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Situations in Which I Was Wise: Autobiographical Wisdom Memories of Children and Adolescents
Author(s) -
König Susanne,
Glück Judith
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00800.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , event (particle physics) , quantum mechanics , physics
Previous studies with adults have shown that age has an important influence on laypeople's wisdom theories. However, children's and adolescents' understanding of the concept of wisdom has hardly been investigated. In the current study, 80 children and adolescents completed a questionnaire concerning an event where they had been wise and an event where another person acted wisely. Most participants reported difficult life situations such as conflicts or accidents. In describing their wisdom, they focused on being empathic and supportive, which is likely related to their predominant developmental tasks. The persons described as wise were on average 29 years old. Contrary to expectations more females than men were described as wise. As expected, wisdom descriptions differed somewhat by gender and age group.