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23 - The Mirror of Wisdom

Self-Reflection as a Developmental Precursor and Core Competency of Wise People

from Part VI - Wisdom and Other Psychological Constructs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

By
Nic M. Weststrate
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Judith Glück
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Judith Glück
Affiliation:
Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
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Summary

It is widely believed that individuals gain wisdom by reflecting on significant life experiences. Yet, scientific inquiry into this developmental process is rather sparse, and as a result, the mechanisms through which wisdom is constructed from past experience remain unclear. To shed light on this issue, this chapter first reviews the role of self-reflection in layperson and expert conceptions of wisdom. Next it reviews a small collection of research on empirical associations between self-reflection and wisdom. This review shows that wise people differ from others primarily in terms of why and how they reflect on the personal past, rather than how much they reflect. Compared to others, wise people engage in an exploratory, self-critical, and non-defensive mode of self-reflective processing that is aimed at deepening their self-insight and fostering a more complex and realistic understanding of human life and how to live well.
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Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom , pp. 500 - 518
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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