirical Analysis Method and Research Design I developed a survey in order to obtain objective measures of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. The survey was designed to measure how individuals who have engaged in addictive/ compulsive behaviors relate these behaviors to their own emotional processing skills. I distributed the survey to individuals who were participating in an EBT group as well as JFKU Integral Psychology students. I targeted both of these populations because I felt they may have greater awareness of their experience of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. While creating the survey, I attempted to create statements that would illuminate the relationship between an individual’s behaviors and their emotional processing skills. I also tried to include first-, second-, and third-person statements in order to gain a fuller picture of this relationship. I chose each statement because I thought it would prompt participants to reflect on the possible relationship between their behavior and a particular emotional processing skill. In addition, I wanted to include questions that would track the emotional experiences of participants prior to engaging in addictive/compulsive behaviors. 66

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I distributed the survey to EBT group members at one of the weekly meetings I attended in Corte Madera. In addition, I also distributed surveys to JFKU Integral Psychology students who were on break between classes at the Pleasant Hill campus. All surveys were completed onsite by participants and collected by myself after completion. A total of 20 surveys were collected. As this was a self-report method, it was limited by the level of self-awareness available to survey respondents. Furthermore, the sample was not representative of the general population. In addition to my survey analysis, I also reviewed two empirical studies on the effectiveness of EBT. The first study involved the use of EBT to reduce compulsive overeating and was conducted by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) using methods that were approved by the UCSF Committee on Human Research (Mellin, 2003). The sample included 26 people and provided data on participants collected at two-year and six-year follow-ups after they had completed EBT. The second study was an independent survey of EBT participants conducted by the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) with methods approved by their Human Subjects Institute Review Board (Mellin, 2003). The survey was sent to 155 participants who had completed EBT in order to reduce a variety of addictive/compulsive behaviors (e.g., overeating, smoking, drinking, overspending, excessive working) and 134 were returned, yielding a response rate of 86% (Mellin, 2003).

Empirical Analysis Research Data Figure 1 shows the data analysis to the survey statements. It is interesting to note that the majority of people (60%-65%) experienced a relationship between their addictive/compulsive behaviors and three key emotional processing skills, including their ability to identify feelings, express feelings, and meet related needs. In addition, the overwhelming majority of people (85%) experienced a relationship between their addictive/ compulsive behaviors and two other aspects of emotional intelligence, including their ability to moderate negative emotions and tolerate uncomfortable emotional states. Furthermore, most people (75%) had the urge to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors when they felt angry, sad, afraid, guilty, numb, or bored. It is also of interest that far less people (30%-40%) experienced a strong relationship between their addictive/ compulsive behaviors and their ability to recognize how reasonable their feelings were, or with their ability to have healthy relationships with others. In addition, less people (40%) reported having urges to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors when they felt grateful, happy, secure, or proud. Empirical Study Review. The study by UCSF included participant reports of improvement in several areas at the six-year follow-up (Mellin, 2003) (Fig. 2). The average participant lost weight, lowered their blood pressure, and scored 60% to 80% lower on the Beck Depression Inventory (Mellin, 2003). Furthermore, these results were either sustained or improved at the six-year follow-up (Mellin, 2003). The survey of EBT participants by UIC revealed very high percentages of respondents who reported that they had “resolved” their external solution after program participation (Mellin, 2003) (Fig. 3). Both studies indicate that the majority of EBT participants effectively increased their emotional processing skills. Furthermore, these increases appeared to co-arise with a decrease in compulsive behaviors (Mellin, 2003). In surveys, validity is established by a high response/return rate, clarity of questions, and having a representative sample (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). As the participants were not aware of my operational definition of emotional intelligence, I related their addictive/compulsive behaviors to the five different emotional processing skills related to emotional intelligence that I focus on in this article. Hopefully, this simplified version was easier for participants to relate to their own experience. The first study had a small sample size and there has Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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I currently engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors. 65% Agree 15% Disagree 20% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to identify the way that I feel. 65 % Agree 10% Disagree 25% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to express my emotions accurately. 60% Agree 25 % Disagree 15 % Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to express needs related to my feelings. 65% Agree 20% Disagree 15% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to moderate negative emotions and enhance pleasant ones. 85% Agree 15% Disagree 0% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to tolerate unpleasant or uncomfortable emotional states. 85% Agree 10% Disagree 5% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to recognize how normal and reasonable my emotions are. 30% Agree 25 % Disagree 45% Neutral There is a relationship between my addictive/compulsive behaviors and my ability to have healthy relationships with others. 40% Agree 35% Disagree 25% Neutral I have the urge to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors when I feel angry, sad, afraid, or guilty. 75% Agree 10% Disagree 15% Neutral I have the urge to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors when I feel grateful, happy, secure, or proud. 40% Agree 30% Disagree 30% Neutral I have the urge to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors when I feel numb or bored. 75% Agree 10% Disagree 15% Neutral

Figure 1. Survey responses.

yet to be large-scale controlled clinical trials of the use of EBT in treating addictive/compulsive behaviors. The second study had a larger sample size, but was predominately made up of white, middle-class women. Both of these factors reduce validity and make it difficult to generalize results.

Discussion The themes from my original survey research indicate that most respondents experienced a relationship between their own addictive/compulsive behaviors and their level of emotional intelligence. This was evidenced 68

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Area of Improvement

Improved, %

External Solution

Resolved, %

Substance abuse

80

Overeating

92

Overspending

54

Drinking

88

Health

69

Smoking

83

Happiness

88

Overspending

90

Relationships

88

Overworking

82

Rescuing

97

Spirituality

88

Distancing

86

Work stress

100

Overthinking

86

Exercise

88

People-pleasing

72

Figure 2 and Figure 3. University of California, San Francisco study (le); University of Illinois, Chicago study (right).

by the general agreement that these behaviors were linked to mastery of several key emotional processing skills. However, participants did not experience a strong relationship between their addictive/compulsive behaviors and other skills such as their ability to identify how reasonable their feelings are. This finding is interesting because it may indicate that certain components of emotional intelligence are more related to addiction than others. This could also indicate that respondents did not clearly understand the nature of the question, or that they are largely unaware of how their cognitive scripts my influence their addictive/compulsive behaviors. More research is needed to further explore the implications of this result. The data from the research conducted by UCSF and UIC suggest that EBT training results in greater emotional processing skills, as participants experienced greater levels of emotional balance and happiness along with less stress. In addition, their data support the claim made by practitioners of EBT that increasing emotional processing skills can alleviate the urge to engage in addictive/compulsive behaviors. The fact that these results were either sustained or improved at a six-year follow-up was also encouraging, as most weight loss interventions result in weight being regained one to two years after treatment ends (Mellin, 2003). Although the validity of my empirical data does not meet the highest standards, I believe that it yielded valuable information. As this is a new area of research, data is in the preliminary stages and can be useful in providing directions for further research. Consequently, if I had more time and resources to devote to this endeavor, I would like to design and conduct studies that meet more rigorous standards of empirical validity.

Systems Analysis Methodology and Research Design In order to disclose some of the interobjective or exterior-collective dimensions of this study, I analyzed how certain aspects of the American media may influence the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. Corporate media sources such as television, films, radio, billboards, and print media all work together to create a cultural environment around behaviors that could be considered addictive/compulsive. This corporate media system, fueled by business, is connected by advertising interests that join together to promote the public consumption of goods and services. I focused on this system because I believe that many corporate media sources encourage addictive/compulsive behaviors while simultaneously discouraging the emotional processing skills related to emotional intelligence. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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I collected the data for my systems analysis by reviewing studies related to the relationship between the American media and addiction. In addition, I performed Internet searches of topics related to the relationship between addiction and the media. I documented my findings by printing out articles and taking extensive notes on information I retrieved from books or other media. Once I gathered sufficient data, I analyzed my notes and highlighted any themes that emerged. Each theme is discussed in the context of what impact the media may have on the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence.

