Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T17:29:11.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

47 - Intelligence and Wisdom

from Part VIII - Intelligence and Allied Constructs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2019

By
Judith Glück
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

This chapter reviews both the empirical evidence and the prevalent theoretical positions on the relationship between wisdom and intelligence. In short, wisdom includes aspects of intelligence but is far more than “just” intelligence. Wisdom integrates the ability to think about complex issues in a complex way with certain personality facets such as openness to experience and empathy with others, motivational facets such as a deep curiosity about the fundamental questions of the human existence, and a willingness to critically reflect upon oneself, and ethical facets, such as a concern for a greater good that is strong enough to overrule more egoistical or self-enhancing goals. Together, these different components lead individuals to acquire a strong body of broad and deep knowledge about the human existence that makes these individuals a source of advice on how to live a good life.

Keywords

wisdomintelligenceexpert knowledgepractical intelligencepersonalitymeasurementBerlin Wisdom Paradigm
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence , pp. 1140 - 1158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, P. L. (2000). Domain-specific knowledge as the “dark matter” of adult intelligence: Gf/Gc, personality and interest correlates. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55(2), P69-P84.Google Scholar
Aldwin, C. M., Igarashi, H., & Levenson, M. R. (2019). Wisdom as self-transcendence. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 122–143). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardelt, M. (2003). Development and empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging, 25, 275–324.Google Scholar
Ardelt, M. (2004). Wisdom as expert knowledge system: A critical review of a contemporary operationalization of an ancient concept. Human Development, 47, 257–285.Google Scholar
Ardelt, M. (2011). Wisdom, age, and well-being. In Schaie, K. W. & Willis, S. L. (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (7th ed., pp. 279–291). San Diego: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B., & Smith, J. (1990). Toward a psychology of wisdom and its ontogenesis. In Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and development (pp. 87–120). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue towards excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basseches, M. (1984). Dialectical thinking. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Bieri, J. (1955). Cognitive complexity-simplicity and predictive behavior. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51(2), 263–268.Google Scholar
Ceci, S. J., & Liker, J. K. (1986). A day at the races: A study of IQ, expertise, and cognitive complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115(3), 255–266.Google Scholar
Clayton, V. P., & Birren, J. E. (1980). The development of wisdom across the life span: A reexamination of an ancient topic. In Baltes, P. B. & Brim, J. O. G. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior, Vol. 3 (pp. 103–135). New York: Academic Press,Google Scholar
Curnow, T. (1999). Wisdom, intuition and ethics. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406Google Scholar
Glück, J., & Baltes, P.B. (2006). Using the concept of wisdom to enhance the expression of wisdom knowledge: Not the philosopher’s dream, but differential effects of developmental preparedness. Psychology and Aging, 21, 679–690.Google Scholar
Glück, J., & Bluck, S. (2013). MORE Wisdom: A developmental theory of personal wisdom. In Ferrari, M. & Weststrate, N. (Eds.), The scientific study of personal wisdom (pp. 75–98). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
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 (Advance online publication).Google Scholar
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, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00405Google Scholar
Grossmann, I. (2017). Wisdom in context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(2), 233–257.Google Scholar
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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, I., & Kross, E. (2014). Exploring Solomon’s Paradox: Self-distancing eliminates the self-other asymmetry in wise reasoning about close relationships in younger and older adults. Psychological science, 25(8), 1571–1580.Google Scholar
Grossmann, I., Na, J., Varnum, M. E. W., Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E. (2013). A route to well-being: Intelligence versus wise reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 944–953.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grossmann, I., Na, J., Varnum, M. E. W., Park, D. C, Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E. (2010). Reasoning about social conflicts improves into old age. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 7246–7250.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. Z., Oswald, F. L., Altmann, E. M., Meinz, E. J., Gobet, F., & Campitelli, G. (2014). Deliberate practice: Is that all it takes to become an expert? Intelligence, 45, 34–45.Google Scholar
Koller, I., Levenson, M. R., & Glück, J. (2017). What do you think you are measuring? A mixed-methods procedure for assessing the content validity of test items and theory-based scaling. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 126.Google Scholar
Kross, E., & Grossmann, I. (2012). Boosting wisdom: Distance from the self enhances wise reasoning, attitudes, and behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 43–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunzmann, U. (2019). Performance-based measures of wisdom: state of the art and future directions. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 277–296). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kunzmann, U., & Baltes, P. B. (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge: Affective, motivational, and interpersonal correlates. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(9), 1104–1119.Google Scholar
