Measurement System
The Four-Mode Gradient
The observable, testable backbone of TEG-Blue. Four nervous system regulatory states that shape what we can perceive, feel, think, and do — detectable in natural language.
State determines capacity — what someone can perceive, feel, think, and do depends on where their nervous system lands, not on their character or intelligence.
01
The Four Regulatory States
These are not personality types or diagnostic categories. They are nervous system states — regulatory positions that shift in response to perceived threat, shaped by attachment history, social context, and current capacity.
Connection
Safety perceived
The nervous system perceives safety. Not forced calm or performed wellness — real safety that the body believes, not just the mind.
- Empathy is fully online
- Perspective-taking is possible
- Flexibility is high
- Repair is available
- Curiosity about others' experience
Protection
Threat perceived
The nervous system detects potential threat. Walls go up, but they can come down. This is a normal, healthy response — everyone visits Protection mode.
- Empathy is still available, but narrowed
- Focus shifts to self-protection
- Flexibility decreases
- Withdrawal, quietness, guardedness
- Recovery is possible with time and safety
Control
Safety sought through controlling others
Protection isn't enough — the nervous system decides that managing others is the only way to feel safe. This isn't necessarily conscious or malicious. It's a survival adaptation.
- Empathy becomes strategic (predict/manage, not connect)
- Others become objects to manage
- Flexibility limited to what serves control
- Accountability is performed, not genuine
- Focus on managing perception
Domination
Power as only safety
Control becomes entrenched — power over others becomes the primary way of feeling safe. Empathy doesn't just narrow; it goes offline.
- Others exist only in relation to one's needs
- Vulnerability is weakness
- Harm is rationalized or invisible
- Truth is whatever maintains power
- Repair is structurally impossible
02
Key Principles
Gradient, Not Categories
The modes exist on a continuum. People don't jump from one to another — they slide. The gradient nature is essential: someone in late Protection looks different from early Protection.
Health Is Mobility
A well-regulated nervous system moves fluidly through states. Getting stuck is the problem — not visiting Protection or even Control temporarily.
States, Not Traits
These are positions anyone can occupy, not fixed personality types. The same person can operate from Connection in one context and Control in another.
Biology, Not Morality
Moving toward Control or Domination under threat isn't a character flaw — it's how nervous systems respond to perceived danger. Understanding this changes everything.
03
The Core Testable Claim
The key variable that predicts relational and behavioral outcomes is not a person's current regulatory state, but their capacity to return to Connection when challenged.
Someone in Protection who can move back toward Connection when the threat passes is fundamentally different from someone who escalates toward Control. Current state matters less than trajectory.
This capacity is measurable through complexity markers — signs of self-awareness, perspective-taking, and emotional differentiation detectable in natural language.
04
Detection in Natural Language
The four modes produce distinct patterns in how people speak and write. A validation study analyzing 10,000+ natural conflict narratives identified reliable markers:
Polyvagal Markers
Physiological regulation signals: safety cues, withdrawal patterns, fight/flight language
Contempt Markers
Dismissiveness, superiority, disgust — signals of Control/Domination positioning
Moral Disengagement
Rationalization, diffusion of responsibility, dehumanization of others
Complexity Markers
Self-awareness, perspective-taking, emotional differentiation — predict return to Connection
Validation Finding
De-escalators (those who moved toward Connection when challenged) showed 78% higher rates of complexity markers than escalators. Mode classifications correlated with independent community moral judgments.
05
Layer 1 of Two
The Four-Mode Gradient is the measurement system — it tells you where someone is. It answers: "Where am I? Where are they?"
The 12 Frameworks are the explanatory architecture — they explain why the modes exist, how patterns scale from individual to systemic, and what makes change possible.
Layer 1
Four-Mode Gradient
Observable measurement. Empirically validated. Detectable in natural language.
Layer 2
12 Frameworks
Explanatory architecture. Integrates 139+ theories. Maps individual to systemic.
06
Applications
Clinical Assessment
Therapists and clinicians can use the gradient to assess client regulatory states and track movement over time.
Relational Intelligence
Individuals can recognize their own patterns and understand others' behavior as nervous system responses, not character.
Conflict Analysis
The framework provides language for understanding escalation and de-escalation dynamics in interpersonal and group conflict.
AI Safety
Structured gradients give AI systems vocabulary for patterns that binary safe/unsafe cannot capture.
Explore the Gradient
The Four-Mode Gradient is available as an interactive tool on teg-blue.com, with both Explorer (accessible) and Deep Diver (clinical) versions.