Systems Analysis Research Data Analysis of the data revealed the following themes: 1) the encouragement of excess or addictive/compulsive behaviors for profit; 2) the expectation that people can/should improve their interior experience through the consumption of material goods (e.g., that a person requires something outside of themselves to be happy); and 3) the promotion of a desire to feel or be different from how one is presently experiencing themselves. The encouragement of addictive/compulsive behaviors for profit. It is clear that some advertisers promote the use of addictive substances such as nicotine and alcohol in order to increase sales through the use of billboards, print media, and commercials. In addition, these products regularly appear on television and film. Advertisers also market addictive substances to specific populations, including African-Americans and women (Kern-Foxworth, 1991; Moog, 1991). The expectation that people can/should improve their interior experience through the consumption of material goods and services. The corporate media also appears to promote the idea that life can be “fun, easy, and exciting at all times,” if one has access to the appropriate goods and services (Silver, 1991, p.7). Similarly, the reality that life is both a challenge and a struggle at times has been replaced by the demand for “immediate fulfillment” and a desire to “buy easy solutions to problems” (Silver, 1991, p. 54). The promotion of a desire to feel or be different from how one is presently experiencing themselves. Advertisers often sell products through the promotion of the idea that people are not okay the way they are and that they require something outside of themselves to feel, or be, “better” (e.g., a new car, new clothes, a nice dinner, a vacation, or an anti-depressant). According to many corporate media sources, there is always room for improvement/change rather than an acceptance of how one currently experiences themselves. Another aspect of advertising’s “mythology” is that without certain products, “life would be dull, mediocre, and boring” (Kilbourne, 1991, p. 15). The validity of the data I obtained was determined by the empirical, repeatable, and logical nature of the information as well as the use of the controlled conditions present in any scientific study. In addition, validity was established by using both multiple and reputable sources, as well as by my own direct experience with the media system (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). Although I drew data from multiple and reputable sources, none of the data I obtained were from empirical studies. However, I am still able to claim some degree of validity based on the fact that I have lifelong direct experience with the corporate media system of America.

Discussion As the structure of any system is often just as important in determining individual behavior as the qualities of its members, it is important to consider what behaviors a given system encourages/discourages. The themes that emerged from the preceding systems analysis support my experience that certain advertisers in the American mass media system encourage addictive/compulsive behavior while discouraging the capacities 70

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associated with emotional intelligence. This likely contributes to a dominant culture that is preoccupied with external solutions and lacking in emotional intelligence. These conditions may leave people vulnerable to addiction. Instead of accepting difficult emotions and experiences as a normal, natural, and inevitable part of life, people see them as pathological and something that must be changed, avoided, or disposed of. Data suggests that the media teaches people how to deal with their feelings by not dealing with them, which is part of what addiction/compulsive behavior looks like when viewed from an interior-subjective perspective. If I were to further investigate a systems perspective of the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence, I would gather more empirical research and achieve a higher standard of validity. In addition, I would focus more on the objective aspects of the system, instead of the interior culture that it may support. I would also like to explore the impact of economics as well as the systems of different recovery approaches to addiction.

Conclusion This article details a mixed methods Integral Research inquiry into the relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence. It includes a convergence of both qualitative and quantitative data through the use of first-, second-, and third-person methodologies in order to more fully investigate the complexity of this relationship. Findings from each methodology support the existence of a relationship between addictive/compulsive behaviors and emotional processing skills related to emotional intelligence. My first-person perspectives revealed my phenomenological experience of this relationship as well as how it is impacted by the structures of my awareness. Second-person perspectives illuminated a strong mutual resonance as to the relationship between the process of addiction and emotional intelligence. Finally, third-person perspectives further revealed people’s experience of this relationship as well as how it may be supported by the American corporate media system. As for the nature of this relationship, the data suggest that addiction correlates with deficits of particular aspects of emotional intelligence (e.g., the ability to stay open to feelings, to moderate negative emotions and to enhance pleasant ones). However, it is not clear whether addiction causes these deficits or whether these deficits lead to addictive/compulsive behaviors; the data only support the notion that they tend to co-arise. Indeed, it is difficult to establish any type of causal relationship because of many possible confounding variables. Evidence also suggests that increased emotional intelligence can result in a decrease in the desire to engage in compulsive behaviors, and that EBT is an effective approach to working with addiction in this way. Although my research confirmed the existence of a strong relationship between addiction and emotional intelligence, the exact nature of this relationship remains elusive. I have discovered that within myself, these processes are intimately related and ultimately not separate—my phenomenological experience of addiction is characterized by a lack of emotional intelligence. There is some evidence that this may be true for others as well, but more research on the phenomenological experience of others is needed to support this claim. It is important to remember that my research focused primarily on the subjective experience of addiction, merely one of the many facets of this complex phenomenon. Even within that limited perspective, emotional Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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intelligence is only one of many variables that can contribute to addiction and the subsequent recovery from it. For each perspective on addiction, there are associated risk-factors (e.g., low emotional intelligence, genetic predisposition, alcoholic family culture, and societal structures that support addictive behavior), and the more vulnerabilities a person has, the more susceptible they are to addiction. In addition, health/support in some of these areas can mitigate the effects of deficiencies in others, which helps to explain why not everyone with low emotional intelligence suffers from addiction. I am in agreement with John Dupuy (2007) that an integral recovery model is needed to unite current perspectives on addiction and to help develop more effective treatments. Like Dupuy (2007), I see Integral Life Practice as the foundation of recovery from addiction, and working with emotions would take place in this larger context. There are many different forms of emotional practice that build emotional intelligence and research indicates that EBT may be valuable addition to the repertoire, another way of adding the emotional piece to the recovery puzzle. For me, EBT has proven to be a significant piece, and one that feels like it may actually land me in a life boat, instead of scrambling for another seat on a sinking ship.

NOTES 1

Although Daniel Goleman is responsible for popularizing the term emotional intelligence, the concept was first formulated by John Mayer and Peter Salovey in 1990. Much of Goleman’s (1995) work is based on their research and I have found their definition of emotional intelligence to be better suited for the purposes of this article. 2 Linda Williams is a pseudonym used to protect the privacy of the interviewee. 3 My data collection and analysis ended in March, 2008. However, I have since made changes and added references to the introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections of this article as the result of feedback received in the preparation for publication. 4 Interestingly, I took the SCT again in April, 2009 as part of the Developmental Intensive for Professionals seminar led by Susanne Cook-Greuter and Beena Sharma, and my score indicated that I was at the Magician stage of ego development (Cook-Greuter, 2002). I discussed the apparent two-level discrepancy between my two scores with Susanne and she reviewed my test protocol in order to confirm its accuracy. As with my previous score, my latest score does not entirely match my subjective experience of my current level of ego development. Receiving such different scores, attending the seminar, as well as my personal conversations with Susanne and Beena, has served as an important reminder to hold such test results lightly. Although they are definitely “evidence of something,” and their implications are certainly worth exploring, they are simply one lens and not the last word on an individual’s level of ego development (B. Sharma, personal communication, April 8, 2009).

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Dupuy, J. (2007). Toward an integral recovery model for drug and alcohol addiction. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 2(3), 26-42. Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2006). Integral research: A multimethod approach to investigating phenomena. Constructivism in the Human Sciences, 11(1), 79107. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York: Bantam Books. Flores, P. J. (2004). Addiction as an attachment disorder.

