Abstract
Virtually all people have experienced difficult challenges in the course of their lives, and virtually all people feel that they learned something from those challenges. However, there are very few individuals whom most of us would consider as wise – why do so few people develop wisdom over time by learning from life’s challenges? The MORE Life Experience Model proposes that life challenges are catalysts for the development of wisdom – they can lead to more wisdom, but they do not necessarily do so. Five psychological resources are assumed to be essential for how people appraise life challenges, deal with them, and integrate and learn from them in retrospect: Managing uncertainty and uncontrollability, Openness, Reflectivity, and Emotional Sensitivity and Emotion Regulation – in short, MORE. In this chapter, I describe the five resources in detail, illustrating them using stories that wise participants told us in narrative interviews about difficult life experiences.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aldwin, C. M. (2007). Stress, coping, and development: An integrative approach (2nd ed.).
Ardelt, M. (2003). Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging, 25(3), 275–324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027503025003004
Ardelt, M. (2004). Wisdom as expert knowledge system: A critical review of a contemporary operationalizations of an ancient concept. Human Development, 47(5), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1159/000079154
Ardelt, M. (2005). How wise people cope with crises and obstacles in life. ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation, 28(1), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.3200/REVN.28.1.7-19
Ardelt, M. (2011). The measurement of wisdom: A commentary on Taylor, Bates, and Webster’s comparison of the SAWS and 3D-WS. Experimental Aging Research, 37(2), 241–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361073X.2011.554509
Auer-Spath, I., & Glück, J. (2019). Respect, attentiveness, and growth: Wisdom and beliefs about good relationships. International Psychogeriatrics, 31(12), 1809–1821. https://doi.org/10.1017/S104161021900022X
Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55(1), 122–136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.122
Bluck, S., & Glück, J. (2005). From the inside out: People’s implicit theories of wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Jordan (Eds.), A handbook of wisdom: Psychological perspectives (pp. 84–109). Cambridge University Press.
Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of posttraumatic growth: Research & practice. Erlbaum.
Carstensen, L. L., Fung, H. H., & Charles, S. T. (2003). Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024569803230
Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 745–774.
Glück, J. (2016). Weisheit – Die 5 Prinzipien des gelingenden Lebens [Wisdom – The five principles of a good life]. Kösel.
Glück, J., & Bluck, S. (2011). Laypeople’s conceptions of wisdom and its development: Cognitive and integrative views. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 66(3), 321–324. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbr011
Glück, J., & Bluck, S. (2013). The MORE life experience model: A theory of the development of personal wisdom. In M. Ferrari & N. M. Weststrate (Eds.), The scientific study of personal wisdom: From contemplative traditions to neuroscience (pp. 75–97). Springer.
Glück, J., & Weststrate, N. M. (2022). The wisdom researchers and the elephant: An integrative model of wise behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review.
Glück, J., König, S., Naschenweng, K., Redzanowski, U., Dorner, L., Straßer, I., & Wiedermann, W. (2013). How to measure wisdom: Content, reliability, and validity of five measures. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 405.
Glück, J., Bluck, S., & Weststrate, N. M. (2018). More on the MORE life experience model: What we have learned (so far). The Journal of Value Inquiry, 53, 349–370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-018-9661-x
Grossmann, I. (2017). Wisdom in context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(2), 233–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616672066
Grossmann, I., Gerlach, T. M., & Denissen, J. J. (2016). Wise reasoning in the face of everyday life challenges. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(7), 611–622. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616652206
Igarashi, H., Levenson, M. R., & Aldwin, C. M. (2018). The development of wisdom: A social ecological approach. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 73(8), 1350–1358. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby002
Jeste, D. V., Ardelt, M., Blazer, D., Kraemer, H. C., Vaillant, G., & Meeks, T. W. (2010). Expert consensus on characteristics of wisdom: A delphi method study. The Gerontologist, 50(5), 668–680. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnq022
Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2005). Positive adjustment to threatening events: An organismic valuing theory of growth through adversity. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 262–280. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.262
King, L. A., Scollon, C. K., Ramsey, C., & Williams, T. (2000). Stories of life transition: Subjective well-being and ego development in parents of children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Research in Personality, 34(4), 509–536. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.2000.2285
Kinnier, R. T., Tribbensee, N. E., Rose, C. A., & Vaughan, S. M. (2001). In the final analysis: More wisdom from people who have faced death. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79(2), 171–177. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01957.x
König, S., & Glück, J. (2014). “Gratitude is with me all the time:” How gratitude relates to wisdom. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences, 69(5), 655–666. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt123
Kramer, D. A. (2003). The ontogeny of wisdom in its variations. In J. Demick & C. Andreotti (Eds.), Handbook of adult development (pp. 131–151). Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Kunzmann, U. (2004). Approaches to a good life: The emotional-motivational side to wisdom. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 504–517). Wiley.
