Spring 2014 Wisdom Course Study Questions

Return to Wisdom

JAN 14

First Class

JAN 16

1. What aspects of wisdom does Hall's personal experience on 9/11 bring out?
2. What are the principle traits and defining characteristics of wisdom on Hall's definition? Do they seem justified in light of your own paradigmatic image(s) of wisdom (situtations within you judge or hypothesize wise thought or action of some kind)?
3. (In Robinson) What are some characteristics of Homeric culture that distinguish its model of wisdom?
4. Give examples of similarities and differences in the ways that Socrates and Aristotle model wisdom.

JAN 21

1. Is Socratic legend a testimony to the reality of wisdom?
2. What is the Axial Age Hypothesis? Evaluate.
3. Distinguish Periclean and Socratic models of wisdom.
4. Why is there a problem explaining where the topic of wisdom went? What are some candidates for solutions?
5. What is Aristotle's view of wisdom?

JAN 23

1. Describe and evaluate Gisela Labouvie-Vief's criticism of Western models of cognition.
2. How do Clayton and Birren contrast Western and Eastern models of cognition and wisdom?
3. What did Clayton and Birren find from their age-cohort MDS study of wisdom?

JAN 28

1. What are some of the typical components of wisdom constructs and hypotheses in psychology of wisdom since the 1980s?
2. What does it mean to say that wisdom involves "meta-cognitive" capacities?
3. Identify your own selection of two to three wisdom research programs (p. 17-25 in B&S) in addition to Baltes, Sternberg, and Holiday and Chandler.

JAN 30

1. What does Carstenen's research on the elderly tell us about wisdom?
2. What is emotional regulation (and emotional resilience) and what evidence do we have about it from brain research?
3. What is the grandparent hypothesis?

FEB 4

1. Identify some of the major theoretical committments of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, including its orientation vis a via implicit/explicit, life span dev theory, its construct and methods of research, conceptions of intelligence, etc.
2. Identify and assess the major predictions of the early theory (104ff).

FEB 6

1. Does Wisdom involve a normative component? Does it involve selection of life enhancing goals, for example?
2. How is Wisdom a meta-heuristic?
3. How does SOC theory bear on wisdom research?

FEB 11

1. Identify and explain contemporary features of moral psychology (such as the Trolley Problem and Social Intuitionism) in relation to traditional approaches to ethics?
2. How does contemporary moral psychology help us imagine the morally wise person?
3. What is added to the concept of wisdom when you equate it with moral wisdom?

FEB 20

1. Is Humility compatible with effectiveness in the world and ambition? Consider evidence in your readings and your own theorizing.
2. Give a summary and analysis of the Buddhist model of suffering and liberation. Does this represent a model for the training of wisdom?
3. What is the ego? Is it a source of suffering, satisfaction or something else?
4. Would training to heighten compassion make you a wiser person?

FEB 25

1. What are some of the key findings in the neuroscience of decision making, according to Hall and Gilbert? What more general hypotheses do they point to?
2. What is Sternberg's model for wisdom, how is it supported, and how does it relate to others, such as Baltes'?
3. Why is Stanovich focused on the concept of rationality in wisdom education? Present and assess his view.

FEB 27

1. What is Epictetus' general outlook as a Stoic?
2. What considerations should govern our responses to the world, according to Epictetus?
3. How does the Stoic training program relate to wisdom?

MAR 4

Youth, Adversity, and Wisdom (Hall 12)

• Story of the scientist, Capechhi.

• Parker (Stanford) research on squirrel monkeys.

• In theorizing about this, we need to acknowledge, as Hall does, that abnormal stress can also cause psychopathologies.

• Note competing theory: Maternal support causes resilience. McGill researcher Michael Meaney.

Hall, Chapter 13: Older and Wiser

• Fredda Blancard-Fields -- on how people of different ages respond to stressful situations. shows that older adults have measureable gains in social knowledge and emotional judgement, increasing problem solving skills. Both she and Carstensen have found evidence of comparatively better performance among older people when it comes to devising strategies for solving problems, precisely because older people tend to process emotion differently. (232)

• Decay of the brain (230)

• Background: reminder that Baltes didn't find older were wiser.

• Need for longitudinal study to see connection bt wisdom and age. Vaillant's secondary research on the Harvard longitudinal study, The Grant Study of Adult Development.

• Hall tries to push through the Fredian rhetoric of Vaillant's "Adaptation to Life" -- finds older people use "productive tricks" (234) and strategies: "1? Vaillant, echoing Anna Freud, came around to the view that successfully mature adults displayed such emotional strategies as "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation.and sublimation." (Glosses "sublimation" as "emotional regulation")

• Ardelt worked with Vaillant on follow studies with this data: "Her preliminary analysis has turned up a strong correlation between those same mature defense mechanisms identified by Vaillant and a more charitable, compassionate pattern of behavior. This other-centeredness was independent of wealth, she found; some well-to-do Harvard men were especially effective in their charitable donations and activities, while others came from more modest backgrounds." 237

• point from Anna Freud: Maybe older people get better at social strategies like "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation, and sublimation." 235

• 238: research on older adults. note that if this hypothesis is correct, then research on college aged students is of limited value in filling in the whole picture.

Ardelt, Wisdom and Satisfaction in Old Age

• three tiered theory of wisdom: wisdom occurs on cognitive, reflective and affective levels.

• note bottom of first page. busting out of cog/delib model (from September).

• "the domain of wisdom-related knowledge is interpretative knowledge, or the rediscovery of the significance of old truths through a deeper and more profound understanding of phenomena and events." 16

• associates wisdom of old with decentered self - awareness of limitations liberating.

• working with population from the Berkeley Guidance Study. administered a life satisfaction instrument "satisfaction with different areas of life, satisfaction with one's lot in life, and congruence between desired and achieved goals." 17

• note how research works - 18

• results p. 22-- pos. correlation for both men and women, but stronger for men.