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New York, NY: Jason Aronson. Kern-Foxworth, M. (1991). Cancer is an equal opportunity disease. Retrieved February 1, 2010 from http://www.medialiteracy.org Khanmohammadi, A., Homayouni, A., Mosavi Amiri, S.J., & Nikpour, G.A. (2009). Low emotional intelligence as a predictor of tendency to addiction [electronic]. European Psychiatry, 24, S431. Khantzian, E.J. (1999). Treating addiction as a human process. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. Kilbourne, J. (1991). Deadly persuasion: Seven myths alcohol advertisers want you to believe. Media and Values, 54-55. Retrieved February 1, 2008 from http://www.medialiteracy.org Kornfield, J (1993). A path with heart: A guide through the perils and promises of spiritual life. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Marlatt, G. A., & Witkiewitz, K. (2004). Relapse prevention for alcohol and drug problems. In G.A. Marlatt & D. M. Donovan (Eds.), Relapse prevention: Maintenance strategies in the treatment of addictive behaviors (pp. 1-44). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. J. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications (pp. 3-31). New York, NY: Basic Books. Mellin, L. (2000). The solution: For safe, healthy, and permanent weight loss. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Mellin, L. (2003). The pathway: Follow the road to health and happiness. New York: HarperCollins. Moog, C. (1991). Selling addiction to women. Retrieved February 1, 2008 from www.medialiteracy.org.

The Myers and Briggs Foundation. (n.d.). INFJ. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from http://www.myersbriggs.org/. National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2007). NIH partners with HBO on groundbreaking documentary on addiction. Retrieved February January 17, 2008 from http://www.drugabuse.gov/newsroom/07/ NR3-07.html O’Malley, M. (2004). The gift of our compulsions: A revolutionary approach to self-acceptance and healing. Novato, CA: New World Library. Ruden, R. A. (1997). The craving brain. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Riso, D. R., & Hudson, R. (1999). The wisdom of the Enneagram: The complete guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Schaef, A.W. (1987). When society becomes an addict. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Silver, R. (1991). Our culture of addiction. Media and Values, 54-55. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://www.medialiteracy.org. Trinidad, D. R., & Johnson, C. J. (2001). The association between emotional intelligence and early adolescent tobacco and alcohol use [electronic]. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 95-105. Wegscheider-Cruse, S. (1989). Another chance: Hope and help for the alcoholic family (2nd edition). Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books. Wilber, K. (2003). Kosmic consciousness [audio CD]. Boulder, CO: Sounds True. Wilber K. (2006). Integral spirituality: A starting new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Boston, MA: Integral Books.

KATHLEEN GRILLO, M.A., is a Career Coach for at-risk youth in Contra Costa County, California. She received her master’s degree in Integral Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and is a student with Integral Coaching Canada. She is also currently training with The Institute for Health Solutions to become a certified EBT Provider.

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MUSIC AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE Flows and Peaks Matthew Collins

ABSTRACT This arcle invesgates music’s ability to facilitate flow states of consciousness as peak experiences. The research first uses two first-person methods, phenomenology and structuralism. The phenomenological inquiry explores my experience as an audience member at live music performances, and the structural secon assesses my relave strengths and weaknesses related to musical capacity and my kinesthec, interpersonal, and emoonal awareness. The results of two second-person methods, hermeneucs and ethnomethodology, are then detailed. The hermeneucs secon details an interview of a musician while the ethnomethodological secon explores a parcipant-observer experience of a college guitar class. The final research secon uses two thirdperson methods, empiricism and systems analysis. The empirical secon ulizes a survey, while the systems analysis secon invesgates factors that contributed to the phenomenological research method. Results focus on tracking a conceptual understanding of the terms flow state and peak experience. KEY WORDS: mixed methods; music; flow state; Integral Theory; peak experience

The music starts and a shiver of exhilaration rushes from my head to my toes. With the first note, my consciousness initiates a continuous shifting in response to the aural stimulation. The vibrations of sound through the air, the energies in the audience swaying to the rhythm, and the pure expressions of emotion and inspiration the musicians weave throughout their songs take me on a boundless journey. Curiously, I inquire, what causes this experience to occur?

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usic contains the necessary elements to engender altered states of consciousness for beneficial effects (Bourguignon, 1979). Elements that allow for this capacity are a lack of rigid syntactic and semantic rules, and various musical characteristics such as rhythm, tone, harmony, and melody (Mithen, 2006). In Schopenhauer’s view, music similarly cannot be subjected to literary analysis, as he clams it replicates acts of will, or in his conception, the vital force of human life (Wood, 1996). If used conscientiously, music can potentially guide listeners toward an expanded conscious experience (Richards, 2003, 2004). The difficulty of researching flow states and peak experiences related to live music is each of these phenomena’s inherent ineffability. From a transpersonal perspective, any description of the states I am researching (or the experience of live music) is, by nature, incomparable to the actual experience (Wigram et al., 2002). Thus, my inquiry is limited in clearly demonstrating the experience of live music in relation to flow states and peak experiences. Flow states and peak experiences are not entirely limited to any particular activity. One perspective on flow states indicates they are the result of an individual’s capacity for maintaining balance between the perceived challenges of a situation and that individual’s skill at addressing those challenges. Too much challenge for an

Correspondence: Mahew Collins, 318A Edwards Street, Crocke, CA 94525. E-mail: [email protected].

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individual’s skills typically results in anxiety, while too little challenge for those same skills typically results in boredom (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). A flow state, then, occurs as a result of directing skilled activities toward accomplishment of a goal while maintaining a balance between the continuums of skill and challenge, boredom and anxiety. An individual might describe the experience as total immersion in an activity, absolute focus, loss of external distractions, loss of a sense of time, and loss of self-consciousness (Seligman, 2004). Flow states allow the individual a psychological momentum toward achieving and accomplishing goals that are just within an appropriate reach. A peak experience is neither synonymous with nor in any way a necessary dimension of flow state experiences. Some standard characteristics of peak experiences are an emotional “rush” or “charge,” ego transcendence, and revelations of new awareness sometimes associated with religious rites. A peak experience might come on very quickly, and only occur for a brief instant. Other times, however, peak experiences extend beyond the initial rush and conclude with a plateau phase that might last for minutes, days, or weeks (Maslow, 1994). David Hartman and Diane Zimberoff (2008) summarize the moments of Maslow’s conceptions of peak experience such as fascination, giving up the past and future, innocence, lessened defenses and inhibitions, strength and courage, and acceptance. Peak experiences are of significance, particularly to what Maslow (1994) calls a “self-actualizing individual,” as the experiences lessen the self-importance of their own self-actualization, and increase their sense of responsibility toward service and contribution in the world. In pursuit of increasing the knowledge regarding music’s psychoactive elements, I use an Integral Research methodology for exploring live music, flow states of consciousness, and peak experiences (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). Integral Research combines first-, second-, and third-person methods as a means to explore subjects from multiple perspectives, converging data from mixed methods. The first-person methods, phenomenology and structuralism, act as a means for reporting personal subjective experiences and structures of awareness related to the topic. The second-person methods, hermeneutics and ethnomethodology, act as an invitation for me to become part of the culture surrounding the research topic. The third-person methods, empiricism and systems analysis, situate the research topic within objective and social systems. The importance of a mixed methods approach is to explore how a phenomenon can be interpreted from one or more different perspectives while grounding each perspective with appropriately documented data (Creswell & Clark, 2007). An Integral Methodological Pluralism approach is unique because it simultaneously integrates each research method, and illustrates how they fit amongst one another (Wilber, 2006). Although I chose primarily experimental research methods for this investigation, more orthodox methods for research in music education and therapy are outlined in Wheeler (2005) and Colwell and Richardson (2002).

