Wise Reasoning in the Face of Everyday Life Challenges
Abstract
How stable vs. dynamic is wisdom in daily life? We conducted a daily diary study of wise reasoning (WR) by recording people’s reflections on daily challenges in terms of three facets: intellectual humility, self-transcendence, and consideration of others’ perspectives/compromise. We observed substantial and systematic intraindividual variability in WR, with wiser reasoning in the social versus nonsocial contexts. State-level WR variability was potent in predicting a bigger-picture construal of the event, more positive (vs. negative) emotions, greater emotional complexity, lower emotional reactivity, less thought suppression, and more reappraisal and forgiveness. In contrast, on the trait level, we observed only a few associations to emotional complexity and reappraisal. We discuss implications for conceptualization and measurement of wisdom-related thought.
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Biographies
Igor Grossmann is an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His main scientific goal is to understand the processes that enable individuals to think and act “wisely,” for instance, by using cognitive strategies that facilitate the resolution of social conflicts or by regulating emotions that undermine their goals and compromise their health.
Tanja M. Gerlach holds the position of Akademische Rätin at the Georg August University Göttingen, Germany. Her research revolves around the topics of personality and social relationships, forgiveness, and emotional competencies.
Jaap J. A. Denissen is a professor of developmental psychology at the Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research broadly concerns the topics of personality development and person–environment transactions.
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