Wisdom as embodied and embedded process by Sarah Smith MAPP - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Wisdom as embodied and embedded process

by Sarah Smith MAPP Buckinghamshire New University

“When I open myself up to the vastness of my own ignorance, I can’t help but feel a sudden suffocating feeling”

(Resnick, 2019)

“There is no way to respond to the complexity around us without accessing our own complexity”

(Nora Bateson, 2019)

Why wisdom?

In 2018 UN Secretary General issued a ‘red alert’ highlighting:

• growing inequalities
• deepening conflicts
• rising nationalism and xenophobia

At the same time we are making remarkable progress:

• 5 sixths of the world’s surface is free of war
• 83% of the worlds population are now literate
• Extreme poverty has decreased to 10%

The world is becoming increasingly complex and we are challenged to respond. We face ill-defined problems requiring an ability embrace uncertainty, deeply engage in foresight, thinking both long-term and systemically towards a common good.

“If there is anything the world needs, it is wisdom. Without it, I exaggerate not at all in saying that very soon, there may be no world.”

(Sternberg, 2003, p18)

The study of wisdom

• Historically explored through philosophical and theological traditions
• An aspirational characteristic of human development, which only a few may ever attain (Birren &

Svensson, 2005)

• The scientific study of wisdom is relatively recent:
• Over 24 definitions
• Conflicting theories, models and approaches
• Different domains
• General wisdom – personal wisdom
• Synthetic wisdom – analytical wisdom
• Practical wisdom “phronesis” – transcendental wisdom “Sophia”
• Multiple measures

Research objective and question

To explore the construct of wisdom through a review of the psychological literature on wisdom to date. With a particular focus on:

• Making my own sense of the literature
• Identifying what factors may influence the development of,

and access to wisdom in specific situations and across life stages

Approach

Dialectical pluralism

• A ‘metaparadigm’, the integration of multiple perspectives
• About finding a workable ‘whole’ at the same time as thriving from differences and

tensions (Johnson, 2017) An integrative literature review

• “The integrative literature review is a form of research that reviews, critiques, and

synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated.” (Torraco, 2005) The Seven Step Model

• Both methodology and method, qualitative analysis (Onwuegbuzie & Frels, 2016; Onwuegbuzie, Leech & Collins,

2017))

• Iterative and recursive process
• From 281 initial papers to 136 broadly reviewed and a final selection of 22 of the most relevant

specific theories, papers and studies.

Headline findings

General agreement between researchers that wisdom is complex and multidimensional and that it involves the integration of multiple parts (Bangen, Meeks & Jeste, 2013) Emerging shift: new perspectives on wisdom from social psychology, narrative psychology, psychophysiology and neuroscience (amongst others!) What seems to be key:

• embracing complexity,
• recognising paradoxes/polarities and staying open to the inherent dialectical tension,
• openness and intellectual humility,
• taking multiple perspectives,
• synthesis and integration,
• and taking action towards a common good

Recent research has suggested that wisdom may be more situationally influenced and more variable in its manifestation in people than we might think (Grossmann, 2017)

Embodied: individual traits and resources

Embodied: individual traits and resources Reflects the within-person traits and capacities that facilitate the emergence of wisdom and that may sustain the development of wisdom over time. Some may arise as higher levels of wisdom are accessed, facilitating further wisdom development.

• Reflectivity (foundational)
• Openness to experience
• Cognitive characteristics e.g. desire to learn
• Affective characteristics e.g. emotion regulation
• Empathy and compassion
• Self-transcendence
• Physiological coherence, greater heart rate variability

(Ardelt, 2003; Le & Levenson, 2005; Gluck & Bluck, 2013; Grossmann, Sahdra & Ciarrochi, 2016)

Embedded: situational and social context

Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources Reflects the external conditions that may trigger or influence an individual to access or draw on embodied wisdom resources and supports a transition into wise reasoning / thinking.

• Fundamental experiences
• Culturally non-normative experiences
• Positive, negative and emotionally complex events
• Trivial events
• Social transactions
• Social context with friends, co-workers or family
• Compassionate relationships
• Intergenerational interactions
• Empathic listening
• Social roles or instruction-reduced egocentrism e.g. role
• f teacher, float above the world, project into future etc.