Kunzmann, U., & Glück, J. (2019). Wisdom and emotion: Perspectives from lifespan developmental psychology. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Glück (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 575–601). Cambridge University Press.
Levenson, M. R., Jennings, P. A., Aldwin, C. M., & Shiraishi, R. W. (2005). Self-transcendence: Conceptualization and measurement. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.2190/XRXM-FYRA-7U0X-GRC0
Lilgendahl, J., & McAdams, D. P. (2011). Constructing stories of self-growth: How individual differences in patterns of autobiographical reasoning relate to well-being in midlife. Journal of Personality, 79(2), 391–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00688.x
Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal ol Experimental Psychology, 105(1), 3–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.105.1.3
McKee, P., & Barber, C. (1999). On defining wisdom. International Journal of Human Development, 49(2), 149–164. https://doi.org/10.2190/8G32-BNV0-NVP9-7V6G
Pals, J. L. (2006). Narrative identity processing of difficult life experiences: Pathways of personality development and positive self-transformation in adulthood. Journal of Personality, 74(4), 1079–1110. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00403.x
Peterson, C., & Bossio, L. M. (2001). Optimism and physical well-being. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 127–145). American Psychological Association.
Staudinger, U. M. (2001). Life reflection: A social-cognitive analysis of life review. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 148–160. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.148
Staudinger, U. M., Lopez, D. F., & Baltes, P. B. (1997). The psychometric location of wisdom-related performance: Intelligence, personality, and more? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(11), 1200–1214. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672972311007
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). A balance theory of wisdom. Review of General Psychology, 2(4), 347–365. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.4.347
Sternberg, R. J., & Glück, J. (2019). Wisdom, morality, and ethics. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Glück (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 551–574). Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193
Webster, J. D. (2003). An exploratory analysis of a self-assessed wisdom scale. Journal of Adult Development, 10(1), 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020782619051
Webster, J. D. (2007). Measuring the character strength of wisdom. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 65(2), 163–183. https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.65.2.d
Weststrate, N. M., & Glück, J. (2017a). Hard-earned wisdom: Exploratory processing of difficult life experience is positively associated with wisdom. Developmental Psychology, 53(4), 800–814. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000286
Weststrate, N. M., & Glück, J. (2017b). Wiser but not sadder, blissful but not ignorant: Exploring the co-development of wisdom and well-being over time. In M. D. Robinson & M. Eid (Eds.), The happy mind: Cognitive contributions to well-being (pp. 459–480). Springer.
Weststrate, N. M., Ferrari, M., & Ardelt, M. (2016). The many faces of wisdom: An investigation of cultural-historical wisdom exemplars reveals practical, philosophical, and benevolent prototypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(5), 662–676. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216638075
Weststrate, N. M., Bluck, S., & Glück, J. (2019). Wisdom of the crowd: Exploring people’s conceptions of wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Glück (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 97–121). Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgement
The interview study reported in this chapter was funded by the Austrian Research Fund FWF (grant number P21011) and the University of Chicago’s Defining Wisdom Initiative (John Templeton Foundation).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Glück, J. (2022). How MORE Life Experience Fosters Wise Coping. 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_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15290-0_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-15289-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-15290-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)