Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Little is known about how wisdom develops in everyday life. Laypersons and experts commonly assume that wisdom results from â life experience,â yet the nature and number of life experiences needed for wisdom development remains unknown. Many people amass diverse life experiences over time, but relatively few of them go on to become wise. There is much to learn about the psychological processes that support growth in wisdom through life experience. Relations among life experience, self-reflection, and wisdom were examined in a sample of 502 midlife adults ranging from 40 to 65 years of age. Participants completed an online survey that included closed-ended questionnaires and open-ended written tasks. A multi-method approach was taken to the measurement of wisdom, incorporating a range of self-report questionnaires and performance tasks. Results showed that wisdom was positively associated with the total number of events reported on a life-event checklist. At the level of event type, wisdom had positive linear relations with emotionally positive and culturally normative life events, and curvilinear relations with life events that were emotionally negative, culturally non-normative, and fundamental to life (inverted U-shaped curves). When asked to report autobiographical memories of wisdom-fostering life events, participants frequently recalled relationship events (e.g., interpersonal conflict, divorce), life-threatening or mortality-salient events (e.g., death, serious illness), and career or job-related events (e.g., job loss, skill development). On average, wisdom-fostering events were emotionally negative, culturally non-normative, and fundamental to life. Wisdom was positively associated with both self-report measures and narrative indicators (i.e., narrative coherence, autobiographical reasoning) of high-quality self-reflection. Moreover, self-reflection and life experience interactively predicted of wisdom. The highest levels of wisdom were associated with analytical forms of self-reflection among individuals who experienced either low numbers of positive events or high numbers of negative events. Finally, autobiographical memories of wisdom-fostering events had higher levels of narrative coherence and autobiographical reasoning when the event recalled was emotionally negative and culturally non-normative. Together, these results suggest that despite a robust relationship between wisdom and life experience, the strength and nature of this association depends on life-event characteristics and qualities of self-reflective processing.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Weststrate, Nicholas Maarten
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6981740649