Can Seven Questions Determine Your Wisdom?

Summary: Wisdom is strongly and positively associated with resilience, happiness, and mental well-being. The three are negatively correlated with loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

Source: International Psychogeriatrics.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that a concise. The seven-item scale can help determine with greater certainty a person’s level of wisdom. A potentially modifiable personality trait that has been shown to have a strong connection with overall well-being.

The researchers had previously developed the 28-item San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE28). Which has been used in major national and international studies, biological research and clinical trials to assess wisdom.

But in a study published in International Psychogeriatrics. They found that an abridged version of seven-item (SD-WISE-7 or Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index), was comparable and reliable.

Previous studies have revealed that wisdom has seven components: self-reflection, prosocial behaviors (such as empathy, compassion and altruism), emotional regulation, acceptance of diverse perspectives, decisiveness, social advising (such as giving sensible and practical advice to others) and spirituality.

A recent study conducted a survey which included 2,093 participants, aged between 20 to 82, through the online crowdsourcing platform Amazon Mechanical Turk.

The seven statements, selected from SD-WISE-28, relate to the seven components of wisdom and are rated on a 1 to 5 scale, ranging from strong disagreement to strong consensus.

Additionally, the SD-WISE-7 was found to strongly and positively match up with happiness, resilience, and mental well-being. They strongly and negatively match up with anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

Next steps include genetic, biological, psychosocial and cultural studies of large numbers of diverse populations to assess wisdom, as well as various aspects related to mental, physical and mental health in people around the lifespan.