First-person Research Phenomenological inquiry is concerned with how personal experience relates to the topic of investigation (Roald, 2008). For this study, I was concerned with my personal experience of flow states and peak experiences as related to the experience of live music. The method-specific research question I used was, “How do flow states and peak experiences appear in an individual person’s experience of live music?” Structural analysis, from a first-person perspective, is concerned with the capacity and structures of awareness related to an individual’s comprehension of a topic. The typical parameters for a structural analysis are defined through developmental psychology or psychology of personality (Wilber, 2000). In this article, I detail my structural capacity for musical understanding and appreciation in relation to flow states and peak experiences. The method-specific research question for the structural analysis was, “How does my current Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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musical awareness influence my experience of flow states and peak experiences during live music?”

Phenomenological Research Method and Design Phenomenological research is an attempt to document, report, and analyze the personal experience of any topic of interest (Roald, 2008). Attending concerts and journaling on my experience allows me to present an overview of the states of consciousness I experienced related to live music. I attended a total of 13 live music performances and wrote a total of 18 pages of journal entries, including a short journal documenting my intentions within my live music experiences. I attended a diverse array of concerts from several musical genres (jazz, classical, bluegrass, reggae/rock/hip hop blend, blues/soul, folk, reggae, and hip hop). The music experiences took place from October 14, 2007 to November 25, 2007. I then read each journal entry as a means of gaining a basic feel of their overall content. Next, I highlighted the key phrases I determined as the most important. On a third read-through of the journals, I focused directly on the highlighted phrases and labeled each one with short, one-to-three word descriptions. Using a thematic coding approach to qualitative data analysis, I generated 115 total labels and organized the labels into 11 categories. As a thematic analysis, I distilled the 11 categories into 3 main themes within my journal entries, and then analyzed and reflected on the experiences as I presented the data in terms of the themes (Creswell, 2007; Shank & Villella, 2004). I then described one example from each of the themes, providing an illustration of how the labels and categories manifested within the data set. These examples act as intensive examples of recent experiences related to the topic question. Phenomenology has many advantages and disadvantages in regards to answering research questions. One advantage of using a phenomenological exploration is the presentation of experiences of flow states and peak experiences relative to music. As my research is strongly directed toward personal experience, these data present rich examples. On the other hand, the phenomenological context cannot give accurate accounts related to others’ experiences. Therefore, my autobiographical survey cannot produce objective universal definitions for flow states or peak experiences or a comprehensive array of musical elements that may produce these experiences. As mentioned above, I distilled the 115 labels I produced from the phenomenological research into 11 distinct categories. The 11 categories I created were conversation, connection, alcohol, environment, somatic experience, mood or emotion, my understanding/impression, communication/expression, control, effects on me, and New Age interpretations. I then separated each of the categories into one of three different themes. The three themes I determined from my data were interpersonal, personal, and external. These themes indicate the influence of my study of the first-, second-, and third-person elements of an Integral Research agenda.

Interpersonal Theme The interpersonal theme contained 3 of the 11 categories, including communication/expression, conversation, and connection, and included 41 of the 115 labels from my journals. The communication/expression category contained all musical expressions. The conversation category contained verbal and musical conversation, and how the music related to the tone of conversations within the audience. The connection category included my connection with the music, the audience, and how the musical vibration influenced my experience of emotions.

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A specific example of musical conversation from my journals occurred during the sole blues/soul concert I attended. Toward the end of the concert, after introducing band members, the lead singer played his harmonica to each band member, and the other musicians responded with their own instrument. When the lead singer reached the trumpet player and the sax player, he addressed them each individually, but in the midst of one of the dialogues, the third person jumped in and the dialogue became a discussion. None of the musicians skipped a beat with this added dimension, and in my interpretation it enlivened the interaction. An important note of interest for the interpersonal theme is that while the data represented information transmitted from person to person, it did not just include verbal language and conversation—much of the data were found in the way music expressed a feeling, mood, or interaction between musicians.

Personal Theme The personal theme included five categories, including somatic experiences, mood or emotion, my understanding/impression, effects on me, and New Age interpretations, and contained 58 of the 115 labels from my journals. The somatic experiences category included physical reactions, and awareness of vibration and other sensations. The mood or emotion category contained mainly joyful or fun labels, and mood shifts in the music and myself. The my understanding/impression category consisted of my interpretations of the musical performances. The effects on me category included labels indicating feelings or lasting impressions in response to the performances. Finally, the New Age interpretations category contained labels I considered as “alternative” explanations of experiences related to the music. From the somatic experience category, a common label was music’s effect on my movements, especially while dancing. During the research process, I found myself able to start dancing even while at concerts I attended alone, which was previously uncommon for me.

External Theme The external theme contained 3 categories (alcohol, environment, and control) and 16 of 115 labels. The overall qualities within this theme were things that were not really a part of the music or my personal experience, but nevertheless affected the research. The alcohol category appeared in that, while journaling, I wrote about things I had to drink or eat at each performance in bringing myself back to the experience as much as possible. The environment category included the weather and the performance’s setting. The control category included elements of timing and coherence mechanisms within the performance. A major portion of the external theme was the conductor’s role during a classical music performance. The conductor functions as a time-keeping device for the entire band. Moreover, the conductor influences the musical dynamics within the different instrumental sections. I considered the conductor’s role external because he himself was not playing an instrument, and did not have a direct effect on my experience, apart from the above-mentioned insights. On the other hand, the conductor expertly guided the musicians through a magnificent performance, thus serving his role in the performance while not actually producing the music himself.

Discussion The data presented represent an honest and sincere description of my personal experience related to the research topic. Each journal entry I cite is an attempt to express typical experiences I had in response to the live music I researched. With each example, I attempt to illustrate potential flow states or peak experiences. I also present examples containing insights concerning different sensory inputs (e.g., seeing, hearing, feeling). With this in mind, the capacities for live music to facilitate flow states of consciousness as peak experiences Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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are expressed through interpersonal, personal, and external dimensions. Interpersonally, live music appears to literally transmit information between persons, including between musicians and from musicians to the audience, that cannot be communicated through any other means. This kind of interpersonal awareness is also a critical dimension of music therapy (Wigram et al., 2002). Personally, I feel the data indicate both flow states and peak experiences resulting from live music might occur physically, somatically, emotionally, or mentally. In the personal dimension, flow states as peak experience might take place in any of these realms of awareness. Externally, the environment and time-keeping devices (e.g., a conductor) can catalyze and enhance flow states or peak experiences. The existence or absence of any external influences can also affect the experience of flow states and peak experiences. Interestingly, my phenomenological data appear to indicate that flow states and peak experiences can occur in many dimensions of experience. These states might occur personally or interpersonally, and they can be influenced from external sources. Ensuing investigation will analyze music’s more direct influence on flow states and peak experiences in specific aspects of the interpersonal, personal, and external dimensions (e.g., music’s impact on flow at the somatic level, how environment impacts peak experiences influenced by live music).

Structural Research Method and Design The flow states of consciousness and peak experiences an individual is capable of witnessing and reporting on are influenced by the individual’s structures of awareness, perception, and attention. I offer an analysis of my musical abilities in order to provide an understanding of my musical capacity at the time of this research. For this structural method, I recorded myself practicing guitar on 11 different days from October 29, 2007 to December 7, 2007. I produced a total of 40 recordings, using all except 6 that did not categorically resemble the others. Of the 34 remaining recordings, I analyzed 10 different songs and 96 minutes of recorded music. Structuralism is primarily the product of developmental psychology. An individual’s structures of awareness are considered to develop through various stages capable of holding different degrees of complexity (Wilber, 2006). Without relying on a specific developmental model, I analyzed the strengths and weaknesses within my own structural awareness through my musical capacity and reanalyzed my phenomenological journals structurally. First, I classified each song I recorded as either primarily rhythmic or melodic. Then I counted the number of rhythm mistakes and melodic mistakes I made throughout each song. For each mistake, I noted whether I returned to the point of the mistake in order to correct the mistake or not. I informally reflected on my general strengths and weaknesses relative to three lines of development (emotional, kinesthetic, and interpersonal) based on examples from my journal entries. Daniel Goleman (1994) defines emotional intelligence through the domains of knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships. With a mindfulness perspective, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s (2005) position on kinesthetic intelligence includes the understanding and habitation of the body’s “ever-changing boundaries, limits, and capabilities” (p. 275). Goleman (2006) describes social intelligence—herein, interpersonal—as the ability to be present and mindful in relationships. I analyzed my journals through the phenomenological themes and categories for evidence of flow states throughout the experiences. Thereafter, I related any insights during these self-determined flow states to a particular line of development. If the experience appeared to have contributed to strengthened insights within a line of development, I considered it a peak experience.

