Life challenges, resources, and wisdom

The aim of this project is to initiate a long-term longitudinal investigation of the development of wisdom. Why do some people become wiser in the course of their lives, even though they go through very painful experiences, whereas many others do not seem to learn and grow much? The main assumption underlying this project is that the individual differences in what and how much people learn from life are caused by a dynamic interaction of life- changing experiences with psychological resources: people at high levels of certain psychological resources can become wiser through a life challenge, whereas the same challenge may cause others to become embittered, helpless, or rigid. In the MORE Wisdom Model (Glück & Bluck, in press) we have proposed four relevant resources that interact with life challenges in fostering the development of wisdom: a sense of Mastery, Openness, Reflectivity, and Emotion Regulation/Empathy. In FWF project P21011 we have collected first cross-sectional evidence for the model and found indications for two more potential resources: process orientation and self- integration. However, to fully test the more complex predictions of the model, a longitudinal study is required. This project initiates the "Carinthian Birthday Study (CARIBIS)," a prospective longitudinal investigation of the development of wisdom that is intended to span at least 20 years. Every year, on their birthday, participants are invited to reflect upon the past year by filling out a brief online questionnaire about important experiences, psychological resources, and wisdom and other outcomes. Every ten years, participants take part in a "comprehensive assessment" that investigates more outcome variables, external resources, and changes in their retrospective view on previous experiences. Thus, CARIBIS investigates longitudinally how psychological resources interact with life challenges in shaping what an individual learns from life. The current project covers the first three years of CARIBIS, in which the longitudinal study is initiated. First, a new scale measure of the MORE resources is developed, and the measures for the annual online assessments are pilot-tested. Then, participants are recruited: a population-representative sample of 100 young adults (20-30 years), 100 early middle-aged adults (40-50), and 100 young-old adults (60-70), and a "high resource/high challenge" sample (N = 100) of people who are currently caregiving to a family member with cancer or dementia. They take part in a comprehensive entry assessment and a first one-year longitudinal study.

How does wisdom develop? Laypeople and wisdom researchers agree that life experience is a crucial factor but not everyone who accumulates life experience grows wiser. How we deal with our experiences, how we reflect upon them in retrospect, and what we learn from them is essential. In the MORE Life Experience Model (Glück & Bluck, 2013), we proposed five personal resources that enable people to develop wisdom from confronting life challenges: Mastery, Openness, Reflectivity, and Emotion Regulation including Empathy. This project initiated a long-term longitudinal study that investigates the dynamic development of wisdom based on the MORE Life Experience Model. Every year, participants report whether significant events have happened and fill out measures of the MORE resources and wisdom. The three main goals of this project were (a) to recruit the participants for the long-term study and collect extensive data on their previous life experiences, levels of wisdom, wisdom resources, and other relevant variables, (b) to develop a brief self-report measure of the MORE resources and evaluate the Brief Wisdom Screening Scale (Glück et al., 2013) for use in the longitudinal study, and (c) to conduct a first wave of the longitudinal data collection. A sample of 155 Carinthians, including 19 wisdom nominees, took part in the entry examination (EE). A 25-item measure of the MORE resources was developed (Pötscher-Gareiss, 2016). As the project was extended, we were able to conduct two longitudinal data collections. In the second wave (LS2), 101 participants returned the questionnaire, and 64 of them reported having experienced at least one significant life event in the past year. We are currently analysing event content in depth, and first results are promising. For example, participants who reported more events at LS2 showed higher levels of wisdom than would be expected from their EE wisdom. Important side findings have brought up a whole new research topic for our group: the role of wisdom for intimate relationships. Auer-Spath (2015; Auer-Spath & Glück, submitted) interviewed participants about what they consider as most important for a good relationship. Wiser participants were more likely to say that it was important to remain appreciative and attentive to both the partner and the relationship and to view relationships as sources of personal growth. Methodologically, we found an unexpectedly strong relationship between interviewer- participant report and participants scores in open-ended wisdom measures (Holzer, 2015) and relationships between wisdom and the use of non- dogmatic language (Scherpf, 2016). This project initiated the first prospective longitudinal study of the development of wisdom. We are expecting to gain highly important insights from the in-depth analysis of the data we have already collected, but especially from longer-term findings. For example, we are going to analyze how participants perspective on events changes over time and how long-term personality development can be explained through an interplay of experiences and resources.