Measurement of Wisdom among Mainland Chinese
by
Chao Hu
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy
Applied Psychology amp Human Development
University of Toronto
copy Copyright by Chao Hu 2016
ii
Measurement of Wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Chao Hu
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Applied Psychology amp Human Development
University of Toronto
2016
Abstract
Modern psychologists generally regard wisdom as mature understanding and conduct of life
however most wisdom studies have been conducted in Western culture Little is known about
wisdom in other cultures even though cultures may significantly shape the structure of wisdom
for example Chinese culture emphasizes connections in society nature and universe more than
Western culture does thus the structure of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may differ from
that of Westerners
We conducted three studies to find a proper measurerepresentation for wisdom among Mainland
Chinese In study 1 wisdom was measured by Ardeltlsquos self-report wisdom scale but the three-
dimensional wisdom structure was not found In study 2 we identified five wisdom components
from the implicit theory of wisdom among 100 Mainland Chinese Most of these components
corresponded to those identified in the implicit theory of wisdom among westerners yet some of
them were uniquely Chinese The Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model was developed based on
these five conceptual components In study 3 a Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm was
developed based on the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm
iii
(general and personal) The participantslsquo wisdom performance was videotaped and then rated on
the Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom criteria Their videotaped facial expression was
analyzed by software The results revealed that our Chinese wisdom measurement is reliable and
valid the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating were highly consistent
with each other finally the feeling of surprise may contribute to wisdom performance
iv
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my parents on the other side of this planet always encouraging me to carry on in my
studies
Thanks to my supervisor Dr Michel Ferrari such a patient and gentle scholar knowledgeable in
many different fields and very supportive of my studies here at the University of Toronto
I also want to thank my thesis committee members Dr Earl Woodruff Dr Shih-ying Yang Dr
Xi Chen-Bumgardner and Dr Thao N Le on their advices and help with my thesis writing
Without their help I would not be able to have such precious ideas and thoughts embodied in this
thesis
Thanks to the staff at our department Applied Psychology amp Human Development such as Lisa
Chinchamie Marisa Freire and Jennifer OReilly some of them are no longer working in our
department but I will always remember their kindness and patience
Thanks to the University of Toronto for giving me such a precious opportunity to study in one of
the worldlsquos most multicultural and open-minded environments
Thanks to my supervisor for my Masterlsquos thesis Prf Genyue Fu and my friends such as
Qiandong Wang for their advices and supports for my Doctorate thesis studies
Thanks to all the participants raters and coders who participated in our studies especially the
middle-aged professor and editor Without their help this thesis could not be done
Finally I want to thank my dear friend Ethan Weare for his help with proofreading
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot iv
Table of Contents middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot v
List of Tables middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xii
List of Figures middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xiii
List of Appendices middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotxiv
Chapter 1 General introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
1 Definitions of wisdom middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm 1
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm 1
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm 4
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms 4
22 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale 5
23 ―MORE model 6
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models 7
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 7
4 Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 8
41 Confucianism 9
42 Daoism 10
43 Chinese Buddhism 10
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy 11
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
ii
Measurement of Wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Chao Hu
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Applied Psychology amp Human Development
University of Toronto
2016
Abstract
Modern psychologists generally regard wisdom as mature understanding and conduct of life
however most wisdom studies have been conducted in Western culture Little is known about
wisdom in other cultures even though cultures may significantly shape the structure of wisdom
for example Chinese culture emphasizes connections in society nature and universe more than
Western culture does thus the structure of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may differ from
that of Westerners
We conducted three studies to find a proper measurerepresentation for wisdom among Mainland
Chinese In study 1 wisdom was measured by Ardeltlsquos self-report wisdom scale but the three-
dimensional wisdom structure was not found In study 2 we identified five wisdom components
from the implicit theory of wisdom among 100 Mainland Chinese Most of these components
corresponded to those identified in the implicit theory of wisdom among westerners yet some of
them were uniquely Chinese The Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model was developed based on
these five conceptual components In study 3 a Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm was
developed based on the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm
iii
(general and personal) The participantslsquo wisdom performance was videotaped and then rated on
the Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom criteria Their videotaped facial expression was
analyzed by software The results revealed that our Chinese wisdom measurement is reliable and
valid the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating were highly consistent
with each other finally the feeling of surprise may contribute to wisdom performance
iv
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my parents on the other side of this planet always encouraging me to carry on in my
studies
Thanks to my supervisor Dr Michel Ferrari such a patient and gentle scholar knowledgeable in
many different fields and very supportive of my studies here at the University of Toronto
I also want to thank my thesis committee members Dr Earl Woodruff Dr Shih-ying Yang Dr
Xi Chen-Bumgardner and Dr Thao N Le on their advices and help with my thesis writing
Without their help I would not be able to have such precious ideas and thoughts embodied in this
thesis
Thanks to the staff at our department Applied Psychology amp Human Development such as Lisa
Chinchamie Marisa Freire and Jennifer OReilly some of them are no longer working in our
department but I will always remember their kindness and patience
Thanks to the University of Toronto for giving me such a precious opportunity to study in one of
the worldlsquos most multicultural and open-minded environments
Thanks to my supervisor for my Masterlsquos thesis Prf Genyue Fu and my friends such as
Qiandong Wang for their advices and supports for my Doctorate thesis studies
Thanks to all the participants raters and coders who participated in our studies especially the
middle-aged professor and editor Without their help this thesis could not be done
Finally I want to thank my dear friend Ethan Weare for his help with proofreading
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot iv
Table of Contents middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot v
List of Tables middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xii
List of Figures middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xiii
List of Appendices middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotxiv
Chapter 1 General introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
1 Definitions of wisdom middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm 1
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm 1
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm 4
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms 4
22 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale 5
23 ―MORE model 6
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models 7
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 7
4 Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 8
41 Confucianism 9
42 Daoism 10
43 Chinese Buddhism 10
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy 11
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
iii
(general and personal) The participantslsquo wisdom performance was videotaped and then rated on
the Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom criteria Their videotaped facial expression was
analyzed by software The results revealed that our Chinese wisdom measurement is reliable and
valid the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating were highly consistent
with each other finally the feeling of surprise may contribute to wisdom performance
iv
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my parents on the other side of this planet always encouraging me to carry on in my
studies
Thanks to my supervisor Dr Michel Ferrari such a patient and gentle scholar knowledgeable in
many different fields and very supportive of my studies here at the University of Toronto
I also want to thank my thesis committee members Dr Earl Woodruff Dr Shih-ying Yang Dr
Xi Chen-Bumgardner and Dr Thao N Le on their advices and help with my thesis writing
Without their help I would not be able to have such precious ideas and thoughts embodied in this
thesis
Thanks to the staff at our department Applied Psychology amp Human Development such as Lisa
Chinchamie Marisa Freire and Jennifer OReilly some of them are no longer working in our
department but I will always remember their kindness and patience
Thanks to the University of Toronto for giving me such a precious opportunity to study in one of
the worldlsquos most multicultural and open-minded environments
Thanks to my supervisor for my Masterlsquos thesis Prf Genyue Fu and my friends such as
Qiandong Wang for their advices and supports for my Doctorate thesis studies
Thanks to all the participants raters and coders who participated in our studies especially the
middle-aged professor and editor Without their help this thesis could not be done
Finally I want to thank my dear friend Ethan Weare for his help with proofreading
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot iv
Table of Contents middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot v
List of Tables middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xii
List of Figures middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xiii
List of Appendices middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotxiv
Chapter 1 General introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
1 Definitions of wisdom middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm 1
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm 1
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm 4
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms 4
22 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale 5
23 ―MORE model 6
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models 7
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 7
4 Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 8
41 Confucianism 9
42 Daoism 10
43 Chinese Buddhism 10
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy 11
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
iv
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my parents on the other side of this planet always encouraging me to carry on in my
studies
Thanks to my supervisor Dr Michel Ferrari such a patient and gentle scholar knowledgeable in
many different fields and very supportive of my studies here at the University of Toronto
I also want to thank my thesis committee members Dr Earl Woodruff Dr Shih-ying Yang Dr
Xi Chen-Bumgardner and Dr Thao N Le on their advices and help with my thesis writing
Without their help I would not be able to have such precious ideas and thoughts embodied in this
thesis
Thanks to the staff at our department Applied Psychology amp Human Development such as Lisa
Chinchamie Marisa Freire and Jennifer OReilly some of them are no longer working in our
department but I will always remember their kindness and patience
Thanks to the University of Toronto for giving me such a precious opportunity to study in one of
the worldlsquos most multicultural and open-minded environments
Thanks to my supervisor for my Masterlsquos thesis Prf Genyue Fu and my friends such as
Qiandong Wang for their advices and supports for my Doctorate thesis studies
Thanks to all the participants raters and coders who participated in our studies especially the
middle-aged professor and editor Without their help this thesis could not be done
Finally I want to thank my dear friend Ethan Weare for his help with proofreading
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot iv
Table of Contents middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot v
List of Tables middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xii
List of Figures middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xiii
List of Appendices middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotxiv
Chapter 1 General introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
1 Definitions of wisdom middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm 1
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm 1
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm 4
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms 4
22 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale 5
23 ―MORE model 6
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models 7
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 7
4 Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 8
41 Confucianism 9
42 Daoism 10
43 Chinese Buddhism 10
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy 11
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot iv
Table of Contents middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot v
List of Tables middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xii
List of Figures middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot xiii
List of Appendices middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotxiv
Chapter 1 General introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
1 Definitions of wisdom middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 1
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm 1
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm 1
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm 4
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms 4
22 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale 5
23 ―MORE model 6
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models 7
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 7
4 Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 8
41 Confucianism 9
42 Daoism 10
43 Chinese Buddhism 10
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy 11
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
vi
5 Modern history of China middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 12
51 Before the Cultural Revolution 12
52 Cultural Revolution 14
53 After the Cultural Revolution 15
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 17
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 19
11 Choosing Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese 19
12 Validity tests of Ardeltlsquos wisdom measure 19
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 20
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 21
31 Participants 21
32 Material 21
321 Visual basic program 21
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS) 21
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) 22
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 22
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) 23
426 Progressive Raven Matrix 23
33 Procedure 23
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 24
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
scale 24
42 Factor analysis 24
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores 25
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
vii
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale 25
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale 26
46 Eysenck personality scale 26
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 27
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model 27
52 Validity test results 27
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability 29
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 29
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 30
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners 30
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories 31
13 This study 31
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 32
Parallel hypothesis 32
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 33
31 Participants 33
32 Material 33
33 Procedure 33
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 35
