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The Co-evolution of Meaning-Making and Wisdom in Processing and Developmental Time

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Post-Traumatic Growth to Psychological Well-Being

Part of the book series: Lifelong Learning Book Series ((LLLB,volume 30))

Abstract

How one makes meaning of stressors in self-constructed, or co-constructed narratives with others, matters for the development of resources that foster wisdom. However, the social, cognitive, and emotional skills that support adaptive, growth-oriented meaning making also develop over time. As they do, they may contribute to new ways of understanding and gaining insights from memories of a past stressor. Those new insights may trigger changes in wisdom and, in turn, new levels of wisdom may feedback in to how one makes meaning of adversity. Hence, the co-evolution of wisdom and meaning-making. In this chapter I consider this co-evolution by first focusing on the idea that single-event meaning-making is nested in two types of interacting time (Fivush R, Booker JA, Graci ME, Imagin Cogn Pers 37:127–152, 2017); the time since an adverse experience occurred (processing time) and the developmental skills that the person has when making-meaning of that adverse experience (developmental time). To better understand the complex process by which adversity leads to wisdom we may need a better understanding of how single-event meaning making changes over time.

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  1. Department of Psychological Science, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA

    Cade D. Mansfield

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  1. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Melanie Munroe

  2. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Michel Ferrari

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Mansfield, C.D. (2022). The Co-evolution of Meaning-Making and Wisdom in Processing and Developmental Time. 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_10

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