Theoretical Foundations
The Explanatory Architecture Behind the Four-Mode Gradient
TEG-Blue is organized in two layers.
Measurement System
The Four-Mode Gradient
The observable, testable backbone. It measures nervous system regulatory states that shift in response to perceived threat and can be detected in natural language.
Explanatory Architecture
12 Frameworks
Sits behind the gradient. Explains why the four modes exist, how individual patterns scale into social structures, where protection tips into domination, and what makes change possible.
These frameworks inform 16 Emotional Tools — assessment instruments available on teg-blue.com, awaiting psychometric validation.
What Is Original Here
The 12 frameworks draw on 139+ established theories across neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and trauma studies. Every source theory is credited. The originality is not in the individual theories — it is in the connections between them.
These research traditions developed independently, within separate disciplines, often without reference to each other. TEG-Blue proposes specific cross-disciplinary connections that do not exist in any of the source theories:
Nervous system regulation → moral perception
Polyvagal Theory describes autonomic states. Moral psychology describes ethical judgments. TEG-Blue proposes that regulatory state systematically shapes which moral judgments a person makes.
Attachment patterns → social stratification
Attachment theory operates at the individual scale. Sociology of capital (Bourdieu) operates at the social scale. TEG-Blue proposes that the same protective mechanisms that organize individual identity also organize social hierarchies.
Self-protection → domination as a continuous gradient
Clinical psychology studies narcissism, coercive control, and moral disengagement as separate phenomena. TEG-Blue maps these onto a single continuous trajectory with identifiable transition markers at each stage.
Linguistic complexity → regulatory capacity
Psycholinguistics studies language as a window into cognitive states. Emotion regulation research studies the capacity to return to baseline. TEG-Blue connects these by proposing that specific linguistic markers indicate the capacity to return to Connection — a construct neither field has operationalized.
These connections generate testable questions that no single source discipline could produce alone. Several have already been tested empirically (see Publications). For a full overview of TEG-Blue's structure, existing evidence, and open research questions, see the Research Entry Point.
Methodology & Status
How TEG-Blue was developed: The integrative architecture — the 12 frameworks and the connections between them — was developed by Anna Paretas-Artacho over nearly two years of independent research, drawing on a lifetime of observing patterns in human behavior, systems thinking, personal experience, and cross-disciplinary reading.
How this mapping was created: Once the architecture was established, AI research tools (Claude, ChatGPT Deep Research) were used to systematically identify which established theories and researchers align with each framework's propositions. The architecture determined the connections. The AI tools helped locate and organize the corresponding academic literature.
What this means: The theoretical mapping on this page is a working hypothesis — a starting point for deeper scholarly validation, not a finished academic work. Human researchers are needed to verify accuracy, correct errors, and deepen the analysis.
Limitations: Some literature connections may be inaccurate or oversimplified. Researchers may disagree with how their work is represented. Corrections are welcomed and the mapping is updated based on scholarly feedback.
12 Frameworks
F1: The Emotional Gradient
F2: Identity as Adaptive System
F3: Cognitive Coherence & False Coherence
F4: Threat-Based Rule Internalization
F5: Threat-Driven Worth Sorting
F6: State-Dependent Perception
F7: The Anatomy of Tyranny
F8: Self-Reconnection & Role Mask Loosening
F9: Nervous System Variation
F10: Generational Transmission
F11: Emotional Logic of Paradoxes
F12: Our Two Information Systems
Help Us Validate This Mapping
We're building this research foundation openly and invite scholars, practitioners, and researchers to help verify and improve these connections. Your expertise can help ensure this mapping accurately represents the field.
You can help by:
- Identifying errors or misattributions
- Suggesting additional relevant theories or researchers
- Providing nuance where connections are oversimplified
- Pointing us to key papers that should be cited
Contributors: Be the first to help validate this mapping