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 35
42 Generation difference in nomination 38
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants 41
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom 42
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto
viii
441 ―Ability in Cognition related to the Western theme ―Cognitive Ability 42
442 ―Ability in Practice an extension of the Western theme ―Problem Solving
Skills 43
443 ―Concern for Others related to the Western theme ―Concern for Others
relevant to Confucianism 43
444 ―Eschewing-world Spirituality similar to the Western theme ―Insight but
framed in Chinese traditions 44
445 ―Positive Mindset missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom
relevant to the historic turbulence 44
Others 45
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference 45
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom
component 46
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 47
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
the generation difference 47
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the
generation difference 48
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars 53
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to
that among Westerners 54
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and
that among Taiwanese Chinese 55
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models 56
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model 56
562 Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model 57
563 ―MORE model 58
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons 58
6 Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 59
ix
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based wisdom measure middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
1 Introduction middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 61
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms 61
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement 63
2 Hypotheses middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
3 Method middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 64
31 Participants 65
32 Material 65
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes 65
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted) 65
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual 66
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21) 67
325 Others 68
33 Procedure 68
34 Data analyses 69
341 Wisdom ratings 69
342 Facial expression analysis 69
4 Results middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 72
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 72
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
74
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures 75
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings 75
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates 75
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year 77
x
443 Conclusion 77
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 77
46 Thematic contents in participantslsquo responses 80
461 Life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream 80
462 Life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream 81
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland
Chinese wisdom rating 82
5 Discussion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 84
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom 84
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
84
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance 85
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom 85
532 Surprise and wisdom 86
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ―Ability in
PracticePositive Mindset 87
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 88
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 90
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigmmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 91
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 92
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model 92
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure 93
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure 94
6 General Conclusion middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 95
xi
References middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 96
Appendicesmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 107
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items 107
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items 111
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 113
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria 113
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力 113
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力 114
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人 115
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神 116
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态 118
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year 119
Copyright Acknowledgements middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddot 120
xii
List of Tables
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their definitions of
wisdom
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Table 6 Proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
xiii
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
xiv
List of Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1
Chapter 1 General introduction
1 Definitions of wisdom
Even though wisdom has become a topic of research in empirical psychology since the
last quarter of the 20th century there is still no scientific consensus on the definition of
wisdom (For a review of the definitions of wisdom see Bangen Meeks amp Jeste 2013)
Modern empirical psychologists generally view wisdom as a mature understanding and
conduct of life especially in difficult situations (Staudinger 2008) Two of the most
widely acknowledged definitions are the Berlin Wisdom researcherslsquo definition of
wisdom as expertise knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000) and Ardeltlsquos (2004) defining wisdom as an ideal type of character that
combines cognitive reflective and affective aspects of personality
Regardless of the difficulty in settling on a definition of it wisdom is believed to be an
important resource for a good life Wisdom provides insights and guidance for people to
lead a meaningful and happy life (Ferrari amp Potworowski 2008) In fact it may be
impossible to define wisdom semantically just as many scientific structures that can only
be represented in certain measures (see Giere 2009) a representation of the structure of
wisdom within a proper measurement may be the best a researcher can do Still this kind
of measurement is meaningful for many reasons both theoretical and practical
2 Wisdom Models in the Western studies
21 Berlin Wisdom and personal wisdom modelparadigm
211 Traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm
The well-established Berlin Wisdom model defines wisdom as expertise and judgment
concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life and ―the pinnacle of insight into the
human condition and about the means and ends of a good life (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 122) rather than personality traits or individual abilities Staudinger (1996) has
further defined wisdom as a social interactive product Balteslsquo understanding of wisdom
2
might have been influenced by the Gestalt cognitive theory originating in Germanymdash
especially that of Koumlhler (1924) who believes that insight based on experience and
understanding of the structure of a situation was inherent to wisdom solving the
pragmatics in a creative way
Nevertheless the full model of the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (as shown in Figure 1) is not
simply about wisdom as expertise in life pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and
function of this life expertise (Baltes amp Smith 2008) Three factors are thought to be
associated with development maintenance and application of wisdom general person
factors (eg cognitive mechanics cognitive style mental health creativity and ego
strength) specific expertise-related factors (eg exposure to life scenarios and significant
life events motivation mentorship) and context (eg age cohort historical period
culture) Furthermore excellence in mind and virtue such as exceptionally good
judgment good advice insightful commentary about difficult and uncertain matters of
life and nonverbal behaviors associated with good conduct emotion regulation and
empathy in interpersonal and group contexts are regarded as necessary
manifestationoutcome of wisdom
Figure 1 The Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008)
3
Baltes and his colleagues measured wisdom through a think-aloud procedure testing the
participantslsquo responses in some hypothetical life-scenario situations such as the life-
planning life-monitoring and life-review problem for example ―In reflecting over their
lives people sometimes realize that they have not achieved what they had once planned
to achieve What should onethey do and consider (Staudinger amp Baltes 1996 p 762)
Participants reflected on these questions for a while before they responded by thinking
aloud Their thinking-aloud answers were tape recorded During both the reflection time
and the answering time the interviewer left the room so that participants felt less
constrained in talking about private issues The responses were transcribed and then rated
by 10 raters on five criteria (one criterion for each rater two raters per criterion) which
were developed based on Balteslsquo life-span theory and other cognitive psychologistslsquo
conceptions about the nature of cognitive development and problem solving in highly
complicated and ecological tasks (Staudinger Baltes amp Smith 1994)
The criteria of excellence (expertise) in fundamental pragmatics of life are a two-tiered
family the first level is rich factual (declarative) and procedural knowledge about the
fundamental life pragmatics includes life planning life management and life review the
second level is meta-criteria including understandings of lifespan contextualism
relativism of values and life priorities recognition and management of uncertainty
Factual knowledge includes knowledge of ―human nature life-long development
variations in developmental processes and outcomes interpersonal relations social
norms critical events in life and their possible constellations as well as knowledge about
the coordination of the well-being of oneself and that of others (Baltes amp Staudinger
2000 p 125) Procedural knowledge involves ―strategies and heuristics for dealing with
the meaning and conduct of lifemdashfor example heuristics for giving advice and for the
structuring and weighing of life goals ways to handle life conflicts and life decisions and
knowledge about alternative back-up strategies if development were not to proceed as
expected (p 125) Lifespan contextualism refers to knowledge ―that considers the many
themes and contexts of life (eg education family work friends leisure the public good
of society etc) their interrelations and cultural variations and in addition incorporates a
4
lifetime temporal perspective (p 125-126) Relativism of values and life priorities refers
to ―acknowledgment of and tolerance for value differences and the relativity of the values
held by individuals and society (p 126) Finally the recognition of and management of
uncertainty describes an awareness of ―(a) the validity of human information processing
itself is essentially limited (constrained) (b) individuals have access only to select parts
of reality (c) the future cannot be fully known in advance (p 126)
212 Personal Wisdom paradigm
Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) argued that general wisdom
concerning life in general as measured in the traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm was
different from Personal Wisdom which is an individuallsquos insight into his or her own life
In the Personal Wisdom paradigm the participants think aloud about themselves as a
friend such as their typical behaviors as a friend and their actions in difficult situations
The procedure was similar to that in the traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm however
the transcripted responses were rated on the Personal Wisdom criteria developed based on
the Berlin Wisdom criteria and conceptions of personality maturity in psychology
The Personal Wisdom criteria include two basic criteria (p 788) ―Self-knowledge (deep
insight into oneself and onelsquos own life) ―Growth and self-regulation (heuristics that
helps one to cope with various difficult and challenging situations and to learn from
them) and three meta-criteria ―Interrelating the self (an awareness of the contextual
embeddedness of onelsquos behavior feelings or both and onelsquos biographical embeddedness
dependency on others and the interrelatedness of different self-domains) ―Self-
relativism (―critically appraise their own behavior without losing a basic level of self-
esteem) and ―Tolerance of ambiguity (―ability to recognize and manage the
uncertainties in onelsquos own life and onelsquos own development)
213 Critiques on the Berlin paradigms
The traditional Berlin Wisdom paradigm is a 3rd person perspective wisdom measure
which is not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and thus not emotionally-engaging
In fact wisdom cannot exist independently of individuals (Ardelt 2004) On the other
5
hand the Personal wisdom paradigm is a 1st-person perspective wisdom measure
Therefore it may be vulnerable to the participantslsquo social desirability and inaccuracy in
self-judgment or self-serving bias Furthermore there is no measurement of emotional
components of wisdom in any of these two paradigms
22 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom modelscale
Based on Clayton and Birrenlsquos definition of wisdom Monika Ardelt (2003 2004)
proposed that wisdom was the integration of cognitive reflective and affective
personality traits Ardelt critiqued the Berlin Wisdom paradigmlsquos definition of wisdom as
some kind of expert knowledge she believes that wisdom cannot exist independently of
individuals (Ardelt 2004) In contrary Baltes and his colleagues proposed that wisdom is
about the fundamental truth of life which is very difficult for a person to grasp (Baltes amp
Staudinger 2000)
Ardelt developed a self-reportself-assessment scale to measure wisdom The participants
indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or ―strongly agree
to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree There are 39 items in three-
dimensional wisdom scale 14 for the cognitive dimension 12 for the reflective
dimension and 13 for the affective dimension (Ardelt 2003 2004) (see Appendix 1) The
cognitive dimension embodies the desire to know the truth a deep understanding of life
(eg ―Ignorance is bliss (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item and relativistic thinking
(eg ―People are either good or bad (Ardelt 2003 p 316) reverse item) The reflective
dimension includes self-examination self-awareness and self-insight (eg ―Things often
go wrong for me by no fault of my own (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) as well as
the ability to perceive a phenomenon from different perspectives (eg ―Before criticizing
somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place (Ardelt 2003 p
317)) and ―transcendence from self-projections and self-serving bias (eg ―I either get
very angry or depressed if things go wrong (Ardelt 2003 p 317) reverse item) Lastly
the affective dimension refers to sympathy and compassion for others (eg ―Sometimes I
feel a real compassion for everyone (Ardelt 2003 p 318))
Below is a detailed list of the sub-dimensions of the three wisdom dimensions (Ardelt
6
unpublished documentation authorized by Ardelt) ―
Cognitive dimension
1 Ability and willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly
2 Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life
3 Ability to make important decisions despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
Reflective dimension
1 Ability and willingness to look at phenomena and events from different perspectives
2 Absence of subjectivity and projections
Affective dimension
1 Presence of positive and caring emotions toward others
2 Absence of indifferent or negative emotions toward others
3 Motivation to nurture the well-being of others
Ardeltlsquos method is also a 1st person perspective measure while self-report measure of
wisdom may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception
(Staudinger Gluck 2011) In fact a positive association between impression
management and scores on some items in Ardeltlsquos scale was demonstrated in a survey
(Taylor Bates amp Webster 2011)
23 ldquoMORErdquo model
Focused on the development of wisdom Gluumlck and Bluck (2012) proposed the MORE
model of wisdom embodying four resources of wisdom
1 A Sense of Mastery belief in onelsquos ability of handling life challenges
2 Openness awareness of multiple perspectives on a phenomenon interests in ―learning
7
from new perspectives and from other people (p 9)
3 Reflective Attitude ―willingness to look at life issues in a complex way (p 10)
4 Emotion RegulationEmpathy ―ability to deal with otherslsquo feelings effectively and
―reach out to others through empathetic concern (p 12)
The model is still under development Gluumlck and Bluck suggested a longitudinal survey
to explore the developmental dynamics between MORE resources and life experiences
24 Critiques of these Western wisdom models
In general Western researchers proposing these models may be implicitly influenced by