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Structural Data I consider myself a beginner to intermediate guitar player and each of the songs I recorded were from Christopher Parkening’s Guitar Method (Parkening et al., 1999). During my playing, I counted a total of 274 melodic mistakes and 151 rhythmic mistakes (see Appendix A). The total number of times I attempted to correct an incorrect note in the melody was 79, while I attempted to correct an incorrect rhythm 7 times. On average I counted 8.06 wrong notes per song, 4.44 rhythm mistakes per song, 2.32 corrections of wrong notes per song, and 0.21 corrections of wrong rhythms per song. I returned to correct the wrong notes 28.8% of the time, while I returned to correct wrong rhythms 4.6% of the time. For melodic songs, the average number of incorrect notes played was 7.89 per song. The average number of rhythmic mistakes was 5 times per song. I corrected incorrect notes in melodic songs 2.79 times per song, and corrected rhythm mistakes in melodic songs 0.21 times per song. For rhythmic songs, I played an average of 8.27 incorrect notes per song. The average number of rhythmic mistakes was 3.73 per song. The average number of times I corrected an incorrect note was 1.73 times per song while I only corrected wrong rhythms 0.2 times per song. The songs varied in length and difficulty, which added to variance of the data. While listening to the recordings, I noticed the majority of rhythmic mistakes were a result of pausing to situate my left hand fingers on the correct frets. In this case, I might have been able to maintain the rhythm with my picking hand, but my fretting hand did not situate fast enough to allow a steady rhythm. Melodic mistakes, on the other hand, were the result of various causes such as fingering the wrong note, not pressing down hard enough on the string, or plucking the wrong string. From these data, it appears I have a stronger capacity for playing rhythm in classical guitar songs than I do melody. In addition, I am stronger playing melody in more melodic songs than I am in rhythmic songs, whereas I am stronger playing rhythm in rhythmic songs than I am with melodic songs. I was also more likely to return to correct a melodic mistake rather than a rhythmic mistake. I will now turn to my phenomenological journal data to compare my awareness as an audience member with the data from my musical ability.

Journal Data When considering my emotional line of development (as represented in my journal entries), I examined the mood or emotion category from my journals. It appears that I have a considerable amount of insight regarding when I am feeling strong emotions, but I am not particularly skilled at naming or categorizing these emotions. From the personal theme, an example of my emotional awareness relates to the way I experienced an emotional reaction to musical vibration. For example, I noticed that if a song reached a sad part I would feel the vibration more in my eyes and heart as compared to in my legs, torso, or shoulders during more lively parts of songs. In regards to my kinesthetic line of development, I expressed an ability to connect my awareness to my breath and to my movements. I additionally had the ability to expand these insights to include my perceptions of bodily energy flow. On the other hand, I was not regularly aware of these perceptions and typically needed to direct my awareness toward my breath or my body. Again, from the personal theme of my phenomenological data, my kinesthetic awareness was exemplified through noticing my breath and the musical vibrations’ effects on my body. Changes in my breathing pattern were mentioned several times in one journal entry, but I Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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did not mention how the music affected this awareness. Vibrations played a role in the ways I danced at one particular concert. Musical vibrations appeared to activate certain body parts while dancing, but this awareness was fleeting, and I was unable to sustain it for extended periods of time. My first realization while analyzing the interpersonal line data was that they did not include conflict. (I remember conflict occurring while at one concert, but it was not noted in my journal.) An example that highlighted this interpersonal nature is the environment music provides as a space for entirely non-verbal interactions with audience members. I left many concerts having never engaged in conversation, and it appears that I enjoy music because it provides a social atmosphere that does not rely on conversation.

Discussion My methods illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of one individual’s emotional, kinesthetic, and interpersonal intelligences in relation to musical experience and ability. Others may relate to the analysis of my personal structural awareness regarding flow states, peak experiences, and live music, but may differ depending on their own individual structures. The most significantly transferable results are the assertions that flow states are closely related to context, and peak experiences are related to an expanded understanding of content. In terms of musical flow states and peak experiences, flow states seemed to occur in my emotional and interpersonal intelligence within my understanding of emotions and relationships. Peak experiences tended to occur as I increased my ability to utilize understandings as action directed into the world. The trend reversed in my kinesthetic awareness, as flow states occurred while dancing and sensing my bodily reaction to the context presented through music, but peak experiences occurred as I increased content of understanding or had heightened insight into my body in relationship to the music. More broadly, then, these data indicate how individuals vary interpersonally in their ways of understanding and modes of orientation to experience flow states or peak experiences related to live music across lines of development. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) describes flow as providing order to consciousness. Thus, musically induced flow states seem closely related to rhythm through their repetitive patterns. Furthermore, peak experiences might be similarly related to content and melody, as peak experiences appear as the highest expressions of meaning, understanding, and reality (Hartman & Zimberoff, 2008). Interestingly, from a structural perspective, it appears that an individual’s experiences of flow states and peak experiences are capable of varying across lines of development within individuals, and in terms of the experience of differing musical elements (e.g., rhythm and melody).

Second-person Research For my hermeneutic analysis, I interviewed a musician on his perspective of performing live music, the dynamic between the musician and the audience, and writing songs. Within these parameters, I attempted to gain an understanding of how a performing musician experiences and observes flow states and peak experiences during live music performances. The research question I used was, “What is a musician’s experience of live music’s ability to facilitate a flow state of consciousness as a peak experience?” For my ethnomethodology analysis, I enrolled in a community college guitar class. I attended this class as a participant-observer investigating evidence of flow states and peak experiences within the class. As I analyzed the class proceedings according to examples of group flow states and peak experiences, I noticed the teacher’s role in facilitating a musical learning experience. My method-specific question for this analysis was, 80

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“How do flow states of consciousness as peak experiences appear within a classroom of guitar students?”

Hermeneutic Research Method and Design I interviewed David Kai, a performing musician, in order to develop narratives of experience with the research topic and to establish a means of conversation about the topic (Patterson & Higgs, 2005). On his website (www.davidkai.com), David describes his music as “inspirational folk rock that invites his listeners on a journey of the heart.” David is a friend and musical collaborator of a classmate, and I became interested in interviewing him because the classmate said David would be interested in my research topic. After contacting David, we agreed on a time, date, and place for the interview. Prior to the interview, I prepared a list of potential questions, tested my recording device, created a participant release form that we both signed, and informed David of my intentions for the interview. I informed David that the interview was for academic research, that I would record it, and that it would last approximately one hour. After transcribing the interview, I used a similar coding process as described in my phenomenological method. I highlighted and labeled 220 significant phrases. After organizing the labels into 22 categories, I created 6 themes (tools, personal qualities, practices, essence, utility, and extraneous variables), noting the number of labels in each category and the number of categories in each theme. The tools theme contains five categories, namely, the instrument, musical elements, people involved, listening, and body/functions. The personal quality theme contains four categories, including mental, focus/presence, inspiration/desire, and complacency. The three categories in the practices theme are organization, time, and preparedness. The essence theme contains four categories, including expression, feeling/sensation, music descriptors, and effect/affect. The utility theme contains three categories, including healing capacity, creation, and transformation. Finally, the extraneous variables theme contains three categories, including energies, external influences, and connection to life.

