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Structural stage theories are based on the idea that human individuals or groups can develop through a pattern of distinct stages over time and that these stages can be described based on their distinguishing characteristics. Types of structural stage theories include: in psychology, developmental stage theories such as Piaget's theory of cognitive development and theories of psychotherapy process such as the transtheoretical model of change; in history and social science, stadial history of sociocultural evolution; and in religion, models of spiritual evolution.
In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, and related models of psychological development like those of Jane Loevinger and James W. Fowler, stages have a constant order of succession, later stages integrate the achievements of earlier stages, and each is characterized by a particular type of structure of mental processes which is specific to it. The time of appearance may vary to a certain extent depending upon environmental conditions.
Influenced by western esotericism, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo regarded spiritual development as a process of involution and evolution, in which the Divine descends into the material world, from which it has to be liberated again in a process of growing awareness over multiple lifetimes. Cultural psychologist Jean Gebser also developed a model of collective human spiritual development, which in turn influenced Ken Wilber, together with Aurobindo and others.