Wisdom-related knowledge in a life review task: age differences and the role of professional specialization.
The study adopts life review as an avenue to access wisdom-related knowledge and examines the contribution of age and type of professional specialization to individual differences in wisdom-related knowledge. Women from 2 age groups/cohorts (young, M = 32 years; old, M = 71 years) and different professional specializations (human services vs. nonhuman services) were asked to think aloud about the life review of a fictitious woman who was either young or old. Verbal protocols were scored on 5 wisdom-related criteria: factual and procedural knowledge about life, life-span contextualism, relativism of values, recognition, and management of uncertainty. Three major findings emerged. First, human-services professionals outperformed the control group. Second, old adults performed as well as young adults. Third, for older adults wisdom-related performance was enhanced by the match between their own age and the age of the fictitious character.
Staudinger
U M
UM
Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany.
Smith
J
J
Baltes
P B
PB
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011586:Psychology, Clinical; D013038:Specialization