Spiral Dynamics (value systems)

Spiral Dynamics is a model of developmental value systems, or 'vMemes', that describes how individuals and cultures move through successive worldviews in response to changing life conditions. It was derived from the work of psychologist Clare W. Graves and developed by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan in the 1990s, who labelled each stage by colour. It sorts people by the underlying value system through which they make sense of the world.

An influential developmental framework popular in coaching and organisational circles, but not a mainstream-validated psychometric instrument. (Clare W. Graves (research from the 1950s-1970s); named and popularised by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, 1996)

Groups

• Beige — Survival — An instinctive, survival-driven worldview focused on meeting immediate physiological needs such as food, water, warmth, and safety.
• Purple — Tribal — A magical, animistic worldview centred on kinship, ancestors, rituals, and belonging to a protective tribe or clan.
• Red — Power — An egocentric, impulsive worldview that seeks dominance, respect, and immediate gratification through the assertion of personal power.
• Blue — Order — An absolutist worldview that values order, purpose, discipline, and obedience to a single right way governed by higher authority or principle.
• Orange — Achievement — A strategic, rationalist worldview that prizes individual achievement, competition, progress, and material success through goal-oriented effort.
• Green — Community — An egalitarian, communitarian worldview that emphasises human bonds, consensus, inclusion, feelings, and the wellbeing of the whole group.
• Yellow — Integrative — A systemic, flexible worldview that integrates earlier value systems, embraces complexity, and acts on functional understanding rather than fixed ideology.
• Turquoise — Holistic — A holistic, global worldview that perceives interconnected living systems and seeks the wellbeing of all life and the planet as a single whole.
• Coral — Emerging — A proposed and still-emerging value system thought to follow Turquoise, whose nature remains speculative and not yet well defined.

Related topics

• VIA Character Strengths
• Stage of moral reasoning
• What drives you (McClelland)
• Your appetite for risk
• Regulatory focus (Higgins)
• Core values (Schwartz)

All topics on ArtaQuest