What Defines Wisdom? Researchers at the University of California at San Diego used character traits: self-analysis, our social behaviors, our ability to make decisions, manage our emotions, give advice, our openness. and finally our spirituality. They recruited more than 2,000 volunteers aged 20 to 82, sifted through them by reducing their previous questionnaire to seven questions, which was a bit long to be used for large clinical studies.
This questionnaire is made up of seven propositions and each time, there are five possible answers, from “Totally agree” at “totally disagree”.
– I stay calm under pressure
– I avoid self-analysis
– I like to be confronted with different points of view
– I tend to postpone decision-making
– Often I don’t know what to say to people who ask me for advice
– My beliefs give me inner strength
– I avoid situations in which I am likely to be asked for help
This questionnaire is not yet online, but we can already practice on the long version (link in English).
This questionnaire can be very useful in the field of behavioral research. Studies have proven that wisdom has positive effects on health and overall well-being.
Research is in its infancy, but teams of scientists have already carried out interventions to improve certain wisdom-related traits for mental illnesses like depression or physical illnesses like cancer. They worked on empathy or compassion and they improved the quality of life of these sufferers by avoiding drugs and their side effects.