Abstract
Most North American adults report traumatic experiences, but half of them claim to have grown from those experiences. In this chapter, we propose a model that adapts and integrates the metacognitive models of Adrien Pinard, Anastasia Efklides and Rebecca Oxford into that of Tedeschi and Calhoun, to further explain how wisdom-related -knowledge, -affect, -motivation and -social understanding are recruited to cope wisely with adversity. Integrating these models also allow us to coordinate several different research programs coping and wisdom. Like Pinard and Efklides, we begin by acknowledging different basic levels of conscious awareness and distinguish between first-order and meta-level wisdom-related dispositions. However, wisdom-related dispositions to cope with adversity, no matter how sophisticated, must be engaged through wisdom-related coping activity—what Efklides calls ‘metacognitive skill’. This model allows us to coordinate and integrate several prominent approaches to the scientific study of wisdom and of post-traumatic growth.
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Notes
- 1.
The distinction between production and control strategies also seems reminiscent of the distinction Connor-Smith et al. (2000) proposed in their Responses to Stress framework between two types of engagement coping: (1) primary control, which involves directly changing a stressor or how one reacts emotionally to that stressor, associated with problem-solving, emotional regulation, and emotional expression, and (2) secondary control, which involves an effort for adaptation and is associated with cognitive restructuring, distraction, acceptance, and positive thinking.
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Ferrari, M., Munroe, M. (2022). Coping with Adversity Through Metaconscious Wisdom. In: Munroe, M., Ferrari, M. (eds) Post-Traumatic Growth to Psychological Well-Being . Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15290-0_8
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