Psychology: You can tell whether you are wise by 7 criteria

We tend to combine wisdom with life experience. In our minds, wise people tend to be older, wise and knowledgeable through everything they have been through and seen in their lives. But this connection between wisdom and advanced age is by no means compulsory. For example, Plato understood wisdom to be one of the four cardinal virtues (in addition to courage, passion and justice), which we can all cultivate regardless of our age group and which was in Middle High German Experienced only part of the meaning of the term wis, which is also in the sense of sensible and knowledgeable was needed. If we also questioned all of humanity and tested it for wisdom, we would find that young people can be very wise, while old people do not automatically have to be wise.

In psychology, too, wisdom is not primarily measured by age, but potentially ascribed to every person. In order to determine how strong the personality component is in a certain person, the psychologists Dilip Jeste (University of California in San Diego) and Michael Thomas (Colorado State University) have created a catalog of questions or statements that we can use to determine our degree of wisdom , the Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index. The catalog is divided into seven sections, which psychologists believe are essential parts of wisdom:

In the long, detailed version of the wisdom test, participants are presented with four statements for each of these categories, to which they can more or less agree (I fully agree, I agree, neutrally, I do not agree, I do not agree at all). In a shorter version, the psychologists have reduced the number of statements and selected one for each criterion that is particularly representative and concise. With the help of this version, which after initial tests delivers almost as reliable results as the long version, we can get an impression of whether we or other people are wise in one or two minutes.

The seven components of wisdom – how wise are you?

1. Determination

With decisiveness we mean how quickly and independently we make decisions in life. The representative statement that the psychologists selected for this wisdom criterion is:

2. Self-reflection

Do we deal with ourselves and our actions? Are we trying to understand why we feel, how we feel, or do what we do? Such questions are involved in self-reflection, which Jeste and Thomas see in a nutshell with the following statement:

3. Prosocial behavior

Prosocial behavior means, for example, whether we are helpful, want and do good to others, and are ready to empathize with others. The all-important statement is:

4. Advisory skills

The criterion of advisory competence (English Social advising) records whether we give other people useful advice, that is, whether we put ourselves in other people’s shoes and can apply our life experience to their situation. This is also often one of the core elements of wisdom in our everyday perception. The corresponding statement in the Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index:

5. Emotional regulation

In the Emotional Regulation category, there are statements that are aimed at finding out how controlled we are, even under the influence of extreme emotions. The psychologists selected the following as the central statement:

6. Acceptance of different perspectives

Can we accept when someone disagrees with us? Do we understand that we don’t know better than others? This important wisdom criterion revolves around such questions, which can best be determined quickly using this statement:

7. Spirituality

Whether spirituality is a component of wisdom may be controversial, and in fact the two US psychologists only added it to their index afterwards. What is meant here is not religiosity or the commitment to a religious belief, but the recognition and the constructive handling of some kind of immaterial reality. The statement about the review reads:

resolution

Anyone who has the highest degree of wisdom according to the Jeste Thomas model at all levels can honestly and wholeheartedly agree with the statements under 7, 6 and 5 and honestly and boldly reject the remaining statements. If you still want to know a little more precisely, after providing some personal data, you can click the following link Long version of the wisdom test in English and thus support the research of the two psychologists. And if you ask yourself what is the use of knowing whether I am wise or not: Whether we associate a lot of experience with wisdom, a cardinal virtue or Albus Dumbledore (who, by the way, is in Fantastic Beasts 2 appeared wise even as a young man), Wisdom enables us to have a good life. Wise people know how to deal with ups and downs, have understood that they cannot grasp and understand many things rationally, but that they can feel some. They perceive themselves as part of a community and nature, but at the same time intuitively recognize their absoluteness and uniqueness. And much more.

Certainly no one is born a wise person, a certain amount of experience is required in order to be able to cultivate wisdom. But we don’t have to grow old to live wisely if we want to. We can help our wisdom on the jumps by practicing self-reflection, tolerance and (social) openness, spirituality, empathy and a healthy handling of our feelings. In order we own Gaining experience and not watching or emulating strangers. Life is, after all, too unpredictable and unique to postpone something desirable until old age. And internalizing that is perhaps a small step towards wisdom.

Sources used: psychologytoday.com, survey.alchemer.com

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Brigitte