Can seven questions determine how wise you are?
Seven-item Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index has high validity to measure wisdom
and potential to improve overall well-being

Date:
December 3, 2021
Source:
University of California - San Diego
Summary:
Researchers report that an abbreviated, seven-item scale can
help determine with high validity a person's level of wisdom,
a potentially modifiable personality trait that has been shown to
have a strong association to well-being.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine
report that an abbreviated, seven-item scale can help determine with high validity a person's level of wisdom, a potentially modifiable personality
trait that has been shown to have a strong association to well-being.


==========================================================================
The study's researchers had previously developed the 28-item San Diego
Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE-28), which has been used in large national and international studies, biological research and clinical trials to
evaluate wisdom.

But in a study publishing in International Psychogeriatrics, researchers
found that a shortened seven-item version (SD-WISE-7 or Jeste-Thomas
Wisdom Index), was comparable and reliable.

"Wisdom measures are increasingly being used to study factors that
impact mental health and optimal aging. We wanted to test if a list of
only seven items could provide valuable information to test wisdom,"
said senior author Dilip V. Jeste, MD, senior associate dean for the
Center of Healthy Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Past studies have shown that wisdom is comprised of seven components:
self- reflection, pro-social behaviors (such as empathy, compassion and altruism), emotional regulation, acceptance of diverse perspectives, decisiveness, social advising (such as giving rational and helpful advice
to others) and spirituality.

The latest study surveyed 2,093 participants, ages 20 to 82, through
the online crowdsourcing platform Amazon Mechanical Turk.



==========================================================================
The seven statements, selected from SD-WISE-28, relate to the seven
components of wisdom and are rated on a 1 to 5 scale, from strongly
disagree to strongly agree. Examples of the statements include "I remain
calm under pressure" and "I avoid situations where I know my help will
be needed." "Shorter doesn't mean less valid," said Jeste. "We selected
the right type of questions to get important information that not only contributes to the advancement of science but also supports our previous
data that wisdom correlates with health and longevity." Additionally, the SD-WISE-7 was found to strongly and positively correlate with resilience, happiness and mental well-being and strongly and negatively correlate
with loneliness, depression and anxiety.

"There are evidence-based interventions to increase levels of specific components of wisdom, which would help reduce loneliness and promote
overall well-being," said Jeste.

"Like the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the novel coronavirus, wisdom
can aid in protecting us from loneliness. Thus, we can potentially help
end a behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicides and opioid abuse that
has been going on for the last 20 years." Next steps include genetic, biological, psychosocial and cultural studies of large numbers of diverse populations to assess wisdom, as well as various factors related to
mental, physical and cognitive health in people across the lifespan.

"We need wisdom for surviving and thriving in life. Now, we have a list
of questions that take less than a couple of minutes to answer that can
be put into clinical practice to try to help individuals," said Jeste.

Co-authors include: Michael Thomas with Colorado State University;
and Barton Palmer, Ellen Lee, Jinyuan Liu, Rebecca Daly and Xin Tu,
all with UC San Diego.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_San_Diego. Original written by Michelle
Brubaker. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Michael L. Thomas, Barton W. Palmer, Ellen E. Lee, Jinyuan Liu,
Rebecca
Daly, Xin M. Tu, Dilip V. Jeste. Abbreviated San Diego Wisdom Scale
(SD- WISE-7) and Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index (JTWI). International
Psychogeriatrics, 2021; 1 DOI: 10.1017/S1041610221002684 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211203081529.htm

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