Leary, M. R., Diebels, K. J., Davisson, E. K., Jongman-Sereno, K. P., Isherwood, J. C., Raimi, K. T., Deffler, S. A., & Hoyle, R. H. (2017). Cognitive and interpersonal features of intellectual humility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(6), 793–813.Google Scholar
Levenson, R., Jennings, P. A., Aldwin, C., & Shiraishi, R.W. (2005). Self-transcendence, conceptualization and measurement. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60, 127–143.Google Scholar
Mickler, C., & Staudinger, U. M. (2008). Personal wisdom: Validation and age-related differences of a performance measure. Psychology and Aging, 23, 787–799.Google Scholar
Oakes, H., Brienza, J. P., Elnakouri, A., & Grossmann, I. (2019). Wise reasoning: Converging evidence for the psychology of sound judgment. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 202–225). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reznitskaya, A., & Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Teaching students to make wise judgments: The “teaching for wisdom” program. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 181–196). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Riegel, K. F. (1973). Dialectic operations: The final period of cognitive development. Human development, 16(5), 346–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (1990). Wisdom-related knowledge: Age/cohort differences in responses to life-planning problems. Developmental Psychology, 26, 494–505.Google Scholar
Staudinger, U. M. (2019). General and personal wisdom. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 182–201). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Staudinger, U. M., Dörner, J., & Mickler, C. (2005). Wisdom and personality. In Sternberg, R. J. & Jordan, J. (Eds.), A handbook of wisdom: Psychological perspectives (pp. 191–219). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staudinger, U. M., Lopez, D., & Baltes, P. B. (1997). The psychometric location of wisdom-related performance: Intelligence, personality, and more? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1200–1214.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (1982). Reasoning, problem solving, and intelligence. In Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.), Handbook of human intelligence (pp. 225–307). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (1985a). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607–627.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (1985b). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Thinking styles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). A balance theory of wisdom. Review of General Psychology, 2, 347–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist, 36(4), 227–245.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2005). Foolishness. In Sternberg, R. J. & Jordan, J. (Eds.), A handbook of wisdom: Psychological perspectives. (pp. 331–351). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2007). A systems model of leadership: WICS. American Psychologist, 62(1), 34–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sternberg, R. J. (2019). Why people often prefer wise guys to guys who are wise: An augmented balance theory of the production and reception of wisdom. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 162–181). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J., & Glück, J. (2019). Wisdom, morality, and ethics. In Sternberg, R. J. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 551–574). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J., Reznitskaya, A., & Jarvin, L. (2007). Teaching for wisdom: What matters is not just what students know, but how they use it. London Review of Education, 5(2), 143–158.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J., & Wagner, R. K. (1993). The g-ocentric view of intelligence and job performance is wrong. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 1–5.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., & Okagaki, L. (1993). Practical intelligence: The nature and role of tacit knowledge in work and at school. In Reese, H. & Puckett, J. (Eds.), Advances in lifespan development (pp. 205–227). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Takahashi, M., & Overton, W. F. (2002). Wisdom: A culturally inclusive developmental perspective. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26(3), 269–277.Google Scholar
Von Stumm, S., & Ackerman, P. L. (2013). Investment and intellect: A review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 139(4), 841–869.Google Scholar
Webster, J. D. (2003). An exploratory analysis of a self-assessed wisdom scale. Journal of Adult Development, 10, 13–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J. D. (2007). Measuring the character strength of wisdom. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 65, 163–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webster, J. D. (2019). Self-report wisdom measures: Strengths, limitations, and future directions. In Sternberg, R. & Glück, J. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 297–320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weststrate, N. M., & Glück, J. (2017a). Hard-earned wisdom: Exploratory processing of difficult life experience is positively associated with wisdom. Developmental Psychology, 53, 800–814.Google Scholar
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 Robinson, M. D. & Eid, M. (Eds.), The happy mind: Cognitive contributions to well-being (pp. 459–480). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Yang, S.-Y. (2001). Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 662–680.Google Scholar
Zachry, C. E., Phan, L. V., & Blackie, L. E. R., & Jayawickreme, E. (2018). Situation-based contingencies underlying wisdom-content manifestations: Examining intellectual humility in daily life. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences, 73(8), 1404–1415.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×