Wise reasoning in the face of everyday life challenges

Igor Grossmann*, Tanja M. Gerlach, Jaap J.A. Denissen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

92 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)611-622
Number of pages12
JournalSocial Psychological and Personality Science
Volume7
Issue number7
Early online date03 Jun 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Sept 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.

Keywords

  • emotion regulation
  • forgiveness
  • reasoning
  • state vs. trait
  • wisdom

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology

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