TY - JOUR PY - 2014// TI - Wisdom and psychosocial functioning in later life JO - Journal of personality A1 - Wink, Paul A1 - Staudinger, Ursula M. SP - 306 EP - 318 VL - 84 IS - 3 N2 - 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

LA - en SN - 0022-3506 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12160 ID - ref1 ER -