Western culture characterized by Greek philosophy and Christian religion Furthermore
these models have been mainly applied to Western participants growing up in a Western
cultural background which has significantly influenced the scientific understanding of
wisdom (for reviews see Bangen et al 2013 Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013 Sternberg amp
Jordan 2005) Little is known about the conception of wisdom in other social-cultural
contexts Therefore we are not sure if these models are relevant for other cultural groups
It could be relevant because wisdom is a universal quality of human life or irrelevant
the structure of wisdom is cultural-specific because culture influences wisdom
conception which further influences wisdom development
3 Wisdom studies in non-Western culture backgrounds
Most of the existing studies in non-western cultures have targeted a particular wisdom
tradition such as Levittlsquos (1999) qualitative study of Tibetan Buddhist monks which
found that wisdom was defined as examination of reality understanding of ―true self
and being altruistic to others or focused on a particular explicit theory of wisdom such
as Grossmann and his colleagueslsquo (2012) cross-culture study on Japanese and Americanslsquo
wise decision making which found that American (not Japanese) performed better with
increasing age
8
In general wisdom researchers in Eastern cultures believe that culture significantly
shapes conception of wisdom (Brezina amp Oudenhoven 2012) Ivan Brezina and Jan
Pieter Van Oudenhoven examined the conception of wisdom among five different
nations Ecuador (predominantly Christian) India (predominantly Hindu) and the
predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates
They showed the participants different items each of which describes an individual
characteristic and the participants indicated their agreement with its relatedness to
wisdom The factor analysis results revealed three primary factors underlying the concept
of wisdom ―serenity referring to detachment from emotion and material
―determination reflecting reflection upon oneself and persistence in difficulties and
―altruism defined as selflessness Moreover they found that effect of national culture
was more significant than an effect of religion upon the conception of wisdom However
their research method has a shortcoming in that the researchers own conception of
wisdom rather than that of the local population was examined Therefore the
similarities between the wisdom conception among the participants and that identified in
Western studies could be caused by the unconscious impact of the abundant Western
wisdom research literature upon the researchers Moreover the participants were all
immigrants who had already experienced a different social culture that may influence
their conception of wisdom
Nevertheless the idea that the Eastern conception of wisdom differs from the Western
conception was confirmed by other studies exploring implicit theories of wisdom in
Eastern cultures For example a survey in several Asian countries (India Indonesia
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates) revealed that their conceptions of wisdom were
more related to many aspects of personal characters compared with that in Western
cultures (Ivan amp Alojz 2010) a survey on American Australian Indian and Japanese
revealed that Western conception of wisdom emphasized cognitive dimension while
Eastern conception both cognitive and affective dimensions (Takahashi amp Bordia 2000)
4 Chinese culture
It is not easy to define culture For my thesis culture is defined as beliefs about human
9
life commonly shared by a group of people which are influenced by their philosophy
religion literature history politics economy etc For example Chinese culture is well-
known for its characteristic Confucianism (Winfield Mizuno amp Beaudoin 2000)
However Chinese culture is influenced not only by Confucianism but also by Daoism
Buddhism and other schools of philosophy For example the Legalist School argues that
governments should build on strict and established laws instead of morality proclaimed
by Confucians Mohism advocates indiscriminating love iron will and strict discipline
denounces all kinds of offensive wars admires noble talents worships ghosts and
heaven Mohism agrees with Confucianism upon advocating virtues such as humaneness
and righteousness however Mohism emphasizes simplicity and austerity denouncing the
complicated rituals and rites advocated in Confucianism (Feng 1983)
Nevertheless Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism are usually regarded as the most
important Chinese traditions (Peng 2007) The most important figures for Confucianism
are Confucius (551 - 479BC) and Mencius (372 - 289BC) for Daoism Lao-tzu a
mysterious historic figure (Sima 1939) and Chuang-Tzu (369 - 286 BC) Buddhism was
founded by Buddha Gautama (around 300 BC) in India entered China in the latter part of
the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and gradually merged with the Chinese local culture
(Hardy 2014) There are numerous teachings and endless debates about these three
traditions among the experts in Chinese philosophy however these three traditions
merged into one around the time of Song dynasty (96 - 1279) (Feng 1983) Hence most
Chinese are influenced by all these traditions
Here I have only chosen some basic tenets of these three traditions with which most
Chinese will have an understanding
41 Confucianism
According to Confucianism everybody should be unified in virtue (eg Humaneness amp
Righteousness仁义) for Harmonious interpersonal relationship especially within family
and States For example Confucius said ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do
not desire (chapter 122) ―A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as
he himself wishes to take his stand and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to
10
get there (chapter 630) (Lau 1979)
Confucians emphasize interpersonal connection For example Mengzi persuaded kings to
unify the turbulent China at that time through compassion and actions to fulfill
compassion (Confucius amp Mencius 2007) Xunzi believes that social cooperation and
rites distinguish man from the animals (Feng 1983) Correspondingly many Chinese
scholars believe that Chinese emphasize on interpersonal-relationship more than
Westerners do (eg Zhu amp Han 2008 Gu amp Guo 2015)
42 Daoism
According to Daoism everything is unified in ―Dao the eternal way of natureuniverse
Daoism teaches man to model on nature For example Lao Tzu said ―Man models
himself on Earth Earth on Heaven Heaven on the Way and the Way on that which is
naturally so (Lau 1963 chapter 25)
In nature cause and effect influence each other cause and effect are connected in one
process the eternal way The founder of Daoism Lao Tzu said ―Being and Non-being
produce each other (Lau 1963 chapter 2) Here ―Being and ―Non-being are cause
and effect of each other in fact Daoism does not distinguish cause from effect
Man is an integral part of universe rather than a Subject independently of observed
Objects The distinction between subject and object in Western philosophy remained
unchallenged until Heidegger argued that there is no such thing as an observing subject
that is unaffected by the external world of observed things (Gu amp Guo 2015)
Correspondingly Daoism proclaims that a person should forget self especially desires of
self so that the person would have pure perception of the world and freedom in this
universe
43 Chinese Buddhism
When Buddhism spread to China there were the Theravada and Mahayana traditions
However due to the influence of the existing Chinese traditions especially Confucianism
and Daoism the Theravada tradition faded away within a short period of time whereas
11
Mahayana tradition gradually merged into Chinese culture and came to dominate Chinese
Buddhism (Group 2003)
According to Chinese Buddhism all the Beings Non-Beings and relationships between
BeingsNon-Beings are unified with the Universal Mind Buddha Buddha says ―Banruo
Boruomi (Buddha 2007) Banruo is wisdom like a hard and pure diamond piercing
through illusions and reach the world of truth namely Boruomi
Everything is transient interdependent and void (no-self) only a manifestation of mind
one needs to realize the original identification with the Universal Mind and replace non-
enlightenment with enlightenment to escape the endless transmigration of cause and
effect This extrication is called nirvana (Feng 1983)
The ―Enlightenment in Chinese Buddhism is different from the ―Cognition framed in
Western culture Because men are already unified with Buddha enlightenment is a
process of self-realization of this fact and the unspeakable wisdom is deep in the mind
whereas in Christianity men are separated from God salvation is from Christ and the
gospel needs to be proclaimed Moreover in Buddhism essence and appearance are one
man should not cling to anything However most Western philosophers (eg Plato)
believe that essence is different from appearance (Gu amp Guo 2015)
44 Fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy
In general Chinese philosophies emphasize connections and try to unify everything into
one In space everything is unified in one unit (individuals in society or BeingsNon-
beingsrelationships in universe) in time every event is in one process In contrary
western philosophies concern themselves more with atoms in space or cause and effect
in time (Gu amp Guo 2015) Correspondingly Eastern understandings of wisdom
emphasize both analytical and synthetic domains whereas only analytical domains in
Western understandings (Takahashi 2000)
However most Mainland Chinese nowadays may be unfamiliar or disagree with these
profound Chinese philosophies due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China
12
in modern history
5 Modern history of China
Since the painful collision with Western culture in the First Opium War (1839-42)
Mainland of China has undergone a series of historic events that may seriously affect the
transmission of Chinese traditions In general numerous defeats by foreigners especially
Westerners helped Chinese people to reflect upon their own traditions and begin to
realize that Chinese culture is not superior to other cultures especially Western culture
Thus they began to critique their own culture and learn from people in other cultures
especially the Westerners (science philosophy politics etc) It should be noted that
Communism was also from the West and the Communists have governed Mainland of
China (not Taiwan) since 1949
A brief account of modern history of China is given below It should be noted that the
historical account is inevitably biased due to the authorlsquos education life experience
political beliefs etc Nevertheless I endeavor to present a history that is probably known
by most Mainland Chinese
51 Before the Cultural Revolution
A history textbook in Mainland of China will claim that China was repeatedly invaded by
foreigners at the beginning of the modern period (see Ministry of Education in China
2003) The British navy easily defeated China in the First Opium War of 1839 and in
1860 Beijings Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) was burned to the ground by British
and French troops in 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan after Chinalsquos defeat in the Battle
of the Yellow Sea in 1900 European powers along with the United States Russia and
Japan seized Beijing coercing the Qing government into paying them 675 million
pounds in indemnity and signing protocols unfair for China (Weatherley amp Rosen 2013)
Angered by its weakness and corruption the Mainland Chinese populace mdashled by Dr
Sun Yat-sen founder of the Chinese Nationalist Partymdash overthrew the Qing government
in 1911 (Fairbank Twitchett amp Feuerwerker 1986) However Sun Yat-sen was unable to
create a government capable of controlling the political situation in Mainland of China
13
Warlords supported by different foreign powers fought against each other leading
Mainland of China into seemingly endless turbulence Eventually Sun Yat-sen built the
Nationalist Partylsquos own army and allied with the Chinese Communist party and the
USSR was preparing to defeat the warlords and reunify China when Sun Yat-sen died
suddenly in 1925 (about the time the oldest of the older generation participants in study 2
was born)
Fulfilling Sun Yat-senlsquos dream the Northern Expedition began from Guangzhou in 1926
the Nationalist Party established its Capital in Nanjing in April 1927 confronting the
Beiyang Government established by the warlords in Beijing In 1928 the Nationalist
party captured Beijing and the warlord in the Northeast of China subsequently declared
his loyalty to the Nanjing government and the Northern Expedition ended however the
Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party had turned against each other
since 1927 and the war between these two parties went on In 1931 the Communist party
established its capital in Ruijin (a Hakka city in the south of China) defying the Nanjing
government in the same year the Japanese invaded Mainland of China The Japanese
had conquered the whole of Northeast China by 1932
In 1936 the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party decided to end
the civil war and join forces to fight against the Japanese The war against the Japanese
was extremely difficult almost one third of Mainland of Chinalsquos territory had been
invaded by Japan (including Beijing which was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and
was not reclaimed until 1945 by the Nationalist party) After Japan surrendered and
returned Taiwan to China in 1945 civil war in China between the Chinese Nationalist
Party and the Chinese Communist Party resumed almost immediately The Communist
Party captured Beijing from the Nationalist party in January 1949 and on October 1st of
the same year the leader of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced the foundation
of Peoplelsquos Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing In December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek
with his government fled to Taiwan (Fairbank et al 1986) (This was about the time the
youngest of the older generation participants in study 2 was born) Taiwan has been
separated from the Mainland of China since that time
14
After another difficult war in Korea against the United States and its allies (1950-1953)
(for the details see Blair 1987) the Mainland Chinese Communist Party launched
communist reform throughout Mainland of China Communist ideology was proclaimed
private businesses were appropriated as national assets lands were taken from the
landlords and divided among peasants and collective farms were built (MacFarquhar
1991) Chairman Mao wished to build a socialist country for the proletariat however
after he retired from the position of Chairman in 1959 he was disappointed to find
traditional ideas reappear in contemporary literature and the Communist Party suffered
from corruption and bureaucracy Nevertheless these realities did not diminish Maolsquos
―communist dream instead he launched the Cultural Revolution (MacFarquhar 1991)
52 Cultural Revolution
From its beginning in 1966 to its end ten years later the Cultural Revolution is
considered Mainland of Chinalsquos most turbulent time after the founding of the Peoplelsquos
Republic (MacFarquhar 1991) The reason for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
is still debatable but many historians believe that Mao wanted to prevent bureaucracy
revisionism and capitalism that he thought was developing in Khrushchevlsquos USSR
(MacFarquhar 1991) Mao was especially skeptical of the ―deterioration of the central
communist leaders such as Chairman Liu Shaoqi (whom Mao suspected of revisionism
he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution)
Besides many communist leaders numerous innocent scholars who were (or seemed)
unenthusiastic about Maolsquos communist ideology were persecuted during the Cultural
Revolution by Maolsquos loyal followers the ―Red Guards mostly made up of passionate
youths (MacFarquhar 1991) The Red Guards considered Maolsquos Quotations (―Red
Precious Book 「红宝书」) almost as a sacred text and were strongly against anything
related to traditional ideologies such as Confucianism Daoism or Buddhism They were
responsible for the destruction of many national treasures and historic art
Chinese culture and education suffered most during the Cultural Revolution and its
impact has been believed to be long-lasting (MacFarquhar 1991) The youthful spirit of
the Cultural Revolution differed from Chinese tradition in many ways First it was a
15
dictatorship of the proletariat not the aristocracy Second soldiers were respected while
scholars were belittled Traditional literati were usually peaceful gentle and even soft
(Stokstad 2005) while Mao (although a poet) valued military strategy resorting to
violent revolution to tackle social problems He proclaimed that political power come
from military strength (Mao 1972) In fact popular support from the Peoplelsquos Liberation
Army (PLA) was an important basis for Maolsquos launching the Cultural Revolution
Finally Marxist materialism was proclaimed while the traditions such as Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism were roundly denounced
Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution degenerated into chaos (MacFarquhar 1991) In
1971 Maolsquos long-time comrade and chosen successor Marshal Linmdashwho had
enthusiastically supported the Cultural Revolution (at least on the surface)mdashbetrayed
Mao (MacFarquhar 1991) In 1975 one year before Maolsquos death and the de facto end of
the Cultural Revolution Mao wrote his last poem in which he said ―At that time