(Westrate, Ferrari, Fournier & McLean, 2018; Igarashi, Levenson & Aldwin, 2017; Grossmann, Gerlach & Denissen, 2016; Montgomery, Barber & McKee, 2002; Tabuchi & Miura, 2016; Huynh, Santos, Tse & Grossmann, 2017)

Wise thinking: balanced decision making

Wise thinking: Balanced decision making Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources Reflects the cognitive processing involved in wise reasoning, animated by dialectical tension, paradox and a search for synergy, balance or integration.

• Search for integration and the common good
• Recognition of uncertainty and change
• Intellectual humility
• Accessing tacit and explicit knowledge
• Executive processing
• Appreciation of broader perspectives and contexts
• Balancing competing interests and needs

(intra/inter/extra)

• Consideration of short, medium and long term

consequences

• Mediated by values
• Emodiversity

(Sternberg, 1990; Baltes & Staudinger, 1993; Grossmann, 2017; Grossmann, Oakes & Santos, 2018)

Wise acting: congruent action in context

Wise thinking: Balanced decision making Wise acting: congruent action in context Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources

• Adjustment and growth in response to the

environment

• Adapting, shaping and creating environments
• Deep and meaningful connection with others
• Sharing with others
• Reflective practices
• Considerate use of environmental resources
• Engagement with cultural creative product

(Sternberg, 1998; Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005; Krafcik, 2015; Naschenweng unpublished as cited in Westrate & Gluck, 2017)

Reflects an adjustment or growth response which may manifest as an internal, external and/or an environmental change.

Wise insight, personal wisdom: Individual meaning making

Wise insight, personal wisdom: Individual meaning making Reflects intrapsychic meaning-making processes, such as narrative and reflection, as both a supportive and generative structure; facilitating wise insight and complex understanding, through increased coherence and differentiation.

• Life reflection e.g. life planning, life

management, life review

• Self-reflection
• Exploratory and redemptive processing
• Narrative simulation of hypothetical and

lived situations of others

(Staudinger, 2001; Westrate & Gluck, 2017; Ferrari, Westrate & Petro, 2013)

Wise thinking: Balanced decision making Wise acting: congruent action in context Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources

Collective, general wisdom: Shared meaning making

Wise thinking: Balanced decision making Wise acting: congruent action in context Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources

Wise insight, personal wisdom: Individual meaning making Collective, general wisdom: Shared meaning making Reflects socially constructed and transmitted meaning as both a supportive and generative structure; facilitating collective insight and general wisdom

• Cultural and collective products
• Religious and cultural texts
• Proverbs, myths and fables
• Stories of exemplars
• Cultural master narratives
• Relatable first-person narratives

(Baltes & Staudinger, 2000; Ferrari, Westrate & Petro, 2013)

Wise thinking: Balanced decision making Wise acting: congruent action in context Embedded: Situational, social and cultural context Embodied: individual traits and resources

THE COMMON GOOD

Wise insight / personal wisdom: Individual meaning making Life reflection, self-reflection, exploratory and redemptive processing, narrative simulation of hypothetical and lived situations of others Collective / general wisdom: Shared meaning making Cultural and collective products: religious and cultural texts, proverbs, myths and fables, cultural master narratives, relatable first-person narratives.

Internal External Individual / ‘I’ Collective / ‘We’

• Search for integration and the

common good

• Recognition of uncertainty and

change

• Intellectual humility
• Accessing tacit and explicit

knowledge

• Executive processing
• Appreciation of broader

perspectives and contexts

• Balancing competing interests and

needs (intra/inter/extra)

• Consideration of short, medium

and long term consequences

• Mediated by values
• Emodiversity
• Adjustment and growth in

response to the environment

• Adapting, shaping and creating

environments

• Deep and meaningful connection

with others

• Sharing with others
• Reflective practices
• Considerate use of environmental

resources

• Engagement with cultural creative

product

• Openness
• Reflectivity
• Cognitive characteristics

Affective characteristics

• Empathy and compassion
• Self-transcendence
• Physiological coherence
• Fundamental experiences
• Culturally non-normative

experiences

• Positive, negative and

emotionally complex events

• Trivial events
• Social transactions
• Social context
• Compassionate relationships
• Social roles or instruction-

reduced egocentrism

In summary…

• Six main domains, which when considered holistically, suggest an

embodied and embedded process model of wisdom.