Tools Theme The tools theme contains categories that represent not only physical tools, but also aspects of a situation that contribute to a creative experience. This might include the people involved, musical characteristics, breath, and listening. David used various dimensions of the tools theme in his song-writing process. In explaining this process, he stated: “I come up with some guitar chords that go nicely together, and I come up with a rhythm that I like, and I just play it for a while. Then, I start humming, …start making sounds, and eventually out of those sounds will come a melody and on the melody will come words.” In other words, David plays the guitar with his understanding and skill, but also crafts his songs using rhythm, melody, and lyrical content that takes shape in spontaneous ways.

Personal Qualities Theme The personal qualities theme represents some personality characteristics that David considers useful for a musician. These qualities might be in paradox, as a musician is always trying to improve their musical skills, but while performing the musician must work with whatever skills they have acquired. David emphasized the need for a musician to hold attention in the present moment while performing. One of the ways he claimed a person slips out of the moment while playing is by thinking too much. David stated, “As soon as you start thinking, or thinking about what I’m going to say before or thinking about what I just said or anything, it just stops it, it just turns off.”

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Practices Theme Each of the elements of the practices theme is an expression of preparing for performing live music. These preparations include organization of songs, practice time and preparation, and preparedness in choosing the correct songs without a pre-set plan. The practices theme presented itself in David’s discussion of preparing songs to play during a performance. For example, “When I’m playing with other people, they like me to have a song list so they can mentally prepare for the next song.” Alternatively, when David performs alone, “If I write a list and I go by the list, I’m really disappointed afterwards because I [sometimes] feel like that wasn’t the right song to sing at that time.” He enjoys the freedom to choose songs depending on the energy of the audience and environment present.

Essence Theme The general subject matter within the essence theme deals with the overall feeling of or created through music. The elements of this theme relate to expression and generating particular emotional effects. David explained that it might take months or years “before you really have the total essence of a song or what it’s about or why it came through.” After that understanding takes place, though, “Later in life you can be like, ‘Wow, that song’s perfect, I totally understand.’” His explanation illustrates the depth and complexity within the essence of music.

Utility Theme The utility theme contains the uses of musical practice and performance. These uses might be for the performer or songwriter, or for the audience or listener. An example of the utility theme is an experience David had while playing guitar in a small café. While playing, David noticed a woman listening intently in the audience, and directed the music toward the woman and she began to cry. After David finished his performance, the woman put a note in his tip jar that read, “I didn’t come here expecting to have my life changed tonight…I lost my true love of 50 years, and I haven’t been able to… mourn it quite the way as I did listening to your music.” She added that he created a comfortable place for her to go through the emotions of losing her husband.

Extraneous Variables Theme The extraneous variables theme is comprised of categories that are not necessarily directly relevant to my research (e.g., experiences and explanations of David’s life tangential to his experience as a musician). For example, David discussed how he keeps his life in balance with his music. David observed, “You don’t always live up to everything, but I’m trying to be in balance with what it is that I’m singing about, what it is that I’m saying, that I actually live that way.” In this way, David attempts to let his music be an expression of his life and at the same time let his life be an expression of his music.

Discussion The validity of the hermeneutic method depends on the honesty and sincerity within the questions and answers, as well as recognition that data are subject to the researcher’s analysis and interpretation (Seidman, 2006). David’s answers seemed to be honest and sincere. He backed up many of his statements with stories of real-life experiences, which provided me with an understanding of his background with the topic. As with my first-person research, the hermeneutic data represent only a qualitative investigation of this research topic. Because it involves my interaction with another individual, some generalizations might extend further, but other musicians might experience the topic differently from David. 82

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Throughout my interview, it became apparent that David had insight into the states of consciousness live music is able to affect (i.e., David’s examples of performing and writing songs illustrated experiences that I am unable to present with my own phenomenological and structural analyses). When crafting a new song, preparing for a performance, or setting a comfortable context for the audience to process their personal lives, David appears to have mastered various dimensions of taking advantage of music’s capacity for facilitating flow states and peak experiences. Likewise, the connection between flow states and live music appear to be more intimately intertwined than I had previously considered. As music provides a soundtrack for “order in consciousness,” it appears to be largely a product or expression of flow states (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The flow state can be either planned/strategic or organic/improvised. This continuum represents the difference between technically based classical music, and more free form and improvised jazz or blues music. The targeted flow state also can occur on a broad scale, as indicated by selective succession of songs in a performance or a listening session, or on a narrow scale as indicated in a select passage within a single song.

Participant-Observer Research Method and Design Researchers using a participant-observer method straddle seemingly conflicting roles in data gathering. In one role, the researcher participates within a collective, and uncovers data that tells a story of commonly shared experiences. In the other role, the researcher detaches from participation and offers a critical lens through which to understand the group dynamic (Butler, 1997). I acted as a participant-observer in an intermediate level guitar class at Diablo Valley College (DVC) in Pleasant Hill, California. The guitar class allowed me to investigate my method-specific research question, “How do musically induced flow states of consciousness as peak experiences appear in a group of guitar students?” This method not only presents a lived experience of a guitar student inquiring into the states of consciousness for research, but also presents a shared group experience for the research. The guitar class met for 40 minutes on Saturdays starting January 26, 2008 and ending March 20, 2008. Throughout this time period I attended six classes. I used an audio recorder to record two of the class sessions, and listened to each recording twice. After listening to the recordings for the first time, I created three questions related to my research topic related to music and states of consciousness in a group setting. The three questions were, “What are classroom expressions that show evidence of group flow states?”, “What are classroom expressions that show evidence of group peak experiences?”, and “What is the teacher’s role in providing material to create these expressions?” While listening to the recordings a second time, I answered the three questions with evidence from the recordings. I then broke down each of the answers into its key components. I organized the components into themes for each question and used these data to compare and contrast the group flow states and peak experiences. I used recordings of the class proceedings as data in order to focus my attention while in class. (I considered writing journals, but decided that writing them in class would distract me from the class material, and writing them after class would produce data more removed from the classroom environment.) For this reason, and so that the recorded data would represent the group experience in its entirety, I recorded—with the teacher’s permission—and analyzed two class periods.

Question 1 “What are expressions that show evidence of group flow states?” yielded five different answers. The answers Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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contained 19 components, which I organized into 5 themes: subject/role, action, relation, practice mode, and musical element. Each answer referenced what was being practiced or played and evidence of how the class related to one another and the particular music while playing. One example answer to this question was, “Group speeding up the tempo during warm-up song.” This statement represents maintaining a flow state because the level of skill within the class was able to maintain a tempo faster than what the teacher set.

Question 2 “What are expressions that show evidence of group peak experiences?” yielded a total of seven different answers. The 7 answers had 20 components and broke down into 5 themes: improvement, action, practice focus, objects, and extras. The peak experiences I noted all related to evidence that the class was improving on particular pieces of music, and most specifically on difficult passages in the songs. One of the answers for this question was, “Increased ability to maintain a steady tempo.” I consider this a peak experience because it represents a strengthened ability to restrain from playing as fast as possible, and maintain the intended pace of the song.

Question 3 “What is the teacher’s role in providing material to create these expressions?” yielded 12 different answers. The answers had 35 components and reduced to 4 categories: actions, song elements, class material, and preparing. The answers represented that the teacher not only had to present music at just the right level to challenge the class’ skill level, but also had to understand the ways music students differ in their playing styles and skills. An example of one answer to this question was, “Soloing along with the songs the class is learning.” This answer represents the teacher’s ability to give the students an experience similar to that of performing a jazz song professionally, completely matching the students’ skills with their own improvisational skills.

