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Graves graduated from Union College in New York in 1940 and received his master's degree and a Ph.D in psychology from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
In the mid-twentieth century, Clare W. Graves taught psychology at Union College in New York. There he developed an epistemological model of human psychology. Graves claimed that the inspiration for so doing came from undergraduate students in his introductory psychology course. He acknowledged that he was unable to answer the frequently asked question as to who from among many competing psychology theorists was ultimately "right" or "correct" with their model.
In an attempt to answer the students’ question, Graves ultimately created an epistemological theory that he said reconciled the various approaches human psychology. To obtain the data he needed to develop his hypothesis and test his theory, in the seven years from 1952 to 1959, Graves collected pertinent data from his psychology students (who were a diverse group of people from all over the world). His analysis of this data became the basis for a theory that he called "The Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory" (ECLET).
In brief, Graves theorized that in response to external conditions, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve problems. While these coping systems were dependent on evolving human culture, they were manifest by individuals. Graves believed that tangible emergent self-assembling dynamic neuronal systems evolved in the human brainIn the anatomy of humans, the human brain is the center of the central nervous system and the primary control center for the peripheral nervous system. Overview Human encephalization is especially pronounced in the neocortex, the most complex portion of t in response to evolving existential social problems. He theorized "man's nature is not a set thing, that it is ever emergent, that it is an open systemAn open system may refer to more than one thing: In the physical sciences, an open system (system theory is a system that matter or energy can flow into and/or out of, in contrast to a closed system, which no energy or matter may enter or leave. See also, not a closed systemAn open system can be influenced by events outside of the declared boundaries of a system. A closed system is self-contained: outside events can have no influence upon the system. In practice many things are a mixture of the two. For example, a government." His work observes that the emergence within humans of new bio-psycho-social coping systems in response to external conditions follows a hierarchyA hierarchy (Greek hieros sacred, arkho rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things. Different fields use the word in slightly different ways, but a particular definition (below) captures the core of almost all uses. Originally, "hierarchy" meant ". Furthermore, each level in the hierarchy alternates as either the human trying to make the environmentAn environment is a complex of external factors that acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. An environment may be thought of as a superset, of which the given system is a subset. An environment may have one or more parameters, p adapt to the selfThe Self is a key construct in several schools of Psychology. Usages differ between theorists and fields of study, but in general the self refers to the conscious, reflective personality of an individual. The study of the self involves significant methodo, or the human adapting to the existential. He saw this process as continuous and never ending.