• It is in the combination of and interaction between these domains

that wisdom emerges.

• A synergistic process through which enhanced levels of wisdom may

be realized, leading to wiser individuals and wiser societies.

Possibilities

Wisdom measurement Research patterns Wisdom interventions

Deep time thinking Simulations Story collecting and sharing Narrative simulations Future thinking Black sky thinking Compassionate and empathic perspectives Self-transcendence

Wisdom Perspectives

sarah@wisdomperspectives.com

Any questions?

References

Ardelt, M. (2003). Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on aging, 25(3), 275-324. Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (1993). The search for a psychology of wisdom. Current directions in psychological science, 2(3), 75-81. Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American psychologist, 55(1), 122. Bangen, K. J., Meeks, T. W., & Jeste, D. V. (2013). Defining and assessing wisdom: A review of the literature. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 21(12), 1254-1266. Bateson, N. “Easting sand and tasting textures of communication in warm data.” Nora Bateson, Wordpress. 2 April 2019 https://norabateson.wordpress.com/author/norabateson/ Birren, J. E., & Svensson, C. M. (2005). Wisdom in history. A handbook of wisdom: Psychological perspectives, 3-31. Ferrari, M., & Weststrate, N. M. (2013). The scientific study of personal wisdom. In The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom(pp. 325-341). Springer, Dordrecht. Ferrari, M., Weststrate, N. M., & Petro, A. (2013). Stories of wisdom to live by: Developing wisdom in a narrative mode. In The scientific study

• f personal wisdom (pp. 137-164). Springer, Dordrecht.

Glück, J., & Bluck, S. (2013). The MORE life experience model: A theory of the development of personal wisdom. In The scientific study of personal wisdom (pp. 75-97). Springer Netherlands. Grossmann, I. (2017). Wisdom in context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(2), 233-257. Grossmann, I. (2018, May 7). Wisdom Profiles: Igor Grossmann. Retrieved from https://evidencebasedwisdom.com/wisdom-profiles-igor- grossmann/ 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.

References continued…

Grossmann, I., Oakes, H., & Santos, H. (2018, July 9). Wise Reasoning Benefits from Emodiversity, Irrespective of Emotional

• Downregulation. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jy5em

Grossmann, I., Sahdra, B. K., & Ciarrochi, J. (2016). A heart and a mind: Self-distancing facilitates the association between heart rate variability, and wise reasoning. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 10, 68. Huynh, A. C., Santos, H., Tse, C., & Grossmann, I. (2017). The Socrates effect: how a teacher’s mindset impacts political

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Igarashi, H., Levenson, M. R., & Aldwin, C. M. (2018). The development of wisdom: A social ecological approach. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. Johnson, R. B. (2017). Dialectical pluralism: A metaparadigm whose time has come. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 11(2), 156- 173. Krafcik, D. (2015). Words from the Wise: Exploring the Lives, Qualities, and Opinions of Wisdom Exemplars. Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary & Transcultural Journal for New Thought, Research, & Praxis, 11(2). Le, T. N., & Levenson, M. R. (2005). Wisdom as self-transcendence: What’s love (& individualism) got to do with it?. Journal of Research in Personality, 39(4), 443-457. Montgomery, A., Barber, C., & McKee, P. (2002). A phenomenological study of wisdom in later life. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 54(2), 139-157. Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Frels, R. (2016). Seven steps to a comprehensive literature review: A multimodal and cultural approach. Sage. Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Leech, N. L., & Collins, K. M. (2012). Qualitative analysis techniques for the review of the literature. The qualitative report, 17(28), 1. Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment now: the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. Penguin.

References continued…

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