Wisdom

Implicit Theories of Wisdom

Research on implicit theories of wisdom has explored the dimensions underlying people’s different conceptions of wisdom. Research has shown that people of different age groups describe a wise person as experienced, pragmatic, empathic, intelligent, and observant. Three components of wisdom underlie people’s views: reflective (e.g., introspection, intuition), affective (e.g., compassion, empathy), and cognitive (e.g., experience, intelligence). Studies also have found that older people have more varied conceptions of wisdom than do younger people.

Scholars describe five prototypical factors underlying wisdom: exceptional understanding, sound judgment and communication skills, general competence, proper interpersonal skills, and social adeptness. A study asking professors of different fields to rate the distinctness of a list of behaviors with respect to their conception of an ideally wise, intelligent, or creative individual in their occupation found the highest association was between the ratings of wisdom and intelligence and the lowest between ratings of wisdom and creativity. Other participants were asked to rate descriptions of hypothetical people for intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. These results also showed that wisdom and intelligence are highly correlated but nevertheless distinct.

Implicit theories of wisdom may be organized into five categories: cognitive ability, insight, reflective attitude, concern for others, and real-world skills. Researchers have also identified additional components of perceived wisdom with respect to specific actions: solidarity, situated intelligence, and calculated risk-taking as well as three forms of wisdom related to important life events: empathy and support, self-determination and assertion, and knowledge and flexibility.

Conceptions of wisdom differ across cultures. In particular, cultural studies show that people of the same culture tend to maintain the same view, but that view might vary by culture. For example, people across many cultures believe that marriage is important. However, some cultures such as [Page 2321]traditional Indian culture support arranged marriages or child marriages as wise options, while other cultures do not. One might ask whether conceptions of wisdom also differ across genders. One study found small or no gender differences in abstract conceptions of wisdom but found that there are larger gender differences when people perceive wisdom in real contexts, such as when making important decisions about the upbringing of people’s children or for loved ones with medical illnesses.

Explicit Theories of Wisdom

Explicit theories of wisdom are theories proposed by experts rather than by laypeople. There are three types of explicit conceptualizations of wisdom. Specifically, these are conceptualizations of wisdom as a facet of personality development in adulthood (conceptualizations of wisdom as dialectical thinking, which is the recognition that what is true at one time may not be true at another), and definitions of wisdom as an expanded form of intellectual skills and cognitive–emotional expertise.

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