scholarly journals Personal wisdom development involves suffering: Experimental Validation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankita Sharma

Personal growth occurs with life experiences and most importantly handling and reflecting on negative life experiences teaches us more (Mickler & Staudinger, 2008; Staudinger & Gluck, 2011). The distinction between personal and general wisdom is based on the differences in the development process and happiness-satisfaction distinction. This article argues that personal wisdom development involves pain and suffering (Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005) yet feels more satisfying in retrospect. The wisdom literature so far is focused on understanding the concept which is majorly correlational, and recommendations are to study the idea experimentally so the concept can be brought to the intervention arena. Therefore, the present study attempts to explore, 'the effect of personality disposition (emotional regulation, reflectiveness, openness to experiences and action orientation) in decision making and affect handling (regret handling) as an indicator of wisdom. Precisely, 1) if people with different personality disposition differ in the choices, exploring the alternatives and handling regret in the face of failure; 2) if people with higher action orientation chose a risky option and if this choice results into failure how do they handle and finally, 3) does personality disposition predict regret handling. The objective was explored by applying SAWS questionnaire, Action Orientation questionnaire, and share the market task. The results suggested that openness to experience, and preoccupation vs. disengagement, hesitation vs. initiative dimension of action orientation significantly influences choice-making and comparatively less regret experience. Additionally, individual high on openness and action orientation explore more alternative, choose risky options and report less regret if faced with failure. The common explanation for less regret after failure may revolve around the theme of 'at least I tried'. The mediator regression analysis suggested that the individuals with initiative tendencies regret less, similarly, people with an openness to experience also regret less than their counterparts. However, individuals with high initiatives and openness to experience regret more in comparison to people with only openness or initiative tendencies. This experimental evidence confirms the observation that individuals who are open to different experiences and take specific actions to try new things will face more ups and downs and experience more regret.

Author(s):  
Jacob Busch ◽  
Emilie Kirstine Madsen ◽  
Antoinette Mary Fage-Butler ◽  
Marianne Kjær ◽  
Loni Ledderer

Summary Nudging has been discussed in the context of public health, and ethical issues raised by nudging in public health contexts have been highlighted. In this article, we first identify types of nudging approaches and techniques that have been used in screening programmes, and ethical issues that have been associated with nudging: paternalism, limited autonomy and manipulation. We then identify nudging techniques used in a pamphlet developed for the Danish National Screening Program for Colorectal Cancer. These include framing, default nudge, use of hassle bias, authority nudge and priming. The pamphlet and the very offering of a screening programme can in themselves be considered nudges. Whether nudging strategies are ethically problematic depend on whether they are categorized as educative- or non-educative nudges. Educative nudges seek to affect people’s choice making by engaging their reflective capabilities. Non-educative nudges work by circumventing people’s reflective capabilities. Information materials are, on the face of it, meant to engage citizens’ reflective capacities. Recipients are likely to receive information materials with this expectation, and thus not expect to be affected in other ways. Non-educative nudges may therefore be particularly problematic in the context of information on screening, also as participating in screening does not always benefit the individual.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Trilas M. Leeman ◽  
Bob G. Knight ◽  
Erich C. Fein ◽  
Sonya Winterbotham ◽  
Jeffrey Dean Webster

ABSTRACT Objectives: Although wisdom is a desirable life span developmental goal, researchers have often lacked brief and reliable construct measures. We examined whether an abbreviated set of items could be empirically derived from the popular 40-item five-factor Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS). Design: Survey data from 709 respondents were randomly split into two and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Setting: The survey was conducted online in Australia. Participants: The total sample consisted of 709 participants (M age = 35.67 years; age range = 15–92 years) of whom 22% were male, and 78% female. Measurement: The study analyzed the 40-item SAWS. Results: Sample 1 showed the traditional five-factor structure for the 40-item SAWS did not fit the data. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on Sample 2 offered an alternative model based on a 15-item, five-factor solution with the latent variables Reminiscence/Reflection, Humor, Emotional Regulation, Experience, and Openness. This model, which replicates the factor structure of the original 40-item SAWS with a short form of 15 items, was then confirmed on Sample 1 using a CFA that produced acceptable fit and measurement invariance across age groups. Conclusions: We suggest the abbreviated SAWS-15 can be useful as a measure of individual differences in wisdom, and we highlight areas for future research.


Author(s):  
Ronen Pinkas

This article raises the question why is it that, despite Jewish tradition devoting much thought to the status and treatment of animals and showing strict adherence to the notion of preventing their pain and suffering, ethical attitudes to animals are not dealt with systematically in the writings of Jewish philosophers and have not received sufficient attention in the context of moral monotheism. What has prevented the expansion of the golden rule: »Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD« (Lev 19,18) and »That which is hateful to you do not do to another« (BT Shabbat 31a:6; JT Nedarim 30b:1) to animals? Why is it that the moral responsibility for the fellow-man, the neighbor, or the other, has been understood as referring only to a human companion? Does the demand for absolute moral responsibility spoken from the face of the other, which Emmanuel Levinas emphasized in his ethics, not radiate from the face of the non-human other as well? Levinas’s ethics explicitly negates the principle of reciprocity and moral symmetry: The ›I‹ is committed to the other, regardless of the other’s attitude towards him. Does the affinity to the eternal Thou which Martin Buber also discovers in plants and animals not require a paradigmatic change in the attitude towards animals?