Discussion The validity of my participant-observer method benefited from investigating the classroom environment in a natural setting (i.e., it was not set up for the purposes of this study). However, the participant observer data only serve the purpose of studying the topic in a controlled environment; the expressions of flow states and peak experiences outside of the classroom likely would manifest in differing ways from the classroom. Additionally, without discussion and conversation with other students, I cannot report on their awareness of or understanding of flow states and peak experiences related to the class. The difference between the questions regarding flow states and peak experiences is the practices involved for creating each. The answers to the flow state question included the sub-theme practice mode while the answers to the peak experience question included the sub-theme practice focus. A practice mode might be warm up, a whole song, a phrase, old/new material, and so on. The goal for practicing within these modes is to increase fluidity, and to maintain consistency throughout the entire portion of practice. A practice focus involves a particular structural foundation of music or a musical element. The purpose of a practice focus is to deepen the musician’s understanding of the particular structure and increase their technical proficiency. The teacher’s role is important for facilitating flow states of consciousness as peak experiences in the classroom for many reasons. If it can be said that music is largely a product of directed flow states of consciousness, and that peak experiences are related to deepening or heightening insight and capacity, then the teacher effectively trains students in flow states and peak experiences. In this case, the teacher’s role is much greater 84

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than simply training the students in guitar, as he facilitates an ability to sustain musical awareness and strive for new skills and understanding. In addition, a teacher’s capacity might improve through the use of various corollary practices such as those outlined in the Integral Life Practice framework, and more specifically practices or technologies designed to increase flow state and peak experience capacities such as meditation (Wilber et al., 2008). Through the data analysis and my newly emerging opinions, the musical classroom appears to be a particularly rich environment for my topic’s phenomena to naturally occur. However, my study would be incomplete without an objective exploration of music, flow states of consciousness, and peak experiences.

Third-person Research For my empirical assessment, I created a survey to measure many different people’s awareness of the occurrence of flow states of consciousness as peak experiences during live music. I designed this survey to measure distinct reasons people have for attending concerts and different flow state and peak experiences people might have at concerts. My method-specific research question was, “What is the general public’s opinion of music’s ability to facilitate flow states of consciousness as a peak experience?” For my systems analysis, I analyzed the social systems that influenced my experience of the concerts I attended for the first-person section of this project. I chose to analyze several social infrastructures and systems that played a role in my experience or my ability to attend the concert. My method-specific research question was, “What aspects of social systems affected the research I am performing on live music, flow states of consciousness, and peak experiences?”

Empirical Research Method and Design I created a survey measuring a range of experiences concerning live music, flow states of consciousness, and peak experiences. The first four questions on the survey are categorical, inquiring into the respondent’s gender, age, number of recent live music experiences, and musicianship (i.e., if they play an instrument or not). The next 10 questions rate the extent to which the respondent agrees with various statements (1=agree and 5=disagree) (Burgess, 2001): the first four questions relate to live music, the next three relate to flow states, and the final three relate to peak experiences. The final two questions ask how often the respondent experiences flow and group flow at concerts (see Appendix B). The questions explore intentions for attending concerts, behaviors around music and spontaneous music experiences, and internal feelings and thoughts that occur when listening to live music. Aside from the final two questions on flow states, the questions do not use the terms flow state or peak experience. I surveyed friends, co-workers, and fellow concertgoers in order to receive a range of responses that were not too wide or narrow. The respondents completed the surveys in my presence, and I received a total of 23 completed surveys. My intention was to survey various ways in which people connect to music in their conscious experience.

Empirical Data All survey participants answered the first categorical survey question, age. There were three people in the 18-22 age range, eight people in the 22-28 age range, two people in the 29-35 range, five people in the 36-45 range, three people in the 46-55 range, and two people in the 55+ range. Thus, most people were concentrated Journal of Integral Theory and Practice—Vol. 5, No. 2

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between the ages of 22 to 28, and 36 to 45. In hindsight, I recognized I mistakenly included the ages of 22 and 55 in two different categories. I received two blank answers on the question regarding concerts in the past month. The remainder of the answers included 14 people attended 0, five people attended 1-2, and two people attended 3-4. On the number of concerts the respondents attended in the past year, five people attended 0, six people attended 1-5, one person attended 6-10, one attended 11-16, and one person attended 15+ concerts. Nine people did not answer this question. All respondents answered if they played a musical instrument, with 9 people answering yes and 14 answering no, which resulted in 30% of respondents playing a musical instrument. Five of the musicians played guitar, three played piano, two played violin, one played flute, and one previously played clarinet. The average results of the agree/disagree rated response statements are presented in Appendix C. The two highest levels of agreement from these questions were on statements #1, “Live concerts are more entertaining than musical recordings,” and #10, “I typically feel a natural high at concerts.” On question #1, no responses on these questions fell on the disagree side of the scale. Five people were neutral to the statement, which means that of the 23 people I surveyed, 78% of people agree that live concerts are more entertaining than recordings. On question #10, only five people were neutral and one person answered “N/A,” which equates to 82% agreeing that they feel a natural high at concerts. The only responses that averaged on the disagree side of the scale was question #4, “I attend concerts for social interaction more so than for music.” The average answer was 2.07. The averages of the remaining seven rated response questions fell close to the neutral range. One average fell slightly under the neutral mark of three while the rest fell slightly above three. On the final questions, no one answered that they never experience flow or never feel a part of group flow during a concert. Six people answered that they sometimes feel flow at concerts, 12 people answered that they often feel flow, and 5 people answered don’t know. Similarly, 7 people answered that they sometimes feel a part of group flow at live concerts, while 12 people often feel a part of group flow and 4 people answered don’t know. The primary importance of these statistics show no one reported never feeling flow states and peak experiences while witnessing live music.

Discussion The validity of the empirical method is the extent to which one can analyze and make generalizations about the respondents (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). My survey measured the respondents’ agreements with their experience of particular types of musical experiences, flow states of consciousness, and peak experiences. Generalization is inherently strongest for these 23 respondents and perhaps only loosely to the populations I surveyed, including developmental service workers, John F. Kennedy University Holistic Studies students, and concertgoers. It does not appear valid to generalize my findings to a broader population. The survey confirmed that most people experience flow states and peak experiences while attending concerts. In terms of flow states, respondents were most likely to experience them as an ability to anticipate changes in the music during a concert. Answers to the final two questions indicated that most individuals experienced flow and group flow during concerts. Related to peak experiences, all three questions averaged higher than in 86

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the neutral range. The results of the final question indicate that peak experiences can be addictive, and generate a craving for more and more intense peak experiences (Maslow, 1994). These kind of peak-to-peak experiences can be dangerous if the individual does not recognize an addictive craving for this experience. Related to live music, a concertgoer solely interested in the kind of natural high described in the survey question and not interested in the value of these experiences might develop an unhealthy relationship to live music. My data would benefit from a further analysis of how age and gender affect the average responses. Additionally, increased depth might be gained through comparing respondents that practice music as compared to those who do not. Nevertheless, the data present a general account of how the group of respondents typically responds to live music.