anxious about our motherland we comrades were not afraid of being beheaded Now the
whole country is red (communist) but who can guard it The work has not finished yet
my body is tired my hair is white How can you be hardhearted enough to let our life-
long dream be gone with the river (Mao 1996)
53 After the Cultural Revolution
Although repeatedly attacked Deng Xiaoping survived the Cultural Revolution to launch
economic reform his ―Reform and Opening started in 1978 has generated rapid
economic growth in Mainland of China since the 1980s (MacFarquhar 1991) The
Cultural Revolution was officially decried The public image of Mao became much more
realistic especially after Denglsquos compromising comments on Maolsquos life his
achievements before the foundation of Peoplelsquos Republic of China and his mistakes in his
late life especially during the Cultural Revolution Moreover Confucianism Daoism
and Buddhism are increasingly appreciated as demonstrated by the growing popularity of
the books about Chinese traditions such as Confucianism (eg Yu 2006) Meanwhile
religions such as Christianity Buddhism and Taoism are recovering after the loosening of
earlier restrictions put in place by the Communist Party (Yang 2006)
16
There are many fundamental changes in current society of Mainland China
First new social classes such as owners of private companies emerged after the
economic reform changing the previous simply layered social structure made up of
famers workers and scholars Meanwhile cooperation rather than conflict between
different classes is emphasized (Lu 2004) Consistently social interaction and social
relationship (关系) are increasingly appreciated The social ability of modern Mainland
Chinese youths is believed to be higher than that of their parents (Huang Deng Chen amp
Lu 2009) However this 关系 also has negative implications For example people who
have connections with governing officials such as the politicianslsquo relatives usually get
advantages in the competition of the immature markets and occupy most social resources
Corruption among the political officials moreover is commonplace Correspondingly
the current income levels in current China are overwhelmingly imbalanced the managers
form the top class of Mainland Chinese society which according to surveys in Shenzhen
and Hefei (Lu 2004) earn 15 times of the income of the workmen who are at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and are often belittled This situation is totally different from that
in Maolsquos age when workmen formed the upper class and were greatly respected Second
knowledge and techniques especially scientific knowledge and techniques are becoming
more and more important Therefore scholars and scientists are more and more
respected Third with the opening up of Mainland China to the outside world Mainland
Chinese society is becoming more and more international and multi-cultural art
literature and philosophy have been flooding into Mainland of China from Hong Kong
Taiwan Korea Japan the United States etc This trend is intensified by the prevalence of
the internet all over China Fourth the one-child policy was implemented Most youths
are the only child or of just one of two children in a family and thus enjoy a luxury of
resources that had not been available to their parents
With such dramatic changes in society there are tremendous gaps between the mentalities
of current Mainland Chinese youths and their parents they are much more
individualistic open-minded critical adventurist and fact-based (not as interested in
theory and ideology as their parents once were during Maolsquos age) legally conscious
interested in public affairs but not so much in social morality caring about the protection
17
of the environment fond of fun rather than being serious (Huang et al 2009) Western
ideas such as freedom and democracy are much more appreciated meanwhile some
negative values such as worshiping financial power and material consumption are also
more common among current Mainland Chinese youth than among their parents
6 Existing wisdom studies in Chinese culture
Wisdom studies in non-Western cultures mostly involve Japan and India Very little has
been done in China The Berlin Wisdom criteria were applied in a study to rate a
Mainland Chinese citylsquos elderly peoplelsquos psychological adaptation level which was
found to be significantly positively correlated with their life satisfaction (Weidong 2006)
An opinion paper discussed differences between Chinese and Western practical wisdom
in management and concluded that both value compassion (Opdebeeck amp Habisch
2011) a survey on the wit and wisdom of Mainland Chinese tour guides merely
illustrated tour guideslsquo practical wisdom which was barely a necessary ingredient of a
good life (Dioko Harrill amp Cardon 2013) Bang and Zhou (2014) studied how Ardeltlsquos
(2003) Three-dimensional wisdom Scale related to development of ego identity among
Mainland Chinese undergraduate university students and identified a positive correlation
None of these studies has been specifically focused on wisdom among Mainland Chinese
Yang (2001 2007 2008a 2008b 2008c 2014a) has studied the conception of wisdom in
Chinese culture in depth Yang chose 智慧 as the corresponding Chinese word for
―wisdom and reviewed the development of the meaning of 智慧 in Chinese history 智
慧 is mostly about personal characters especially about cognitive ability and judgments
With the spread of Buddhism in China 智慧 incorporated the components of wisdom in
Hindu culture ability to transcend laws in universe and pierce through transient
phenomenon in this world in order to realize ultimate truth In modern Chinese language
智 and 慧 are very similar in meaning (see httpwwwzdicnet) 智 emphasizes
more intelligence wisdom and resourcefulness 慧 is closer to wisdom (Banruo) in
Buddhism
In an empirical study Taiwanese Chinese who had been nominated as wise exemplars
18
were asked to describe wise decisions and actions in their own lives (Yang 2008c)
Several common themes emerged 1 ―striving for common good by helping others and
making major contributions to society (n = 79 36) 2 achieving a satisfactory state of
life (n = 55 25) 3 developing and determining life paths (n = 37 17) 4 resolving
difficult problems at work (n = 30 14) and 5 doing the right thing in the face of
adversity (n = 19 9) (p 286) In another study Yang (2014b) measured wisdom
among Taiwanese Chinese by methods of other-rating transcripted interviews and self-
report survey in her model wisdom is a real-life process including three components
connected together cognitive integration amp action embodiment amp positive effects for self
and others Yanglsquos model is featured by Chinese philosophy traditions such as emphasis
on integration in space and connection of events in one process Moreover the
component ―action embodiment is missing in most Western models corresponding to
the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy traditions
Besides Yang Chen and his colleagues (Chen Cheng Wu amp Hsueh 2014) applied the
grounded theory method to study Taiwanese Chinese educatorslsquo interpersonal and
intrapersonal perspectives on wisdom and identified four core components of wisdom
―intrapsychic integration ―actions in service of problem solving and ideal
implementation and ―positive results and feedback and adjustments (p 425)
However these findings may not be generalized to Mainland Chinese due to the
difference of culture between Mainland of China and Taiwan Taiwan was ceded from
China to Japan for 50 years after 1895 and was influenced by Japanese culture (Yang
2008a) Moreover Taiwan was governed by Chinese Nationalist party which revived
Chinese traditions through many political and cultural events after 1949 whereas
Mainland of China was governed by the Chinese Communist party and experienced
communist reforms and the 10-year Cultural Revolution attacking Chinese traditions
(MacFarquhar 1991)
19
Chapter 2 Self-report Wisdom among Mainland Chinese Youth
1 Introduction
11 Choosing Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure for Mainland Chinese
Due to the numerous turbulent events in Mainland China through the modern history (see
Chapter 1 Section 6) the culture in Mainland of China could be very different from that
in Taiwan Therefore a prototype of wisdom among Mainland Chinese may be different
from that among Taiwanese Chinese Bang and Zhou (2014) believed that a prototype of
wisdom in Chinese culture was congruent with that in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model thus they
conducted a survey among some Mainland Chinese with the three-dimensional wisdom
scale However factor analysis identified a four dimensional structure (Non-dualistic
thinking ―Perspective-taking ―Non-resentment ―Empathy)
In order to test whether Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom model or Bang and Zhoulsquos
four-dimensional wisdom model could represent wisdom among Mainland Chinese a
self-report wisdom measure was conducted among 100 Mainland Chinese youth
12 Validity tests of Ardeltrsquos wisdom measure
In order to test whether a wisdom measure is valid researchers could propose several
correlates of wisdom based on theories If the wisdom correlates measured by some
established measurements are significantly correlated with the wisdom measured then
the wisdom measurelsquos validity is testified For our study we chose four wisdom
correlates cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence empathy and prosocial
personality traits (high extroversion low psychoticism and low neuroticism) for reasons
below
Studies of implicit theories of wisdom in North America (ie the lay peoplelsquos theory of
wisdom) revealed that cognitive ability and reasoning were regarded as the most
important factors underlying wisdom (Sternberg 1990) Cognitive ability was found to
be one of the core themes of Western implicit theories of wisdom (Bluck amp Gluumlck 2005)
20
Besides cognitive ability wise people are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo
emotions (Stange amp Kunzmann 2009) Adams (1998) simply regarded ―wisdom as the
classical version of ―emotional intelligence In a previous study a positive correlation
between wisdom measured by three-dimensional wisdom scale and emotional
intelligence measured by Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence scale was
demonstrated and the effect of wisdom on happiness was reduced to emotional
intelligence (Zacher McKenna amp Rooney 2013) However wisdom should not be
reduced to emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence does not guarantee pro-
social personality as we see in some highly emotionally-intelligent criminals (Hampson
2012) and sly Nazi politicians (Shirer 2011) Understanding of otherslsquo suffering does not
necessary lead to compassion for others Therefore other-related wisdom defined as
empathic Concern for Others (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013) is often added as an
important attribute for distinguishing wisdom from individual intelligence
Wisdom is interpreted by many researchers as a combination of intelligence and
character the ability to strive for the welfare of individuals and communities and the
willingness to do it (Pasupathi 2001 Stange amp Kunzmann 2009 Staudinger Doumlrner amp
Mickler 2005) Therefore we hypothesized that wise people not only possessed high
cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence but also empathy toward others and
prosocial personality traits such as low psychoticism low neuroticism and high
extroversion
2 Hypotheses
Reliabilities of Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale as well as the subscales of
cognitive reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom should be ideal because
wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies cognitive reflective and affective
components as hypothesized in Ardeltlsquos wisdom model
If Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional scale were valid for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese the wisdom score should be positively correlated with cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence empathic concern and prosocial personality traits measured by
scales whose reliability and validity among Mainland Chinese were established in
21
previous studies eg Raven Matrix Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence scale the
Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mainland Chinese
version of the shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethic Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
31 Participants
Ninety-seven Mainland Chinese undergraduate students (46 males aged from 18 to 23
years M = 1971 SD =119 years) at Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua Chinamdash a city
with a population of 5361600 at the 2010 census (―Jinhua 2014) Twelve were
Buddhists 3 were Christians 1 was Muslim 1 was favorable towards all kinds of
religious belief and the other 79 were atheists
32 Material
321 Visual basic program
All the items and pictures used in the scales and tests were presented on a computer one
by one in a home-made Visual Basic Program This program not only made the
characters easily readable but also prevented potential influence between adjacent scale
items
322 Three-dimensional wisdom scale (3DWS)
All the instructions and items were translated into Chinese and then reverse-translated to
English by native Mainland Chinese speakers and compared for accuracy to the original
English items by native English speakers The discrepancy was then corrected and this
double-reverse translation procedure repeated until the Chinese version scale was
consistent with the English version scale
22
For more details of this scale see Chapter 1 Section 23
423 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS)
The Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) includes four subscales self-
emotion appraisal other-emotion appraisal utilization of emotion and regulation of
emotion scales (Law Wong amp Song 2004) Each subscale has four items Self-emotion
appraisal and other-emotion appraisal refer to the abilities to understand emotion of self
and others respectively Utilization of emotion refers to utilizing emotion of self to guide
actions Regulation of emotion refers to controlling emotion of self The participants rate
the accordance of the description in the items to themselves on a 5-point scale
A previous study in China has demonstrated that the WLEIS was a better predictor of job
performance than the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test developed in
the US (Law Wong Huang amp Li 2008) Besides the WLEIS was testified as reliable
among 680 Mainland Chinese university students (Li Saklofske Bowden Yan amp Fung
2012)
424 Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
This scale measures four aspects of empathy perspective taking fantasy empathic
concern and personal distress (Siu amp Shek 2005) There are 28 items altogether seven
items for each subscale The Perspective-Taking scale assesses the liability to
spontaneously adopting perspectives of others the Fantasy scale measures the liability to
transpose self imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters The
Empathic Concern scale measures other-oriented feelings of sympathy and care for the
suffering individuals The Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of
personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal situations (Davis 1983) The
participants indicate on a 5-point response scale from ―Definitely true of myself or
―strongly agree to ―Definitely not true of myself or ―strongly disagree
The scale was testified as reliable and valid among 580 Mainland Chinese participants
(Siu amp Shek 2005)
23
425 Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS)
The Chinese version of shortened Eysenck personality scale (EPQ-RS) has 48 items 12
items for each of the following sub-scales Psychoticism Extroversion
Neuroticismemotional instability and LieSocial desirability scales Psychoticism is
tendency to develop a psychotic symptom or anti-social behaviors Extraversion is
tendency to be active in social activities Neuroticism or emotion stability measures
individualslsquo emotional instability and the tendency to develop negative feelings The Lie
scale contains questions on which individuals tend to lie for social desirability (Eysenck
amp Eysenck 1975) The items are questions about the participants and the participants
respond ―yes or ―no to these questions
This scale was testified as reliable and valid among 8637 Mainland Chinese participants
(Mingyi Guocheng Rongchun amp Shen 2000)
426 Progressive Raven Matrix
There are 35 Progressive Raven Matrix items altogether used in this study In each item
the participants need to identify the missing element that completes a pattern on a 33
matrix Raven Matrix was found to be reliable and valid in measuring cognitive
intelligence among several cultures including Chinese culture (Raven 2000)
33 Procedure
The following procedure was completed individually in the Psychology laboratory at
Zhejiang Normal University The participants were left alone in a quiet room to finish the
scales and tests
All the participants completed the three-dimensional Wisdom Scale and the WLEIS In
addition 31 participants (12 males 18 to 22 years M = 1958 years SD =113 years)
finished Progressive Raven Matrix another 66 participants (34 males 18 to 23 years M
= 1977 years SD =122 years) completed the Mainland Chinese version of Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Mainland Chinese version of the shortened Eysenck
personality scale (EPQ-RS) Considering fatigue effect the participants who finished
24
Raven Matrix were not instructed to finish IRI and EPQ-RS
4 Results
