Institute for Cultural Evolution’s Worldview Questionnaire
Over at the Institute for Cultural Evolution we’re pleased to announce a new feature of our website: a Worldview Questionnaire featuring 17 questions designed to help you learn more about your own worldview, as well as about the worldviews of others. The questionnaire identifies four major worldview-groups, defined as as “traditional,” “modern,” “postmodern,” and “integrative.” Your answers will indicate which of these four major cultural worldviews describes you best, as well as the worldview to which you are most opposed. Please give this new 7 minute questionnaire a try.
This worldview test is primarily the brainchild of integral researcher Annick de Witt. In her research, De Witt used both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative methods, including large-scale surveys with representative samples of citizens in the Netherlands and the USA. Her aim in developed the test was to create an empirical, social science approach to mapping worldviews.
ICE Caveat: Accurately assessing human worldviews is a complex undertaking. In our opinion, none of the various test instruments currently used by social scientists or organizational development specialists can adequately assess a person’s actual worldview with objectivity. Nevertheless, we like De Witt’s questionnaire and want to support her work in this area. And at the very least, answering her 17 questions provides an opportunity to reflect on the distinct worldview frames that make up the political spectrum in most of the Western world.