Systems Research Method and Design I used the concerts I attended to analyze my research topic related to social systems. I created a chart listing many systemic influences related to each concert (see Appendix D). The chart depicts various systemic factors that inform and influence a person’s decision to attend a concert. This method takes a third-person perspective on the information and systemic factors I detailed above in the phenomenological section. The categories of social systemic influences I chose to use were date, name of band(s), price, concert location, availability of alcohol, availability of food, number of attendees, number of bands, type of venue, whether the concert was seated or standing, genre of music, and the modes of transportation I used to arrive at each concert. This information was readily available through the Internet, on my ticket stubs, and in my own memory. This method does not measure any specific experience in relation to my research topic. Rather, it measures how structures of society affected decisions and enabled me to attend the live concerts I analyzed in the firstperson section of this study. A systems analysis like this one can only measure what means society has in place within a particular location to enable a music fan to make decisions and attend particular concerts.

Systems Data I attended 13 concerts from October 14, 2007 to November 25, 2007. During this span of the research, I did not go more than six days without attending a music performance. I saw a total of 15 different bands/performers throughout the research period. The price of the concerts ranged from free to $22. I attended six free concerts, one $10 concert, one $12 concert, one $15 concert, three $20 concerts, and one $22 concert. Of the 13 concerts, all but one were located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The most common city in my list of concert locations was the city in which I live in, Crockett, which appeared five times. The second most common city was San Francisco, appearing four times. The one town outside of the Bay Area I attended a live concert in was Floyd, Virginia. The availability of food and alcohol, type of venue, and seated or standing audience were also categories in my systems data. These categories are similar because they measured the systemic influence on the concert’s atmosphere. All but three venues made alcohol available to the audience, and about half of the venues served food. Venues included cafés, an art center, bars and/or restaurants, a non-profit music organization, nightclubs, and a fellowship hall. Five of the concerts had a standing audience, while eight had a seated audience.

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The number of bands playing at each concert was the next category in my systems data. The number of bands influences the length of the concert and duration of the break between sets. I attended nine concerts in which only one band performed, three concerts in which two bands performed, and one concert in which three bands performed. Finally, I coded the concerts according to musical genre. I attended concerts in the genres of jazz, bluegrass, old time, folk, reggae, hip-hop, rock, blues, soul, and classical. The genre of music influences the experiences of the audience member in terms of enjoyment and also influences the decision to attend the concert.

Discussion The social systems method is only valid in terms of measuring different social influences on a music fan’s decision to attend a concert and the experience they might have at the concert. It would not be valid to use data in this section to make generalizations about audience members’ particular experiences during a concert or details of the concert proceedings. Additionally, the systems analysis is only valid for the systemic factors in the areas it is measuring or sampling. Through a thorough investigation of the systems data (Appendix D), I arrived at two distinct themes within the data. I recognized that typically the further away from my home the concert was, the larger the audience and more variation in venue occurred. One exception was the concert I attended furthest from my home, which was one of the smallest that I attended. Additionally, the venues in my hometown were limited to a café and a fellowship hall. The second theme in the systems data is the size of the city or town I attended a concert in was directly related to the size of the audience at the concert and the variety of genres available. The smallest towns, Crockett, CA, and Floyd, VA, had the smallest concerts and least musical variety. As the cities increased in size, so did the size of the audience at the concert and the variety of musical genres available. This analysis illuminates the information a music fan might use to determine their desire to attend a concert, and to evaluate how they might enjoy the concert. Directly related to the research on flow states and peak experiences, the systemic influences available for the music fan might cause them to decide what kind of musical experience they might have. Whether or not the person is directly aware of flow states and peak experiences, they might make a decision based on how similar music affects them, how excited they might be about hearing a band or a style of music, and what they might gain from the experience. All of these factors are related to and influenced by the flow states and peak experiences the music fan previously and might experience at a particular concert.

Conclusion The methods explored in this article give a general sense of the experience of, interaction with, and observation of live music’s ability to facilitate flow states of consciousness as peak experiences. This study is one example of how to use an Integral Research methodology for a complex investigation (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2006). From phenomenological and structural research, this study illustrated the variety of flow states and peak experiences available within individuals, between individuals, and across groups. My phenomenological research indicated the various dimensions of these states as a result of direct musical experience, while the structural research showed how an individual’s patterns of awareness could vary in the areas of emotional, kinesthetic, and interpersonal development. The hermeneutic and participant observer research sections illustrated music and flow states and peak experiences in conversation and the classroom environment. The hermeneutic 88

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research indicated various experiences of flows and peaks as described by a musician in an interview, while the participant observer research showed changes in capacity for flow states and peak experiences in a group of guitar students. The empirical research illustrated a small portion of the general population’s experiences of flow states and peak experiences related to live music. Finally, the systems research indicated the systemic factors in place for informing consumer’s interest in live music performances. As a result of a mixed methods design utilizing first-, second-, and third-person methods, this study was very inclusive of many different types of data. However, my choice of research methods did not allow for an exhaustive analysis of the generated data. An additional limitation of this study is the unavailability of similar data to confirm my findings. Although there is information on music and altered states (e.g., Bonny & Savary, 1990; Bourguignon, 1979; Richards, 2003, 2004), I was unable to find similar research on music, flow states, and peak experiences. Through repetition of these and similar research methods the research would gain increased validation and a deepened understanding of this topic. For further research, I propose focusing on distinct flow states of consciousness and their roles in various systems related to music. While I did not focus direct attention on music therapy, the implications of this research might be of interest to music therapists. More information on music therapy can be found elsewhere (Bruscia, 1998; Wigram et al., 2002). Research of the correlations between particular flow states, peak experiences, and music could contribute to theories in music therapy, music education, and personal growth designed to stimulate flow states of consciousness to produce particular peak experiences for learning, healing, and growth. It is my opinion that peak experiences are one necessary element of personal growth, as they involve ever expanding insights into different aspects of life. And now the concert comes to a close, but I have a whole new conceptual organization of myself as a person and the world overall. I will take the reverberations of rhythm, tone, harmony, melody, creation, and inspiration along with me as I walk out of this experience slightly more awake and invigorated. My experience, in itself has been inspiration; it has inspired a need to investigate, communicate, fully appreciate, and be in awe of the experiences I have available throughout my life. I leave knowing there will be more concerts ahead, but with more capacity to embrace life’s metaphorical concert as it is occurring, now.

Acknowledgments Thanks to Sean Esbjörn-Hargens for his skillful balance of challenge and support in the classroom throughout my Integral Research study. I would also like to thank my classmates Kathleen Grillo, Nicholas Hedlund, Marin Jacobson, Moses Silbiger, and Catherine Woodman for their classroom support and inspirational Integral Research projects. Thanks additionally to David Kai for making his beautiful living space in Santa Rosa, California available for our meeting, as well as for his thoughtful and insightful answers throughout our interview.

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Appendix A Structural Data Chart Rhythmic=1 Note Rhythm Note Rhythm Times Melodic=2 Mistakes Mistakes Corrections Corrections Played Song Categories* Rhythmic Melodic Individual Songs “Etude” “Fur Elise” “Moderato” “Waltz” “Spanish Dance” “Rondo” “Canario” “Scottish Folk Song” “Andante” “Minuet” Totals Average

1 2

8.27 7.89

3.73 5.0

1.73 2.79

.2 .21

15 19

1 2 1 1 2

18 5.4 3.67 6 4

7.75 3 .83 4 3

2.5 1.2 1.33 1.6 1

.5 .2 0 .2 0

4 5 6 5 2

2 2 2

14.75 7 3

10 3.5 2

5 4 .33

.5 0 0

4 2 3

2 2 – –

10.5 10 274 8.06

6.5 8 151 4.44

4.5 7 79 2.32

0 1 7 .21

2 1 34 34

*

Data are shown as averages.

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Appendix B Copy of Survey Live Music and States of Consciousness Survey This survey is part of a research project investigating particular states of consciousness live music has the ability to influence. The project is an intensive look at this particular topic using six distinct methods from first-, second-, and thirdperson perspectives. I will use the data from this survey as one of the third-person perspective methods in this project. Gender? Male Female

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