41 Score distribution and Inter-item reliability of Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
A reliability test was conducted for the three-dimensional wisdom scale and its subscales
based on the data from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs
alpha of the whole scale was 070 alpha of the cognitive dimension scale was 065 alpha
of the reflective dimension scale was 049 alpha of the affective dimension scale was
030 Therefore the inter-items reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a
whole was acceptable However inter-items reliability of neither the reflective nor
affective dimensional subscale was acceptable all r lt 060
The final score of the three-dimensional wisdom scale ranged from 245 to 392 (M =
320 SD = 026) cognitive wisdom ranged from 207 to 414 (M = 334 SD = 040)
An inter-item reliability analysis was also conducted to test the four-factor structure
proposed by Bang and Zhou Cronbachs alpha of ―Non-dualistic thinking items was
053 alpha of ―Perspective-taking items was 068 alpha of ―Non-resentment items was
037 alpha of ―Empathy items was 028 Therefore only the ―Perspective-taking
subscale has acceptable inter-items reliability the four-factor structure proposed by Bang
and Zhou was not confirmed
42 Factor analysis
Combining the 3DWS data in this study with another 3DWS data of 50 Mainland
Chinese youths (22 males aged from 20 to 30 M = 2404 SD =242) collected in
another study we got data of 148 Mainland Chinese youthslsquo three-dimensional wisdom
items scores Factor analysis using a principal axis factoring analysis (the same method
used by Bang and Zhou) and an oblique rotation method (Direct Oblimin) was conducted
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was acceptable (060) however the
factor analysis extracted 14 factors explaining only 500 variance Moreover the
25
rotation failed to converge in 25 iterations Therefore we quitted the exploratory factor
analysis
Later we fixed the number of factors at three however the extracted three factors only
explained a 198 variance And then we fixed the number of factors at four but the
extracted four factors only explained a 236 variance Therefore there may be more
than four factors that underlie the participantslsquo performance in Ardeltlsquo self reporting
three-dimensional wisdom scale
43 The correlation between Raven Matrix and wisdom scales scores
The 31 participants who took the Raven Matrix test had solved 7 to 34 matrixes (M =
2126 SD = 671) Bivariate correlation analysis between the Raven Matrix test score and
the three-dimensional wisdom score revealed no significant correlation r = 016 p =
038
We hypothesized that cognitive dimension of wisdom should be positively correlated
with the Raven matrix score even if the total wisdom score was not so however the
correlation of the Raven score with the score on cognitive wisdom was also not
significant r = 022 p = 024
44 Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale
A reliability test was conducted for the WLEIS scale and its subscales based on the data
from the 97 Mainland Chinese undergraduate students Cronbachs alpha of the total scale
was 080 alpha of ―self-emotion appraisal was 061 alpha of ―other-emotion appraisal
was 080 alpha of ―use of emotion was 075 alpha of ―regulation of emotion was 082
Therefore inter-items reliability of the whole scale and all the sub-scales were
acceptable
The score of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale ranged from 238 to 475 (M
= 341 SD =041) the score of ―self-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 475 (M =
355 SD =056) the score of ―other-emotion appraisal ranged from 200 to 500 (M =
26
352 SD =060) the score of ―use of emotion ranged from 200 to 480 (M = 336 SD
=064) the score of ―regulation of emotion ranged from 100 to 500 (M = 320 SD
=066)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the wisdom score was significantly positively
correlated with WLEIS score r = 047 p lt 0001 and with all the subscale scores all r gt
024 all p lt 005
45 Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the ―perspective-taking scale was 064 the alpha of the ―fantasy
scale was 069 the alpha of the ―empathic concern scale was 059 and the alpha of the
―personal distress scale was 070 Therefore the ―empathic concern scalelsquos inter-item
reliability was marginally acceptable for calculating the ―empathic concern score and the
other scaleslsquo inter-item reliabilities were acceptable
The score of ―perspective-taking ranged from 229 to 457 (M = 338 SD =051)
―fantasy ranged from 157 to 471 (M = 337 SD =063) ―empathic concern ranged
from 229 to 471 (M = 346 SD =049) ―personal distress ranged from 157 to 457 (M
= 330 SD =053)
Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that score of ―fantasy and ―perspective taking
were significantly positively correlated with wisdom score r = 026 p = 0039 r = 046
p lt 0001 respectively Other correlations were not significant all p gt 005
46 Eysenck personality scale
A reliability test was conducted for each scale based on the data from the 66 participants
Cronbachs alpha of the Psychoticism scale was 021 the alpha of the Extroversion scale
was 071 the alpha of the Neuroticism scale was 075 the alpha of the LieSocial
desirability scale was 059 Therefore the inter-item reliabilities of the Extroversion and
Neuroticism scales were ideal for calculating the total scores and that of the LieSocial
desirability scale was marginally acceptable
27
The Extroversion score ranged from 0 to 12 (M =663 SD =337) the Neuroticism score
ranged from 1 to 12 (M = 695 SD = 291) the LieSocial desirability score ranged from
0 to 11 (M = 454 SD =224) The LieSocial desirability score was not significantly
positively correlated with the Extroversion or Neuroticism score all r lt 01 all p gt 005
Therefore the Extroversion and Neuroticism scores were not biased by social
desirability
Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that the Extraversion score was significantly
positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 036 p = 0003 whereas the
Neuroticism score was significantly negatively correlated with the wisdom score r = -
032 p = 0008 However it should be noted that the Liesocial desirability score was
significantly positively correlated with the wisdom score r = 026 p = 0037 but not
with any other self-report score (eg emotional intelligence empathy) all r lt 01 all p gt
005
5 Discussion
51 Problem in the structure of wisdom model
Although the reliability of the three-dimensional wisdom scale as a whole was acceptable
(Cronbachs alpha = 070) the inter-items reliabilities of reflective wisdom and affective
wisdom were quite poor This result revealed that the three-factor structure of wisdom
proposed by Ardelt may not exist among Mainland Chinese Indeed Bang and Zhou
(2014) also failed to find a three-factor structure of wisdom Moreover the four-factor
structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was also not testified in our study Therefore a
different wisdom model may be necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland
Chinese A qualitative method such as an implicit theory study of wisdom among
Mainland Chinese may be helpful for exploring the structure of wisdom among Mainland
Chinese which was fulfilled in Study 2 of this thesis
52 Validity test results
Our hypothesis about wisdom related to cognitive intelligence was not confirmed by the
correlation result Perhaps wisdom is more about cognition of grand objects (eg
28
meaning of life and human nature) and thus the ability to recognize the pattern of matrix
is not related to the cognitive dimension of wisdom In fact a previous study has shown
that an increase of crystalized intelligence a component of wisdom was not related to
fluid intelligence (Christensen Batterham amp Mackinnon 2013) Wisdom may be more
related to intelligence in the domains about life in general which is essentially different
from intelligence in other domains such as that measured by the Raven matrix
Our hypotheses about positive correlation of wisdom with emotional intelligence
empathy (―perspective taking ―fantasy) and prosocial personality traits
(―extroversion ―emotion stability) were confirmed by the correlation results (Note that
the social desirability score was not correlated with any of these wisdom correlates and
thus these significant correlations can not be accounted for by the effect of social
desirability) Overall our results suggested that wisdom was embodied in reasonably
handling emotion of self and others (appraising otherslsquo emotion utilizing and regulating
emotion emotional stability) and taking care of others taking otherslsquo perspectives
transposing oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others (related to
―fantasy) and being active in social interaction (―extraversion) However no cause-
effect relation can be derived from these correlation results These factors could be either
the outcomes or the sources of wisdom Eg extraversion could be the outcome of
wisdom wiser people are more likely to interact with others because they appreciate
more about the value of social networking On the other hand extraversion could
contribute to wisdom social interaction provides individuals more opportunities for
learning from others Likewise emotional stability may be important for reflective
wisdom while emotional stability could be an outcome of wisdom Individuals of high
neuroticism may be weak at reflecting upon their self-images due to their easily irritable
temperament preventing them from accepting ideas harmful for their self-image while
wise people are not self-centralized and thus emotionally stable Finally all these
potential components of wisdom need to be integrated For example an extravert without
empathy for others may interact with others superficially without being aware of otherslsquo
inner feelings and thoughts and thus wonlsquot accumulate experience of some fundamental
life pragmatics in social life such as painful separation from a beloved person
29
53 Problem of vulnerability to social desirability
According to Confucianism a Superior Man should examine himself objectively
(Confucius 2009) however the liesocial desirability score was significantly positively
correlated with the score of three-dimensional wisdom This result corresponded to the
proposition of Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) that self-reported measurement of wisdom
may be influenced by self-serving bias and inaccuracy in self-perception wise
individuals are arguably more accurate in self-reflection and thus score lower than those
unwise individuals who have positive bias in their self-reflection In fact a positive
correlation between impression management and scores on some items in the three-
dimensional wisdom scale was demonstrated in a previous study (Taylor Bates amp
Webster 2011) Therefore a method more objective than self-report such as performance
measure is necessary for wisdom measurement among Mainland Chinese This problem
is tackled in Study 3 of this thesis
6 Conclusion
Emotional intelligence empathy emotion stability and extraversion were significantly
positively correlated with wisdom measured by Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale
For Mainland Chinese wisdom may be embodied in the ability and willingness to
understand and regulate emotion of selves and others in social life However the
structure of wisdom was unclear neither the three-factor structure proposed by Ardelt nor
the four-factor structure proposed by Bang and Zhou was testified Moreover the self-
report wisdom score was significantly positively correlated with social desirability score
Therefore we probably need a different model and a performance measure for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese
30
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
1 Introduction
In order to explore the structure of wisdom ie the potential wisdom components among
Mainland Chinese and build a Mainland Chinese Wisdom model the implicit theory of
wisdom among Mainland Chinese was examined
11 Implicit theory study on wisdom among the westerners
The implicit theory of wisdom is about the lay peoplelsquos latent understanding of wisdom
or implicit conceptualization of ―wisdom Implicit theory studies typically use one of
two main approaches ―descriptor rating and ―nomination of exemplars (Bluck amp
Gluumlck 2005)
Descriptor rating studies of wisdom The earliest and still most common method of
research on implicit theories of wisdom uses attribute rating (eg Clayton amp Birren
1980 Holliday amp Chandler 1986 Jason et al 2001a Sternberg 1985) Participants first
list attributes they associate with wisdom that are then merged into a master list with
repetitions idiosyncrasies and synonyms removed the master list is then presented to a
second (often larger) sample of participants who rate each attribute for how central it is
to wisdom Multidimensional scaling is then used to extract underlying components from
ratings with dimensions labeled according to their characteristic attributes
Exemplar approaches to implicit theories of wisdom Another way of studying implicit
theories of wisdom is to ask people to nominate individual exemplars of wisdom (eg
Orwoll amp Perlmutter 1990 Takayama 2002) Nomination studies of wisdom ask people
to nominate someone they consider wise from history or from their personal
acquaintance Historical exemplars of wisdom are not universal For example Jewish
Canadians frequently nominated Gandhi as a historical exemplar of wisdom among a
wide range of political and intellectual figuresmdashmany of importance to Judaism like
Moses However Gandhi was nominated only once in Pakistan with 60 of participants
31
choosing the Prophet Mohammed (Ferrari Kahn Benayon amp Nero 2011)
12 Core Components of Wisdom in Subjective Theories
Gluumlck and Bluck (2005 see also Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) identified five core themes
of Western implicit theories of wisdom in their careful review of all Descriptor rating
studies of wisdom completed to that time
1 Cognitive ability (profound knowledge amp reasoning about novel problems)
2 Insight (willingness and ability to ponder deeply on complex issues)
3 Reflective attitude (do think profoundly about self others and the world from many
different perspectives to be self-critical and not biased by emotion of self)
4 Concern for Others beyond close family and friends (self-transcendent concern and
compassion)
5 Problem-solving skills (applying knowledge to concrete problems)
Later Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) summarized these as core components of wisdom in
subjective theories and then added another three components of wisdom from some
expertslsquo subjective theories especially those for some self-report wisdom scales
Spirituality and connectedness to nature to be spiritual in life and enjoy a connection
with the divine and care for the natural environment (Jason et al 2001b) Emancipatory
nature of wisdom interests in self-critical reflection and autonomy and knowledge that
increases the freedom of the self and provides opportunities for self-development
(Sternberg 1990) Humor the ability to see comical components even in serious
situations (Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011)
13 This study
Given the shortcomings of self-report wisdom measure as demonstrated in study 1 we
conducted another study based on the secondary data from a previous study to explore the
potential factors underlying wisdom in Mainland Chinese culture The conceptions of
32
wisdom among two generations of Mainland Chinese were examined The older
generation had experienced the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when they were
emerging or middle-aged adults (18 to 42 years old in 1966) whereas the younger
generation was born after the Cultural Revolution As far as we know this is the first
study on the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese
As mentioned earlier Mainland China underwent the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976) during which the traditional wisdom ideologies of Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism were fiercely denounced nationwide while Maolsquos Communist ideology was
proclaimed instead (Yang 2006) The Cultural Revolution provides a unique opportunity
to study an event that disrupted transmission of Chinese traditions People who lived
through this time may incorporate elements of communist ideology into their conceptions
of wisdom
2 Hypotheses
We hypothesized that people who had experienced the Cultural Revolution should have
an implicit theory of wisdom different from that among those born after the Cultural
Revolution conceptual wisdom components related to Confucianism Daoism and
Buddhism should be less prevalent whereas conceptual wisdom components related to
Communism should be more prevalent among the older generation than among the
younger generation
Parallel hypothesis
Similar to all cross-section studies cohort effect is mixed with age effect and thus not
identifiable People who had experienced the Cultural Revolution may later learn the
revived traditions and become even more affected by these traditions due to their greater
experience of the revived traditions through age Therefore conceptual wisdom
components related to Chinese traditions may be more prevalent among the elders than
among the youths
33
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the ethics committee at the University of
Toronto
31 Participants
One hundred Mainland Chinese adults were interviewed in Beijing in 2008 half were
native-born Mainland Chinese elders living in the Beijing area (28 males aged from 60
to 84 M = 7166 SD =599) They were born between 1924 and 1948 and had
