That there are stages of development in adults is sometimes considered a controversial topic because of the implication that higher stages are “better”. They are different, but not better. It seems that the way many researchers by-pass any potential controversy is to apply different stages to a particular context. For example, as you can see in the table below Torbet looks at stages of Leadership, whilst Graves (Spiral Dynamics) looks at different stages of how values develop.
Not all of the stages have robust measures, but several do. I’ve been curious as to why this knowledge isn’t more widespread.
The table below is an adaptation of one provide originally by Dr Popovic, but a similar one can be found in the work of Susanne Cook-Greuter
Suzanne Hazelton's Blog 
