Wisdom-related knowledge in a life review task: age differences and the role of professional specialization.
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Publication Details
Output type: Journal article
Author list: Staudinger, Smith, Baltes
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Publication year: 1992
Journal: Psychology and Aging (0882-7974)
Volume number: 7
Issue number: 2
Start page: 271
End page: 81
Number of pages: -189
ISSN: 0882-7974
eISSN: 1939-1498
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Open access status: closed
Abstract
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.
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