Author(s):  
Robin L. Toblin ◽  
Amy B. Adler

Resilience can be viewed as a process in which behaviors or attitudes can lead to a more positive outcome in the face of a traumatic stressor. Universal and targeted resilience training programs (e.g., primary and secondary prevention programs) can be adapted to complement evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), tertiary interventions. Using a skill-focus for resilience may increase optimism and self-efficacy for individuals, and therefore, their engagement in the homework and self-examination required by EBTs. Resilience topics that seem especially fitting as an adjunct for treatment are (1) optimism, (2) relationship building, (3) cognitive skills, (4) energy management, (5) emotional regulation, and (6) PTG. The changes necessary for modifying content designed for a primary prevention audience, several group therapy considerations, and the timing of resilience training relative to EBTs are elucidated. Potential research areas are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 39-51
Author(s):  
Aishika Chakraborty

Traversing through disparate cultural and geographic frontiers, my paper maps the journey of a Bengali dancer, Manjusri Chaki-Sircar, who travels from India to America via Africa before putting her “roots” finally down in India, exploring the migration of body movements across the world. Spelling a new body politics, her dance inscribes the signature of her-self in moving space(s); weaving varied patterns of life experiences; telling tales of displacements, exodus, and resettlements; and fashioning a glocal perspective of movement in a “global political moment.”Situating Manjusri within a counter-centric discourse, my paper underscores the counter-hegemonic agency of her feminist choreographies that opened up “an other” genre of bodily idiom, turning the flattering feminine performance into a site for cultural politics. From the dynamic landscape of post-partitioned Bengal, I will trace how the idiom evolved, migrated, and altered, changing, by the end of the century, the face of Indian contemporary dance.


Author(s):  
Vyacheslav A. Ivannikov ◽  
Alexey N. Gusev ◽  
Daniil D. Barabanov ◽  
Evgeniy V. Eidman

Background. This study examined a set of personality traits related to selfcontrol or willpower, (WP), and how self-ratings of these self-control traits are influenced by the cognitive constructs of action (versus state) orientation and meaningfulness. Design. The subjects were 943 university students, aged 17–29 (M = 19.5 years), who volunteered to complete J. Kuhl’s (1996) Action-State Orientation (ASO) scale, a Russian adaptation of the Purpose In Life test (PIL) as a measure of meaningfulness and sense-making capacity, and self-ratings of self-control traits, such as “persistence”, “decisiveness”, and “self-discipline” that produced an aggregate measure of WP and four willpower factors reflecting (1) emotional regulation, (2) commitment to action, (3) energy, and (4) execution. Results. State-oriented ineffective sense-makers (those who scored low on both ASO and PIL) rated themselves the lowest on WP. Conversely, action-oriented effective sense-makers (high scorers on both ASO and PIL) produced the highest WP self-ratings. Mediator-modelling regression analyses showed ASO and PIL to be predictive of self-rated WP — both independently, and by mediating each other’s influence on aggregate WP ratings. However, the predictive power of PIL was substantially higher than that of ASO, and the overall pattern of prediction varied across the four willpower sub-factors. Conclusion. Our results confirm the role of sense-making as a key mechanism of volitional regulaiton, and its interactions with cognitive resources such as action-orientation dispositions captured by ASO.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahboobeh Hosseini Moghaddam ◽  
Zinat Mohebbi ◽  
Banafsheh Tehranineshat

Abstract Background Being in the frontline of the battle against COVID-19, nurses need to be capable of stress management to maintain their physical and psychological well-being in the face of a variety of stressors. The present study aims to explore the challenges, strategies, and outcomes of stress management in nurses who face and provide care to COVID-19 patients. Methods The present study is a qualitative descriptive work that was conducted in teaching hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from June 2020 to March 2021. Fourteen nurses who were in practice in units assigned to COVID-19 patients were selected via purposeful sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured, individual interviews conducted online. The collected data were analyzed using MAXQDA 10 according to the conventional content analysis method suggested by Graneheim and Lundman. Results The data collected in the interviews resulted in 14 subcategories under 4 main categories: providing care with uncertainty and anxiety, facing psychological and mental tension, creating a context for support, and experiencing personal-professional growth. Conclusions Despite their concern over contracting the infection and transmitting it to their families, nurses feel compelled to provide professional care to patients under all circumstances. Work overload and working in exhausting conditions lead to nurses’ physical and psychological burnout, thus their need for the support of authorities and their families. Based on the nurses’ experiences, the primary outcomes of caring for COVID-19 patients are personal growth and professional empowerment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1112-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marileise Roberta Antoneli Fonseca ◽  
Claudinei José Gomes Campos ◽  
Circéa Amália Ribeiro ◽  
Vanessa Pellegrino Toledo ◽  
Luciana de Lione Melo

ABSTRACT This study aimed to understand the play of the preschool child undergoing oncological treatment through dramatic therapeutic play. A total of five preschool age children with cancer participated in the dramatic therapeutic play sessions, between January and May 2013. The material was analyzed using the framework of phenomenology: analysis of the structure of the phenomenon in place. The following categories emerged from the sessions: Immersing oneself in the world of the disease and the oncological treatment; and Remembering the world without the disease. The study learned that becoming ill with cancer is a process which generates pain and suffering for the child, leading her to feel small and fragile in the face of the discomforts of the numerous procedures to which she is subjected. Therapeutic play was an important resource for revealing how the child with cancer feels during the treatment, and showed the children's difficulty in interacting with the unknown, and how this difficulty makes the balance between the points of health and illness complex.


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