Personal wisdom and quality of life among Chinese older adults

This study found that personal wisdom was correlated positively with Chinese older adults’ quality of life regardless of their place of residence (rural vs urban). Both self-esteem and depression were found to account directly for the relation between personal wisdom and quality of life among the urban, but not the rural residents. The findings overall highlighted the importance of considering personal wisdom as a beneficial psychological resource that helps older adults maintain a high quality of life in old age. Further, the rural-urban difference indicates the need for future personal wisdom studies on low-income and less educated older populations.

The influence of personal and multicultural wisdom on the adherence to the ethical principles of multicultural counselor’s candidates

The excellent performance of multicultural counselors are influenced by wisdom and counselor adherence to ethical principles. This study is to examine the influence of personal wisdom and multicultural wisdom on the adherence to the ethical principles of multicultural counselor’s candidates. This study used a correlational method with 517 counselor’s candidates from 11 Guidance and Counseling Departments in Indonesian. The research data was collected by using Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale-Short Form, the Wisdom Scale for Multicultural Counselors, and the Counselor’s Principles of Ethical Scale. The data analysis technique used correlation and multiple linear regressions. The results show that there was a significant positive effect between personal wisdom and multicultural wisdom on adherence to the ethical principles of multicultural counselor’s candidates. The implication is that counselor educators need to facilitate the development of personal wisdom and multicultural wisdom to increase adherence to the ethical principles in counseling education and supervision.

An evaluation of the factor structure of the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the creation of the SAWS-15 as a short measure for personal wisdom

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.

Psychological Resources Protect Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study During the French Lockdown

This longitudinal study investigated the capability of various positive psychological resources to directly or indirectly protect specific well-being outcomes and moderate the effects on well-being of health and economic threats in a lockdown situation during the 2020 health crisis in France. At the beginning of lockdown (wave 1), participants (N = 470) completed self-assessment questionnaires to document their initial level of well-being and state of nine different well-established psychological resources, measured as traits: optimism, hope, self-efficacy, gratitude toward the world, self-transcendence, wisdom, gratitude of being, peaceful disengagement, and acceptance. Three weeks later, a weekly follow-up was started to record changes in well-being and reported threats for a duration of 5 weeks (waves 2–6). Results show that psychological resources efficiently protected well-being in a variety of ways: they buffered the adverse effects of reported threats to health and wealth, increased the well-being averages, and reduced the decline in well-being over time. More specifically, emotional well-being was positively predicted by hope, gratitude of being, and, to a lesser level, by acceptance; psychological well-being by self-efficacy, personal wisdom, and gratitude of being; social well-being only by gratitude toward the world; and inner well-being by optimism, gratitude of being, and acceptance. The study emphasizes the importance of cultivating psychological resources in ordinary times to protect individuals' well-being when difficult and extraordinary circumstances occur. It also offers clues to the kind of resources one may want to develop.

Personal wisdom development involves suffering: Experimental Validation

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.

A ‘commonsense’ psychoanalysis: Listening to the psychosocial dreamer in interwar Glasgow psychiatry

This article historicises a dream analytic intervention launched in the 1930s by Scottish psychiatrist and future professor of psychological medicine at the University of Glasgow (1948–73), Thomas Ferguson Rodger (1907–78). Intimate therapeutic meetings with five male patients are preserved within the so-called ‘dream books’, six manuscript notebooks from Rodger’s earlier career. Investigating one such case history in parallel with lecture material, this article elucidates the origins of Rodger’s adapted, rapport-centred psychotherapy, offered in his post-war National Health Service, Glasgow-based department. Oriented in a reading of the revealing fourth dream book, the article unearths a history of the reception and adaptation of psychoanalysis from within a therapeutic encounter and in a non-elite context. Situating Rodger’s psychiatric development in his Glasgow environment, it then contextualises the psychosocial narrative of the fourth book in relation to contrasting therapeutic commitments: an undiluted Freudianism and a pragmatic ‘commonsense’ psychotherapy, tempered to the clinical psychiatric, and often working-class, interwar Glasgow context. An exploration of pre-recorded dreams, transcribed free associations, and ‘weekly reports’ reveals that in practice, Rodger’s Meyerian attitude worked productively with Freudian techniques to ennoble the patient’s psychosocial testimony and personal wisdom. This psychotherapeutic eclecticism underpinned and made visible the patient’s concurrent faith in and resistance to psychoanalytic interpretation. Chronicling a collaborative route to psychotherapeutic knowledge within a discrete encounter, the article situates post-war treatment values in the interwar impasse of outpatient psychiatry.