Graves' system consists of eight values Levels. It is important to understand that he identified these as modes of behavior, not types of people. Graves' point of view was that humans operate out of these different Levels as a response to the challenges and problems they face in their everyday life. Both individuals and  systems evolve through these values Levels. Certain patterns emerge as the system of eight Levels is critically reviewed. Levels 1, 3, 5, and 7 are dominantly individual Levels. While in these Levels, people tend to be more concerned with their own needs, and less concerned with the needs of other individuals or groups. Graves referred to these as “expressive” Levels, in the sense that the individual actively pursued his own needs and impulses. Motivation is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. 

Levels 2, 4, 6, and 8 are group-oriented Levels. Individuals in these Levels tend to put the needs of others and the group ahead of their own personal needs. Motivation is more extrinsic; Graves referred to these as sacrificial Levels in the sense that the individual would sacrifice his own needs in the interest of others or the group. Each new Level makes a wider selection of choices available to the individual or society. Graves believed that most people span two or three levels most of the time. Evolution through the levels is not related to age, and there are individuals at every level who will spend a lifetime wrestling with the challenges of that level. Transition to the next higher level only occurs when the person encounters situations that cannot be dealt with at their current values level. 

Graves recognized that a wide range of functionality existed at each Level. Within any Level, an individual or a society could progress to some version of Maslow's “self-actualization.” Thus, Graves' point of view emerged that there were potentially a variety of ways to move toward self-actualization. Graves believed that individuals and societies grappled with different classes of problems at each level. Each level's values, beliefs, management structure, behaviour patterns, and cognitive expressions were a reflection of the problems and solutions that people at that level were working with. However, each level is in some way limited and produces its own set of new problems which cannot be solved at the same level. When a new class of problems emerges, the individual or society must then evolve to the next

Level in order to f ind a new set of solutions ( James & Woodsmall, 1992).

Graves Emergent Ethical theory proposes

  1. That the ethical system of a man or a group of men is a function of the dynamic system triggered by the life circumstances in which that man or that group of men are living.
  2. Normally the system of ethical behaviour by which a man or a group of men lives changes in an orderly determined manner as broader dynamic systems are triggered by more humanly favourable life circumstances.
  3. That there emerges an ethical theme of what is right and what is wrong in behaviour which is appropriate to each Level of dynamic emergence.
  4. That within each theme certain specific values of right and wrong will be expressed by one man or group of men because of variations in the components of a dynamic system while another man or group of men may accentuate certain other values because of a different arrangement in the dynamic system.
  5. That there is a natural drive in man to proceed from a lower to a higher Level dynamic system and thus a concomitant natural drivenness to move from a lower, more humanly restricting, the conception of right and wrong to a higher, more humanly freeing conception of right and wrong.
  6. That as man moves from a lower to a Higher Level of ethical behaviour some values by which man judges right from wrong are discarded as no longer appropriate to his changed status; that some of the earlier values are retained intact; that some previous values are modified; and that some new, not previously existing conceptions of right and wrong emerge as each subsequent dynamic system emerges. 
  7. That the ethical systems by which men live may progress, fixate at an over or underdeveloped; may regress, may become a monstrum in defectu or a monstrum in excessu. The movement, lack of movement, or abnormalcy of movement is a function of the conditions which affect man's psychological dynamic system. Fear, for example, as it restricts man's cognitive field can drive him to live by lower Level ethics.
  8. Those lower  Level dynamics produces a more rigid ethical system thus making it impossible for those living by lower ethics to comprehend the meaning of living by higher Level ethics “( Graves, 1959, p. 7 ).

 

Graves Values Levels

This section contains detailed information about each of the values Levels. Information is drawn from a variety of sources (see References) and represents the author's synthesis and interpretation.

 

Values Level 1: Survival Level

“Express self now for Survival”

According to Graves, there are no major collections of people living at this level on a regular basis. Graves described this Level as the survival Level in which individuals lived alone, seeking basic survival needs on a day- to-day basis. He likened this to an animalistic, pre- societal stage. Although Graves probably intended his system to be applied only to adults, this might be best represented in the context of individual evolution by infants and small children in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, dependent upon their caregivers for survival resources. For adult examples, we may turn to pathological situations which might include street people or scattered survivors after a war or natural disaster.

 

The prime need for this Level is to attend to immediate physiological needs such as food and shelter in order to stay alive today. Behaviour is instinctive and automatic. Social structure is minimal, with groups forming for mating, migration, sharing shelter, or harvesting food from the same area, and then disbanding. There is no lasting tribal structure at this level, and individuals have little awareness of themselves or others except as objects. Learning is by habituation.

 

At the lowest end of development at Level 1, individuals may perish because of an inability to find survival resources or may need to be cared for by others

 

at a Higher Level. At the highest level of development, individuals at this Level can become self-sufficient within their familiar surroundings. 

 

The need to give constant attention to survival makes this Level equivalent to Maslow's fi