experienced the Cultural Revolution and were living independently or with family around
the time of interview Among them 15 participants had not finished high school 12
participants had high school or equivalent diploma 7 participants had some college
education and 16 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent degree one was Buddhist 1
was Muslim 16 named their religious affiliation as Communism and the other 32 did not
indicate any religious affiliation
The other 50 were students at Beijing Normal University (22 males aged from 20 to 30
M = 2404 SD =242) born between 1978 and 1988 after the Cultural Revolution which
ended in 1976 Among this generation 18 participants had a Bachelors or equivalent
degree 31 participants had a Masterlsquos degree and one participant a doctorate one was
Buddhist 1 was Muslim 2 were Christians and 2 named their religious affiliation as
Communism the other 44 did not indicate any religious affiliation
32 Material
Recorder printed ―Interview guide etc
33 Procedure
Participants were interviewed individually in a quiet room They nominated several
wisdom exemplars from among historic figures and their acquaintances and then
34
explained why they regarded the exemplars as wise how the wisdom exemplars had
become wise and what the definition of wisdom is The Mainland Chinese term used for
wisdom is the same as that in Yangs study with Taiwanese Chinese Zhi Hui (智慧)
(Yang 2008)
More specifically it included the following questions
(1) Please take a moment to think of the wisest person you know of in history among
your acquaintances Who is this person and what makes them so wise What is one story
you know about this person or one thing they said or did that shows them to be wise
We included the following probes ―What was wise about that What might some other
person have said or done We also asked ―Has this person affected or inspired you in
your own life Is it possible for you to become more like them Are there any wise
moments in your life
(2) Finally we asked about the participantslsquo own definition of wisdom ―Now that we
have had a chance to talk about it what is wisdom What does wisdom mean to you
The interviews were recorded and transcribed
The nomination of wisdom exemplars may reveal who had influenced the participantslsquo
conceptualization of wisdom The reasons for the participantslsquo nomination were arguably
determined by their conceptualization of wisdom We made this arrangement because the
conceptualization of wisdom is not easy for lay people to articulate and asking questions
relevant to wisdom before addressing their definition of wisdom could activate the
neural-network carrying information related to wisdom conceptualization However the
participants sometimes talked about something unrelated to their definitions of wisdom
which is inevitable because it is very difficult for common people to focus on the topic
―wisdom throughout the whole conversation Nevertheless when the participants
responded to our last question ie the definition of wisdom they were mostly focused
on their conceptualizations of wisdom Therefore we chose to code their responses to the
last question
In total 92 Mainland Chinese participants (47 male aged from 20 to 84 M = 4722 SD
35
=2408) reported their definition of wisdom including 47 youths (27 males 20 to 30
years M = 2409 years SD =246years) and 45 elders (20 males 60 to 84 years M =
7138 years SD =607years) Thematic analysis using a grounded theory method
allowed us to code these participantslsquo answers and discover common themes of the
Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definition of wisdom After these common themes were
found 2 Taiwanese Chinese research assistants coded the transcripts again and identified
all the common themes we found without discovering any new theme Finally a
codebook was developed based on these common themes and then two trained Mainland
Chinese coders coded the transcripts again according to this codebook Coder agreement
and Kappa values on each category of this codebook were analyzed just as in a previous
study (Gluumlck et al 2005) Disagreements were later resolved by discussion between
these coders and then the frequency of each category coded was calculated
4 Results
41 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
Participants made a total of 180 nominations of historical wise exemplars nominating 64
historic figures The mostly frequently nominated historic wisdom exemplars were
political or military leaders (ie emperors presidents premiers civil officials and
generals) nominated by 74 participants The second most frequently nominated group of
historic wisdom exemplars were scholars (ie philosophers literary authors poets and
historians) nominated by 21 participants Following these two groups of historic wisdom
exemplars were scientists nominated by four participants and then religious leaders
nominated by three participants Buddha nominated by a Christian Jesus nominated by a
Buddhist Muhammad nominated by an atheist
The leaders were regarded by the participants as wise mostly for their personal abilities
and contribution to their society The leaderslsquo personal abilities included leadership in
military or political events talents in ruling organizations and states social interaction
organizational and leadership skills such as understanding otherslsquo mentality and
managing the talented persons The leaderslsquo contribution to their society included
36
recovering the order of the society and showing compassion for the poor The scholars
were regarded as wise mostly for their mentality cognitive ability cognitive traits
cognitive outcome (eg works of literature) and virtue teaching wisdom to the public
self-transformation and transcendent personalities The wisdom of leaders emphasized
more on changing the external world ie society whereas the wisdom of scholars on
transforming the internal world ie mind
Table 1 shows a chronological ranked ordering of the 24 historic figures who received at
least 2 nominations as wise exemplars (All other figures received only a single
nomination and thus was not reported here) It should be noted that 19 of these 24
nominees were Chinese 15 of the 24 were political or military leadersmdashsome dating
back over 2000 years to the unification of China as a centralized country by Qin Shi
Huang (260ndash210 BC) the first emperor of China mdash through to the 17th
c but then we
found a gap of almost 200 years until 6 leaders within living memory of the older
generation In addition to these political or military leaders 8 were scholars and only 1
was a religious figure (Muhammad)
37
Table 1 Historic wisdom exemplars nominated more than once
Wisdom Exemplarparticipants Youth Elder Total
Lao-tzu Legendary founder of Daoism Zhou dynasty (6th c BC) 2 0 2
Confucius (551ndash479 BC) Ancient educator and political advisor
founder of Confucianism
9 1 10
Plato (429ndash347 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Aristotle (384ndash322 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher 2 0 2
Emperor Qin [Shi Huang] (260ndash210 BC) First emperor Qin dynasty 3 4 7
Emperor Gaozu (256 or 247-195 BC) First emperor Han dynasty 1 1 2
Emperor Wu (156 ndash 87 BC) Seventh emperor Han dynasty 2 0 2
Sima Qian (145 or 135-86 BC) Ancient historian in Han dynasty 2 0 2
Cao Cao (155-220) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
1 2 3
Zhu Geliang (181-234) Ancient political and military leader Three-
Kingdom age
6 6 12
Muhammad (570 - 632) Prophet and founder of Islam 2 0 2
Emperor Taizong (598-649) Emperor Tang dynasty 3 3 6
Emperor Wu Zetian (624-705) A female emperor in Tang dynasty 1 1 2
Su Shi (1037-1101) Song Dynasty writer poet painter calligrapher
pharmacologist and statesman
4 0 4
Empress Xiao Chuang (1613-1688) Concubine of the Qing Dynasty
ruler Hong Taiji grandmother of Emperor Kangxi
2 0 2
Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) Fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty 3 3 6
Karl Marx (1818-1883) Philosopher 2 0 2
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Scientist 2 0 2
38
Chairman Mao Zhedong (1893-1976) communist leader 4 25 29
Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) communist leader 7 18 25
Chen Yi (1901-1972) communist leader 0 2 2
Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) communist leader 2 3 5
Hu Jintao (1942-) Chairman of China 2002-2012 communist leader 0 5 5
Wen Jiabao (1942-) Premier of China 2003ndash2013 communist leader 1 4 5
(Note Italic font military or political leader non-Italic font scholars This categorization
is based on the major roles of the figures played in history)
42 Generation difference in nomination
While the above list of exemplars is interesting in its own right it is even more
interesting to consider the generational differences in nomination While the younger
generation nominated 45 historical figures the older generation nominated only 33
Chi square tests revealed that significantly more participants in the older generation (N =
44) than in the younger generation (N = 30) nominated leaders χ2 (1) = 1019 p lt 001
whereas significantly more participants in the younger generation (N = 17) than in the
older generation (N = 4) nominated scholars χ2
(1) = 1019 p lt 001
Confucius the founder of Confucianism and the most important figure in shaping
Mainland Chinese traditional culture was nominated by 9 younger generation
participants but only 1 older generation participant On the contrary Chairman Mao
Zedong launcher of the Cultural Revolution was nominated by 25 older generation
participants but only 4 younger generation participants Chi-square tests revealed a
significant generation difference in the likelihood of these two figures being nominated
all p lt 005 all χ2 (1)
gt 680 Moreover although several older-generation participants
who nominated Mao as wise still had genuine affection for him they were not naively
uncritical of him for example participant 5061 a 75-year-old man with a BA education
said
39
―I admired Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou in history But in my opinion they should be
given 70 honor and they should bear 30 criticism For example the mistakes Mao
made were so big in his later time his mistakes ruined so many people Due to these
mistakes China fell far behind other countries in development he should be [held]
responsible for this He led a revolution for the poor in the revolutionary time this was
absolutely positive for the future The people who were involved in the revolution were
so great they sacrificed their lives Looking back upon that period they were all 20s or
30s (They were) quite different from some of the youngsters nowadays 历史上我对于
毛泽东周总理我还是佩服他们的一直我觉得应当三七开你像毛泽东我
始终是三七开因为三呢这个后来的错误太大了毁了多少人中国这段距离世
界的差距一下拉大了他有责任的他这个人在革命时期为穷人他掀起革命
对将来历史上绝对是肯定的而且那帮起义的干革命的太伟大了真是牺牲性
命回顾历史那时都是二三十岁的小伙子那不是像现在我们有些年轻人
Asked to elaborate about Maolsquos wisdom he continued
―He used the weak power to conquer the strong power he led people to fight a guerrilla
war with a ―countryside surrounding city strategy these were all innovations These are
not the formal tactics in world history Someone might say even though you conquer me
I wouldnt recognize it because you were not using formal tactics It was definitely not
formal he was based on his situation and he knew the peasants suffered most so he
united them to rebel Besides he used this strategy countryside surrounding city I
admired him very much on this point One should put oneself in the real situation of
China and then be innovative 他以弱胜强打游击战农村包围城市这都是创新
啊世界历史讲这种斗争的话它不是这种正规的战法有的人就说你打我赢
我不服你你不是按正规的打法他就是不正规他就根据自己情况而且他知道
农民是最受苦的所以他要团结农民起来造反而且是用这种向村包围城市的这
点我很佩服他你的根据中国实际情况而且还要有创新
Among the younger generation Mao was mostly appreciated for his intelligence abilities
and remarkable historical achievements For example participant 5047 (a 24-year-old
40
female with a Masterlsquos degree) includes Mao among a list of wise people but ultimately
settles on Confucius as the wisest figure from history Asked ―Whom do you think is the
wisest person in the history she answered
―Mao Zedong Confucius and Zhu Geliang As for Confucius he was really a
mastermind what he considers is questions at a philosophical level For Mao Zedong
Communism was not ours [ie was a Western ideology not native to China] and was
very different from ours at first Mao brought it in and adapted it into that type but I
think maybe not really similar (to the original Communism) Zhu Geliang was very
smart Nevertheless I favor Confucius (among these people) 毛泽东孔子诸葛
亮像孔子他们的层次真的是很高考虑的是思想上的问题像毛泽东本来共
产党不是我们这边的而且和我们这边差别很大但是他把它拿进来而且能够变
成那种但是我一想感觉像又不太像诸葛亮很神嘛但是我更倾向于孔子
吧
Asked for evidence of Confuciuslsquos wisdom she answered
―The Analects1 which tells us the principles of living as a human people nowadays need
these though they feel a little bit moderate 论语他告诉我们做人的道理虽然有些
感觉有点中庸的东西但是其实确实现在的人是需要这些东西
[Interviewer What quotes do you still remember]
I donlsquot remember the exact words But what he said is about what people should do for
example Confucius said Is it not a pleasure having learned something to try it out at
due intervalslsquo Is it not a joy to have friends come from afarlsquo Is it not gentlemanly not
to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilitieslsquo We can learn from these
words such as ―do not be angry even if others do not understand you When we
encounter some inexplicable contradictions which we do not understand we canlsquot
3 The Analects is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Mainland Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries traditionally believed to have been written by Confucius followers (see
Lau 1979)
41
consider this issue from otherslsquo point of view if you do not try to learn about the
situations When you encounter some problem although I do not agree with your words
but I respect your right to speak This is the bottom line You should also tolerate otherslsquo
ideas different from yours There are many such examples for sure 话我不记得了但
是他里面说人应该怎样比如说―学而时习之不亦悦乎―有朋自远方来不亦
乐乎―人不知而不愠不亦君子乎我觉得这些话―别人不知道你也不要迁怒
―比如说一些事经常会造成莫名其妙的矛盾你如果没有去了解一些情况你
自然就不会从他的角度去考虑当你遇到一个问题我不同意你说的话但是你有说
话的权利就是最低的底线你也应该允许别人有不同的观点存在应该有很多例
子
43 Acquaintance wisdom exemplars nominated by the Mainland Chinese participants
There were altogether 81 participants (40 elders) who nominated one of their
acquaintances as wisdom exemplars The other 19 participants did not nominate any of
their acquaintances because they did not know who was wise among their acquaintances
or simply regarded no acquaintance of theirs as wise
The acquaintance wisdom exemplars can be roughly categorized into four groups
1 Relatives by 38 participants (peer generation boyfriends and husbands older
generation parents grandparents uncle aunts brothers and cousins younger
generation son daughter and niece) there was no difference between the number of
youths (n = 19) nominated relatives and that of elders (n = 19)
2 Classmates or colleagues by 31 participants Chi-square test revealed that Classmates
or Colleagues were nominated by significantly fewer youths (n = 8) than elders (n = 23)
χ2(1) = 1237 p lt 0001 Notably 16 elders nominated their colleagues who were
communist leaders as wisdom exemplars
3 Educators (their own teachers mentors or supervisors from primary school to graduate
school) by 29 participants Chi-square test revealed that educators were nominated by
42
significantly more youths (n = 25) than elders (n = 4) χ2(1) = 2289 p lt 0001
4 Friends by four participants two youths and two elders
44 Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom
While some common themes of wisdom definitions among the participants match the
themes of westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005)
others do not easily fit within this framework see below
441 ldquoAbility in Cognitionrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoCognitive Abilityrdquo
1 Cognitive skill excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different
phenomenon and grasp their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable
of innovative ideas to solve problems
Eg Participant 5082 ―Wisdom is intelligence good comprehension智慧就是聪明理
解能力强
2 Cognitive trait rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively
comprehensively holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal
for learning about situations (eg social environment in onelsquos age) and learning from
others generalizing from experience reconcile with both sides
Eg Participant5013 ―Think comprehensively and thoroughly in behaviors and actions
做人做事的综合考虑深思熟虑
3 Cognitive outcome knowledge information and facts about life human society and
nature expertise gained through professional or life experience theories generalized
from multiple phenomenon understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the
fundamental questions of life attitudes toward life knowing what one wants in life with
a clear goal in mind (this theme ―cognitive outcome seems missing from Gluumlcklsquos
scheme)
43
Eg Participant 5009 ―Wisdom should be an attitude toward life 智慧应该是一种人生
态度
442 ldquoAbility in Practicerdquo an extension of the Western theme ldquoProblem Solving Skillsrdquo
Practice 1 general practice carry the theory out in the practice transform knowledge
expertise and talents into authentic power in real situations (especially critical
situations) plant ones feet on solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg
coordinating multiple events in life at the same time) solving practical problems 2
Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and
make choices among multiple targets in life
Eg Participant5019 (Wisdom is) reflected in solving practical problems with the help
of your enriched life expertise 浓缩的人生经验在实际问题中的表现
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters)
