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Affiliation
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Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA & Columbia University, New York, NY. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: We investigated the connection between wisdom-related performance, personality, and generativity to further the understanding of how they are interrelated.
METHOD: Our sample consisted of 163 men and women participants between 68-77 years of age, mostly white, and predominantly middle class. Wisdom was assessed with the performance-based Berlin Wisdom Paradigm with the remaining measures being mostly self-report.
RESULTS: As hypothesized, on the zero-order level, wisdom-related performance (WRP) was positively associated with (i) growth, a personality component indexed by openness to experience, psychological mindedness, and a sense of well-being derived from growth, purpose in life, and autonomy; (ii) adjustment, a personality component associated with life satisfaction, high levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness, low neuroticism, a sense of well-being derived from positive relations with others, self-acceptance, and environmental mastery; and (iii) a generative concern for the welfare of others. Latent path analysis indicated that the bivariate associations between adjustment and wisdom and between generativity and wisdom were mediated by growth.
CONCLUSIONS: Wise individuals are characterized by their ability to balance different personal strengths and interests, an integration that occurs, however, within the context of a dominant personality style marked by the pursuit of maturity through personal growth.
Language: en |