Layer 1 — The Measurement Layer
Four-Mode Gradient
A structured model of regulated and dysregulated states expressed through behavior and language.
Connection → Protection → Control → Domination
These are not personality types. They are nervous system states — regulatory positions that shift in response to perceived threat, shaped by attachment history, social context, and current capacity.
Status: Proposed model with early evidenceSee Publications for what is currently tested and what still needs replication.
Layer 2 — The Explanatory Layer
12 Frameworks (F1–F12)
A connected set of frameworks that explain why these patterns emerge, how they escalate, why they look paradoxical, and how repair becomes possible again.
The frameworks are organized as a connected arc:
- F1–F3: Internal regulation, identity adaptation, inner organization
- F4–F7: How individual protection scales into social systems and harm
- F8–F10: The return path — self-awareness, repair, and re-integration
- F11: Why humans look contradictory until you see the full state logic
- F12: The integrative lens connecting inner biology to social outcomes
Each framework draws on established theories. The originality is in the connections between them.
Status: Proposed synthesisGrounded in established theories, with connections that need structured review and testing.
Layer 3 — The Emotional Tools
Applied Instruments
16 gradient-based scales and assessments derived from the frameworks. They translate the system into practical instruments for individuals, practitioners, and clinical settings.
Each tool maps a dimension of human behavior across the gradient — from healthy to harmful — with clear markers at every point.
Examples: Empathy Gradient (genuine → selective → performed → weaponized), Accountability Gradient (genuine → performed → absent → protective), Integrity Scale (value-aligned → conditional → performed → remorseless).
Status: Designed, not yet psychometrically validatedAvailable for exploration on teg-blue.com, awaiting formal validation studies.
Research need: Scale design support, factor structure exploration, convergent and discriminant validity plans, bias and fairness evaluation.
Layer 4 — The AI Safety Layer
Structured Schemas for AI Systems
A structured, computationally legible schema layer that translates the emotional pattern logic into formats AI systems can consume.
This includes JSON-LD structured data, consistent terminology, semantic HTML, and gradient-based classifications designed to replace binary safe/unsafe models with nuanced assessments.
Status: Proposed architecture with early implementationSee AI Safety for the full application case.
Research need: Schema design feedback, evaluation protocols, risk analysis, misuse prevention, alignment with existing safety research.
The four core functions
The system is designed to serve four functions. Each represents a research lane where collaboration is needed.
1. Measurement and recognition
Turning subjective states into observable, trackable patterns using gradients, modes, and markers.
2. Prediction and prevention
Mapping how states shift and escalate across the gradient. Harm often follows predictable progressions from Protection into Control and Domination.
3. Navigation and intervention
Identifying interventions that help systems move from Control back toward Protection and Connection. Routes back to safety exist.
4. Pattern breaking
Understanding how entrenched patterns — individual, relational, institutional — can be interrupted and restructured.
Ethical constraint: Trauma-informed data architecture
The system assumes many difficult behaviors started as Protection Mode survival responses. Data systems built on this framework should not be designed to shame, profile, or exploit.
This is not a tagline. It is an architectural constraint that applies to every tool, schema, and classification derived from TEG-Blue.
Intent–Impact–Pattern logic
TEG-Blue maps each behavior across three dimensions:
- Intent: What the nervous system is trying to do
- Pattern: Which gradient pattern or tool family it belongs to
- Impact: What it does to safety, power, and connection
This prevents reducing behavior to either "good person" or "bad person" — the same behavior can serve different functions depending on state and context.