The Stages of Well-Being

Why looking at well-being through the lens of developmental psychology is key.

Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.

It turns out that we humans go through a predictable series of developmental stages (Cook-Greuter, 2014). As we move into each new stage, we develop a different, more expansive type of awareness (or worldview). This type of awareness affects how we view every single thing in our lives, including our well-being. In other words, each stage is like a pair of glasses with lenses of a different color. In each stage, we see the entire world (including ourselves) through a specific lens.

I use the 8 colors of the rainbow to refer to the stages (and their types of awareness; e.g., red stage, orange stage, yellow stage, etc.). Like the rainbow, we move through the stages from red to violet.

Here are the primary types of awareness (or worldviews) of each stage (Cook-Grueter, 2014):

• Red - awareness of the body (self-centric)
• Orange - awareness of social interactions (peer group-centric)
• Yellow - awareness of behaviors or actions (skill-centric)
• Green - awareness of emotions or outcomes (outcome-centric)
• Teal - awareness of thoughts or perspectives (understanding-centric)
• Blue - awareness of beliefs (pattern-centric)
• Indigo - awareness of awareness (awareness-centric)
• Violet - awareness of oneness (oneness-centric)

No type of awareness is better than any of the other types. In fact, each type of awareness offers unique opportunities and challenges related to well-being. Let’s be clear—people in later stages are not better than those in earlier stages.

Another way to think of the awareness of each stage is like it’s a different language. No language is right or wrong. They are all just different ways of viewing our world. The better we understand a “language”, the easier it is to understand those who speak this language. The better we understand the language of each stage, the better we can support others to develop well-being within, between, and across all of the stages of development.

We Expand Through the Stages

As we progress, we don’t move through the stages in a straight line. It’s more like we expand, adding more outer rings like trees do (Wilber, 2007). In each stage, we add an outer ring. This outer ring of awareness is like the colored pair of glasses that lie between us and the world—we see the world primarily through the outer ring. But like trees, we still keep the inner rings (i.e., the types of awareness) of the earlier states. So as we expand, we can look at the world in more and more different ways. This expanded "collection" of worldviews (or types of awareness) creates the potential for greater well-being, but it also creates greater potential for ill-being.

If you’re familiar with the rings of trees, you’ll know that you can see a tree’s history in its rings. For example, if there was a drought or fire one year, the ring the tree grew that year would look different. The same is true for us. If we encounter obstacles during certain stages—or fail to develop the skills we need to thrive at certain stages—our rings can develop abnormalities. In the context of well-being, we might think of these abnormalities as our unique mental health issues.

Stages Are Continuous

Although I describe the stages as if they are separate, discrete experiences, they are actually continuous. This is why many developmental theories use the colors of the rainbow to refer to the stages (e.g., Wilber, 2007). This helps us keep in mind that the stages are not truly separate. When you’re between yellow and green stage, you’re lime green (your awareness hasn’t fully switched to green yet, but you’re moving away from yellow awareness).

You can also think about it like you think about your age. You may be 25 years old, and when you turn 26, you’ll be in a new stage. But through the stage of 25, you are also 25 and 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, etc… You don't jump right from 25 to 26. You progress along a continuum. The same is true for the stages on the path to well-being.

We Can’t Skip Stages

Just like age, we all start at 0 when it comes to the well-being stages. And we can't skip from 0 to 5 or 50. We have to go through every stage to get to the later stages (because every stage builds on the previous one; Wilber, 2007).

But, how fast we move through stages is not like age. Our speed depends on our individual life circumstances. If someone is in an earlier stage, it’s often because of difficult life circumstances and/or lack of support (ACEs, 2014; Murphy, n.d.). It’s not because of a lack of effort! Everyone moves through the stages at their own pace, and that pace is perfect for them.

We’re Always in Multiple Stages

We know that when we move from 2nd to 3rd grade, we will be better at some skills than others. We may be at a 2nd-grade level for some skills, a 3rd-grade level for other skills, and even a 4th-grade level for other skills. The same is true for the well-being stages. Our skills are somewhat normally distributed around our center point. In other words, some of our skills remain in the stage prior to our current stage and some of our skills are in the stage ahead of our current stage. A few of our skills may even be in very early or very late stages (e.g., Wilber, 2000).

Expanding Rainbow Rings of Awareness

When we put all these factors together, the path to well-being kind of looks like expanding rainbow rings of a tree.

These rings represent the different types of awareness we gain as we move along the path to well-being. The shapes, sizes, and intensity of the colors represent the unique characteristics of our different layers.

Learn more: https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/path-to-well-being.html