helpful for success in practical affairs and onelsquos career eg arranging events orderly
Eg Participant5044 ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually实际去付出最后真
的能达到最后目标的
443 ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo related to the Western theme ldquoConcern for Othersrdquo relevant to Confucianism
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic love for
others (ie family friends and even strangers) benefiting all people in society
including future generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching
wisdom to others giving advice to others unconsciously influencing others to be a
better person through onelsquos actions
Eg Participant5012 ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be
happy If you show off your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you
give them more pressure 每一个人活在这个世界上都挺不容易的都希望自己过的
44
很好如果你把你的聪明表现出来别人会觉得自己是傻子所以你会给别人增添
负担
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional
intelligence (eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and
using social relationships in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg Participant5079 Use every aspect of your social network 能够充分的利用方方
面面的人际关系
444 ldquoEschewing-world Spiritualityrdquo similar to the Western theme ldquoInsightrdquo but framed in Chinese traditions
1 Daoist Nature tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trickery not
technical not tactful not knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as
monetary rewards
Eg Participant5050 ―Wisdom is to use the most simple simple and common way to
achieve the most simple en the most common way to achieve the most simple state
智慧就是就是用非常简单用简单的嗯普通的方法去达到一个嗯最
嗯最简单嗯用最普通的方法去达到一个最简单的状态
2 Buddhist Mind listen to the voice from onelsquos own heart unspeakable wisdom
preserved wisdom deep inside onelsquos internal self and unrevealed out of pure mind
transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg Participant5001 ―Wisdom is always inside your body but you have not found it
You should listen to your heart 智慧一直都存在你的身体之内只是你没有发现它
听听你自己内心的声音
445 ldquoPositive Mindsetrdquo missing in the Western implicit theory of wisdom relevant to the historic turbulence
1 Agency amp resilience diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in
facing difficulties agency in difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-
45
motivating utilizing self-emotion and overcoming difficulties
Eg Participant5018 (A wise person) would not act as a youth complaining about the
societyHe would lead a positive and good life even in difficult situations不会说像愤
青那种很消极他明明在一个困境中还能积极的生活而且生活的很好
2 Self-transformation appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love
oneself (ie being satisfied with oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself
excellent temperament and character courageous open-minded and independent
Eg Participant5048 Everyone will encounter failures but you can overcome failure
and your shortcomings and then find a positive way to face the failure I think this is
wisdom人都是会遇到挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个
积极的方式去面对它 我觉得这就是智慧
Others
Six participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many different
components such as different dimensions of abilities and personalities
One Mainland Chinese participant (5091) is also willing to admit that wisdom is not just
a matter of onelsquos own effort Wisdom is opportunity and fortune 一是机遇二是运
气
45 Conceptual wisdom components and group difference
The coder agreement and Kappa value were ideal on every category of the codebook ie
each of the five conceptual wisdom components all coder agreements gt 82 all Kappa
values gt 064 Table 2 shows the frequency of each wisdom component coded after the
coders reached consensus after discussion
Chi-square tests revealed that wisdom components ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality were mentioned by significantly more youths whereas ―Cognitive
Ability was mentioned by significantly more elders all χ2(1)
gt 387 all p lt 005
46
―Concern for Others was mentioned by marginally significantly more youths χ2(1) =
350 p = 0062
Table 2 Number of the participants mentioned each wisdom component in their
definitions of wisdom
Cohort Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Youth 31 30 29 15 23
Old 39 26 19 2 13
All 70 56 48 17 36
(Note cohort difference was significant at 005001 alpha level)
46 Relationship between wisdom exemplar nomination and conceptual wisdom component
In order to testify the hypothesis that wisdom exemplar nomination was related to
wisdom conception a crosstab test of independence was performed on the 92 participants
who had reported their definition of wisdom examining the relation between the
participantslsquo nominating leadersscholars as historic wisdom exemplars and mentioning
different wisdom component in their wisdom conception
The results revealed that ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was significantly less
mentioned by the participants who nominated military or political leaders (8 out of 69)
than those who did not (9 out of 23) χ2(1) = 868 p = 0003 Moreover ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more mentioned by the participants who nominated
scholars (7 out of 20) than those who did not (10 out of 72) χ2(1) = 463 p = 0031
Difference in mentioning other wisdom component was not significant all p gt 005
47
5 Discussion
51 Personally known and historical exemplars of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and the generation difference
Because wisdom uses a consensual criterion of truth (Habermas amp Shapiro 1987
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011) culturally specific exemplars may embody different implicit
theories of wisdom In North America for example Gandhi and Einstein were
consistently nominated as wise but neither were nominated by our participants instead
some expected figures like Confucius were most frequently chosenmdashbut also some
surprising ones like Chairman Mao We argue that this difference reflects both the
cultural and historical circumstances of peoplelsquos lives and differences between the
implicit theories of wisdom in China and North America
Military leaders were more frequently nominated as wisdom exemplars than the scholars
were especially by the older generation contrary to a longstanding Chinese tradition of
belittling military people and respecting scholars (see Fairbank Twitchett amp
Feuerwerker 1986) Consistently when nominating acquaintances fewer older
participants nominated scholars instead they nominated significantly more colleagues
and classmates who were communist leaders (military or political) suggesting that they
valued communist leaderslsquo ability or political power
More specifically half of the older-generation participants nominated Mao as the wisest
historic person compared to only four younger generation participantsmdashshowing the
profound impact of this figure on his contemporary generation The choice of Mao may
demonstrate a long-lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution Older participants
especially still endorsed Maolsquos vision of Communism as benefiting all of society
especially its poorest members Of course one cannot attribute all these observed
generational difference to the Cultural Revolution many other historical and social
factors separate these two generations For example the numerous wars and greater
social upheaval (reforms revolution etc) experienced by the older generation may
explain their admiration for leaders like Mao someone able to end the turbulence and
48
bring peace to the whole nation Moreover like all cross-sectional studies the generation
effect in our study was confounded with age and it might simply be the case that with
age comes greater nostalgia for the ideals of an earlier age
The youth participants had a more expansive repertoire of wisdom figures they
nominated including Western philosophers (eg Plato Aristotle) and scientists (eg
Marie Curie) reflecting an increased influence of Western culture in current Mainland
China Despite this wider range the youth participants nominated fewer exemplars living
in their own lifetimes Moreover Confucius was the most frequently nominated wisdom
exemplar among the youth participants mirroring the findings of an unpublished study
by Yang (Personal communication) conducted in the mid-1990s with Taiwanese Chinese
who also did not experience the Cultural Revolution and most frequently nominated
Confucius as the wisdom exemplar Finally more youths than elders nominated educators
of their acquaintance as wisdom exemplars These results suggested a more personal and
less political understanding of wisdom among the youth in China arguably due to the
political economic and educational reforms such as more prevalent higher education
and globalization
52 The implicit theory of wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants and the generation difference
As demonstrated in our results wisdom exemplars could influence wisdom conception
among a group of people Most likely the lay people were aware of the phenomenon or
process related to wisdom yet they do not possess a scholarlsquos philosophical ability to
identify ontogeny essence and outcome of wisdom separately In fact dividing the
phenomenon or process about wisdom into ontogeny essence or outcome may be
impossible and impractical as we discussed in Section 52 of Chapter 2 a source of
wisdom could also be an outcome of wisdom
Indeed according to Chinese philosophy such as Daoism and Chinese Buddhism source
(cause) and outcome (effect) are actually integrated into one process Besides the
components of wisdom may simply be representations of wisdom in different contexts or
at different levels while the ―noumenon of wisdom is only a theoretical assumption that
49
is not observable or void (无空) without being represented in certain measures
All the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo definitions taken together wisdom is represented
in excellent cognition (cognitive skill cognitive trait cognitive outcome) and practice
(practice success) employed by a Positive Mindset (agency amp resilience self-
transformation) besides these personal strengths wisdom is also about Concern for
Others (virtue social interaction) and spirituality help an individual to eschew the secular
world (Daoist Nature Buddhist Mind) This structure of wisdom is demonstrated in
Figure 2 ―Mainland Chinese wisdom model Abilities in cognition and practice are like
two feet of the Chinese wisdom ―panda managed by his Positive Mindset The panda
cares about other pandas but is still longing for pure nature beyond human society and
ultimate truth deep in the Universal Mind
50
Figure 2 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model
51
The wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
complement each other in social domains individuals need to live in connection with
others yet still preserve self-identity deep in mind ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in
Practice are actually one integrated process according to Chinese philosophy true
understanding can only be realized in practice and practice is extension of cognition
While the wisdom components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
are more related to Chinese traditions ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice
are probably more universal In fact ―Ability in Cognition was the most frequently
coded wisdom component followed by ―Ability in Practice This may be related to the
fact that leaders and scholars were the top two frequently nominated wisdom exemplar
categories and the participants admired these wisdom exemplarslsquo abilities in cognition
and practice Nevertheless even for ―Ability in Cognition and ―Ability in Practice the
Mainland Chinese participants mentioned integration and moderation reflecting the
influence of Chinese philosophy However it should be noted that ―Positive Mindset is
probably unique for Mainland Chinese which may be related to the painful turbulence in
modern history and its long-lasting effects upon current Mainland Chinese both
physically and spiritually For most Chinese youths nowadays life is still much more
difficult than Westernerslsquo and thus ―Positive Mindset is much more vital in their lives a
wisdom inherited from their parents and grandparents who have survived even more
difficult times in life
In general the elderslsquo conception of wisdom was more simplified than that of the youths
they emphasized ―Cognitive Ability more while less other wisdom components such as
―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality The absence of the wisdom
component ―Eschewing-world Spirituality in most elderslsquo conceptualization of wisdom
was probably due to the political calamities such as the Cultural Revolution ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality was significantly more frequently mentioned by the youths than by
the elders Consistently significantly more youths than elders nominated scholars
belonging to a social class characterized by ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution
52
Generally speaking secular success is more related to Confucianism than to Daoism and
Buddhism (see Buddha 2007 Confucius 2009 L Tzu 1985 Wailu Hansheng amp
Qizhi 1987 Wright 1959) People more affected by Daoism and Buddhism might
belittle secular success and focus more on transcendence through self-reflection
Nevertheless these ancient traditions converge on the need to live authentic yet socially
engaged livesmdasha view especially characteristic of the younger generationslsquo conception of
wisdom which was perhaps influenced by Chinalsquos current social environment For
example the youths emphasized more ―Concern for Others than did the elders probably
due to the increasing emphasis on the social network (关系) in current Mainland Chinese
society Additionally this age difference between the elders and the youths may be due to
their different focus in their current life stages the youths were eager to build up their
social-networks whereas the elders were retiring from the social stage Likewise the
youths were still striving for their social status and improving themselves and thus they
would emphasize more ―Positive Mindset which embodies ―agency amp resilience and
―self-transformation
Most elders in our study replaced Confucius with Chairman Mao even after having
experienced the revival of Confucianism following the Cultural Revolution Historically
Mao became almost a god for many Mainland Chinese people during the Cultural
Revolution when all religions were prohibited and the people could not find an outlet to
satisfy their religious need (Yang 2006) Our results further demonstrated that this effect
was long-lasting Mao was still admired even though not considered a god by the older
generation participantsmdasha result that may actually suggest that the Cultural Revolution
succeeded only in superficially denying traditions without affecting the implicit official-
centered Confucian tradition that encourages people to gain social power (to become
official leaders) and influence the lives of the common people Thus the millenary
Chinese traditions survived the Cultural Revolution and were revived after the storm as
demonstrated by significant higher frequency of mentioning ―Buddhist Mind and
―Daoist Nature among the youth
53
53 Effects of Communist ideology on Wisdom conceptualization and Exemplars
This study pivots on a critical historic event the Cultural Revolution during which Mao
sought to tackle a fundamental question how to achieve social equality and Communism
given a human propensity for selfishness Mao was successful in building political power
and spreading communist ideology through military violence but he was unable to
eradicate Chinese traditions throughout the Mainland As a result the Mainland Chinese
traditions are currently experiencing a revival even though the government before 2008
still promoted Communism over Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism (see Yang
2006)
We assumed that it was the political power in a culture that influenced the transmission of
traditions among the lay people furthermore the lay people usually lack the
philosophical ability which scholars possess to appreciate a tradition critically Not
surprisingly Mao felt disappointed and lonely that few could understand his ideology
many lay people simply used the ―Cultural Revolution as an excuse to exact revenge
upon their personal enemies (MacFarquhar 1991) Similarly our older generation
participants simply replaced the old authority ―Confucius by the new authority ―Mao
Zedong suggesting that the lay people interpreted the Cultural Revolution superficially
Perhaps none of our participants really understand the core of Communism because the
lives of lay people are quite different from those of Communist leaders like Lenin and
Mao These figures were striving for something that most lay people would never think
about in their common lives This could be the reason why the components related to
Communism (eg sharing property) was barely revealed in the participantslsquo definitions
of wisdom Nevertheless Communism may be interpreted by some elders as a
component of virtue (eg ―striving for the poor) and thus implicitly incorporated in the
common theme ―virtue part of the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for
Others Besides it is probably not Marxism but Maoism that valued martial spirit and
influenced Mainland Chinese culture leading our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo
nomination of military leaders who were usually belittled in ancient China Finally
54
Communist leaders such as Maolsquos ideas about Communist ideology were actually crude
and even affected by Chinese traditions such as Daoism (Fairbank et al 1986) In fact
