Robert Kegan

Robert Kegan (1946) is the William and Miriam Meehan Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard University. Additionally he is the Educational Chair for the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education and the Co-director for the Change Leadership Group. Kegan is a developmental psychologist and the author of numerous books, including his most well-known work The Evolving Self (1982).

In The Evolving Self, Kegan presents a model of psychological development consisting of six "equilibrium stages": the incorporative stage, the impulsive stage, the imperial stage, the interpersonal stage, the institutional stage, and the inter-individual stage. The object of each stage is the subject of the preceding stage.

The subject of the incorporative stage are reflexes, and it has no object. The subjects of the impulsive stage are the individual's impulses and perceptions, and its objects are the reflexes. The subject of the imperial stage are the individual's needs, interests, and desires, and its objects are the individual's impulses and perceptions. The subject of the interpersonal stage are interpersonal relationship and mutuality, and its objects are the individual's needs, interests, and desires. The subject of the institutional stage are the individual's authorship, identity, and ideology, and its objects areinterpersonal relationships and mutuality. The subject of the inter-individual stage is "the interpenetrability of...
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