Researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have developed a new tool to assess an individual’s level of wisdom, reports hindustantimes.com citing Indo Asian News Service.
Called the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), the scale is based upon a conceptualisation of wisdom as a trait with a neurobiological as well as psychosocial basis.
Director of UC San Diego Centre for Healthy Ageing Dilip Jeste said, “There is evidence to suggest that the level of wisdom is dictated to a large degree by neurobiology, and that distinct regions and systems in the brain govern the identified components of wisdom.”
“There are measures now that assess a person’s level of wisdom, but they do not incorporate these emerging neurobiological models of the trait. SD-WISE reflects the latest thinking. We believe it may be a useful tool in clinical practice, in addition to its value in bio-psycho-social research, especially investigations into the neurobiology of wisdom and possible interventions to enhance it,” Jeste added.
For the study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the researchers randomly recruited 524 residents of San Diego county, ages 25 to 104, from an on-going longitudinal investigation called the Successful Ageing Evaluation (SAGE) study, focusing on physical, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of successful ageing across the adult lifespan.
Participants were administered the SD-WISE along with two existing measures: the 12-item Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale and the 40-item Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale.
Assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine Michael Thomas said, “Both scales are well-established and well-respected.”
“They have demonstrated reliability and validity as scientific tools and were good measures against which to compare SD-WISE.”
Studies suggest that wisdom may be defined by six specific domains and that these domains are linked to distinct regions of the brain, based upon neuroimaging and other scientific evidence.
For example, the domain of prosocial attitudes and behaviours, such as empathy, altruism and social cooperation, is facilitated by the prefrontal cortex (PFC), located in the front part of the brain and responsible to complex executive functions.
The other domains are social decision-making/pragmatic knowledge of life, emotional regulation, reflection/self-understanding, tolerance of diverse values, and ability to effectively deal with uncertainty and ambiguity in life.