according to the textbook of ―Ideology and Politics in Mainland of China Karl Marx
believes that the essence of human is the sum of all social relationships (Ministry of
Education in China 2003) a view consistent with Confucianismlsquos emphasis on social
connection To sum up even ideologies like Communism that seem opposed to
traditions can be influenced by these traditions because the traditions are so deeply
ingrained in everyday implicit understanding of living a good life and carrying out social
responsibilities
Nevertheless we need to be very cautious in interpreting these results After all this is
not an experimental study Ideology of the participants was not manipulated and we can
not infer any cause-effect relationship between the Cultural RevolutionCommunist
ideology and wisdom conception
54 Comparing the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese participants to that among Westerners
Overall we found that the core themes identified by Bluck and Gluumlck (2005) were also
found in our study (for the details of this comparison see the Result Section 44
―Mainland Chinese implicit theory of wisdom) Nevertheless our study extended
beyond their themes in uniquely Mainland Chinese variations such as ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality (―Daoist Nature ―Buddhist Mind) Besides the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset seems to be missing in their results Moreover
the Mainland Chinese participants definition of wisdom emphasized ―Ability in Practice
(practice success) much more This may be due to a difference between Western and
Eastern philosophical systems Western philosophical traditions emphasize a mind-body
dichotomy and the superiority of mind over body while Eastern philosophical traditions
emphasize the harmony of mind with body and the embodiment of wisdom in actions
(Yang 2008c)
The Mainland Chinese peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom was also related to the wisdom
55
components proposed by some western wisdom experts (see Jason et al 2001b
Staudinger amp Gluumlck 2011 Sternberg 1990) ―Eschewing-world Spirituality is related to
―Spirituality and connectedness to nature ―Positive Mindset to ―Emancipatory nature
of wisdom Nevertheless ―Humor is not mentioned by any Mainland Chinese
participant which was probably because humor is not valued in Mainland Chinese
culture
It is believed that Western ideas about wisdom focus more on rationality knowledge and
reason while Eastern ones on emotion intuition and transcendence (Ivan amp Alojz
2010) However our results demonstrated that Mainland Chinese emphasize all of them
rationality knowledge and reason are embodied in the wisdom component ―Ability in
Cognition emotion intuition and transcendence are embodied in the wisdom
components ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality In fact our
results confirmed Taiwanese researcher Yanglsquos (2008b) hypothesis that the conception of
wisdom in Chinese culture was more comprehensive than that in Western culture
integrating factors related to reasoning emotion and action
55 Comparison between the implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese Chinese
Most of the conceptual components of wisdom found among Taiwanese Chinese (Chen et
al 2014 Yang 2001 2008a) were also found in our study For example among the
wisdom components identified by Yang (2001) ―Competencies amp Knowledge is related
to our wisdom components ―Ability in Practice and ―Ability in Cognition
―Benevolence amp Compassion and ―Modesty amp Unobtrusiveness are embodied in
―virtue part of the component ―Concern for Others ―Openness amp Profundity is
embodied in ―cognitive trait part of the component ―Ability in Cognition Among the
wisdom components identified by Chen and his colleagues (2014) among the Taiwanese
educators ―intrapsychic integration is not related to any of our wisdom components but
six Mainland Chinese participants mentioned that wisdom was an integration of many
different aspects of personalities and abilities ―actions in service of problem solving and
ideal implementation and ―feedback and adjustments are embodied in the component
56
―Ability in Practice ―positive results is embodied in ―success part of the component
―Ability in Practice Moreover both the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese participants
definitions of wisdom emphasized practice These similarities in the implicit theory of
wisdom were probably due to the Chinese cultural traditions shared by Taiwanese
Chinese and Mainland Chinese
Nevertheless there were many other themes found in this study not mentioned by the
Taiwanese Chinese participants eg ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature Moreover
the core component ―integration proposed by Yang (2008a) and ―intrapsychic
integration proposed by Chen et al (2014) were not commonly mentioned among our
Mainland Chinese participants Finally Yang (2008b) found Striving for common good
was the most commonly mentioned theme whereas we found ―Cognitive Ability was
the most frequently mentioned wisdom component and ―Concern for Others the third
most frequently mentioned These differences may reflect cultural differences between
Taiwan and Mainland China which is probably due to the different historic experience
eg the Cultural Revolution took place in Mainland not in Taiwan Or these observed
differences may simply due to the different procedures applied in these studies the
Taiwanese Chinese participants did not explicitly report their own definitions of wisdom
as the Mainland Chinese participants were asked to do in our study
Note too that the studies in Taiwan did not consider intergenerational differences in the
understanding of wisdom especially as regards the valuing of ancient Mainland Chinese
traditions like Confucianism Daoism and Buddhism
56 Comparing the Mainland Chinese wisdom model with Western wisdom models
561 Traditional Berlin Wisdom and Personal wisdom model
The full Berlin Wisdom model (Baltes amp Smith 2008) is almost as broad as our
Mainland Chinese wisdom model and there are many overlaps or similarities between
these two models Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics of life is
related to the subcomponent ―cognitive outcome Procedural knowledge of life is
related to the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice ldquoPlanning
57
management and review of liferdquo is related to the subcomponent ―Practice ―lifespan
contextualismrdquo is related to ―Cognitive outcome Expertise-specific factors such as
Cognitive heuristics and Motivational dispositions are related to ―Ability in Cognition
and ―Positive Mindset General person factors are related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Excellence in mind and virtue is related to the
Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others
In spite of these overlaps and similarities there are many differences between these two
models First ―Facilitative experiential contexts ―Relativism of values and life
priorities and ―Recognition of and management of uncertainty only exist in the Berlin
Wisdom model while ―Eschewing-world Spirituality only exists in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model Second even the corresponding Mainland Chinese and Berlin
wisdom components have different emphases eg the expertise-specific factors in the
Berlin Wisdom model emphasize the chance to develop from difficult life scenarios
which is probably influenced by the idea in Western Christianity ―redemption through
suffering (see Birren amp Svensson 2005) on the other hand the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset emphasized more being peaceful and detached
during difficult times which is probably influenced by Daoism and Buddhism
Personal Wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is related to the Mainland Chinese
wisdom component ―Positive Mindset Both of them are about insights into onelsquos own
life especially judgment and advice concerning difficult and uncertain matters of onelsquos
own life Most components in the Personal Wisdom Model such as ―self-knowledge
―Growth and self-regulation and ―Self-relativism are included in the Chinese wisdom
component ―Positive Mindset Nevertheless the Personal Wisdom Model is more
detailed and has different emphases For example ―Tolerance of ambiguity was not
mentioned in the Mainland Chinese wisdom component ―Positive Mindset whereas
―Agency amp Resilience was not emphasized in the Personal Wisdom Model
562 Ardeltrsquos three-dimensional wisdom model
In the cognitive dimension of Ardeltlsquos model the subcomponents ―Ability and
willingness to understand a situation or phenomenon thoroughly and
58
―Acknowledgement of ambiguity complexity and uncertainty in life are related to
―Ability in Cognition and the subcomponent ―Ability to make important decisions
despite lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties is related to ―Ability in Practice
nevertheless lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties are not emphasized in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom components In the reflective dimension ―Ability and willingness to
look at phenomena and events from different perspectives and ―Absence of subjectivity
and projections are included in ―Ability in Cognition especially its subcomponent
―cognitive trait Finally the affective dimension is totally embodied in the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Concern for Others especially ―virtue
563 ldquoMORErdquo model
ldquoA Sense of Mastery (belief in their ability of handling life challenges) is actually part
of the subcomponent ―agency amp resilience itself part of ―Positive Mindset ldquoOpenness
(awareness of multiple perspectives on every phenomenon interests in learning from new
perspectives and from other people) and ―Reflective Attitude (willingness to look at life
issues in a complex way) are included in or related to the subcomponent ―cognitive
trait part of ―Ability in Cognition ―Emotion RegulationEmpathy (ability to deal
with otherslsquo feelings effectively and reach out to others through empathetic concern) is
included in or related to the wisdom component ―Concern for Others consisting of
―social interaction and ―virtue
Overall the Mainland Chinese wisdom model is much broader than the ―MORE model
First the Mainland Chinese wisdom components ―Eschewing-world Spirituality and
―Ability in Practice are not in the ―MORE model Second even for the related wisdom
components there are several subcomponents (ie ―self-transformation ―cognitive
skill ―cognitive outcome) not included in the ―MORE model Finally each Mainland
Chinese wisdom subcomponent has more implications than a component in the ―MORE
model This is probably due to the fact that the MORE model focuses on the source of
wisdom instead of wisdom per se
564 Brief Summary of these comparisons
Most wisdom components in the ―MORE model and Ardeltlsquos model are embodied in or
59
very similar to the components in the Mainland Chinese wisdom model which is broader
than these two Western wisdom models However the full Berlin Wisdom model
(especially when extended to Personal Wisdomlsquo) is almost as broad as the Mainland
Chinese wisdom model and embodies many components that are not included in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model Nevertheless there are some components in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model that do not exist in any of the Western wisdom models
such as ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Moreover most of the Mainland Chinese
wisdom components are shaped by the Chinese culture traditions eg Confucianism
Daoism and Buddhism The absence of some of the Western modelslsquo wisdom
components is probably due as well to influences of Chinese traditional culture For
example acknowledgement and management of lifelsquos unpredictability and uncertainties
is embodied both in the Berlin wisdom model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model but not in the
Mainland Chinese wisdom model This may be due to the Chinese traditional idea that
the destiny is predetermined and can not be changed by human beings which is thinking
influenced by Daoism
6 Conclusion
The implicit theory of wisdom among Mainland Chinese embodies components of
personal ability in cognition and practice as well as personal characters ie ―Positive
Mindset ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Most Mainland
Chinese wisdom components are overlapped or similar with those identified in the
implicit theory of wisdom among westerners except for the culturally specific
components ―Positive Mindset and ――Eschewing-world Spirituality Chinese cultural
traditions were more embodied in the wisdom conception among the youths than that
among the elders Finally Mainland Chinese communist ideology influenced the older
generation participantslsquo nomination of wisdom exemplar eg nominating Mao Zedong
as a wisdom exemplar but it barely affected their implicit theory of wisdom eg
conceptual wisdom components
Based on the Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Model was proposed including both personal (eg ―Ability in
60
Cognition ―Ability in Practice) and other-related (eg ―Concern for Others)
components both general (eg ―Cognitive outcome) and personal wisdom (eg
―Positive Mindset) components
61
Chapter 4 Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm a performance-based
wisdom measure
1 Introduction
In study 2 the Mainland Chinese wisdom model was constructed In order to explore
whether this model fits for current mainland Chinese and how it relates to western
wisdom models such as the Berlin model a performance-based measure was developed
based on the Berlin Wisdom paradigm (general and personal)
11 Lack of emotional components in previous Berlin Paradigms
Performance-based wisdom measures such as those used in the Berlin wisdom
paradigms may be useful for understanding wisdom among the Mainland Chinese
Although Ardelt criticized the Berlin Wisdom theoretical model for ignoring the
emotional components of wisdom since it regards wisdom as independent of individuals
(Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) emotional components are actually included in the full
model of Berlin Wisdom which is not simply about wisdom as expertise in life
pragmatics but also about the ontogeny and function of life expertise (Baltes amp Smith
2008) For example general personal factors such as mental health and creativity are
believed to contribute to wisdom development excellence in mind and virtue are
regarded as necessary manifestationoutcome of wisdom Kunzmann and Baltes
measured participantslsquo self-report of affective feelings and found negative correlations of
wisdom to negative and pleasant feelings in the past year yet they proposed studying the
relationship between wisdom and actual emotional reactions to specific emotion-arousing
events (Kunzmann amp Baltes 2003) However to my knowledge nobody has measured
emotion reaction in studies of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigms
In fact emotion is linked to things vital to us in our lives (Oatley 2008) According to the
experience model of emotion individuals ―preserve essence of personally meaningful
situations at all levels of reaction When situations merge with meaning of situation you
62
have an emotion (Cupchik 2010) Emotion is the individualslsquo experience of searching
for the meaning of being in the world Emotion plays an important role in the
development and utilization of wisdom (Ardelt amp Ferrari 2014 Sternberg amp Jordan
2005) Wise humans are thought to be good at understanding otherslsquo emotions (Stange amp
Kunzmann 2009) as well as controlling emotions reasonably (Oatley 2008) In fact
Adams (1998) regards ―wisdom as the classical version of ―emotional intelligence and
indeed emotional intelligence was found to be positively correlated with wisdom (Zacher
et al 2013) an idea supported in our study 1 A recent review reported that emotional
homeostasis was commonly cited as a subcomponent of wisdom (Bangen Meeks amp
Jeste 2013) and arecent fMRI study revealed that participants who were trained to show
compassion were more altruistic if they were better at inhibiting emotion arousal (Weng
et al 2013) Consistently emotional components such as ―Positive Mindset and
―Concern for Others are embodied in our Mainland Chinese wisdom model
Furthermore emotion is always connected with cognition eg positive emotion leads
individuals to more relaxed and holistic cognition while negative emotion to more
elaborate and detailed cognition (Hills Werno amp Lewis 2011) Emotion was regarded as
an impetus for creativity (Oatley 2008) and creativity is an important attribute of
wisdom (Sternberg 1990) It is very difficult to imagine an emotionless person being
wise especially in dealing with complicated social situations which requires an expertise
in understanding and regulating emotion of selves and others
Emotion is considered the essence of a person in Chinese culture (Yang 2001)
According to our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo conception of wisdom wisdom is more
than ―expert-level knowledge and judgment in the fundamental pragmatics of life
Wisdom is not simply a matter of cognitive knowledge or judgment but more about
appreciating the significance of that knowledge and realizing it in practice The
appreciation and realization must be felt emotionally in order to have an authentic effect
on peoplelsquos actions
In spite of the general acknowledgement of relationship between emotion and wisdom
very few empirical studies have been conducted on the emotional components of
63
wisdom Furthermore wisdom research has been limited by methods that rely on self-
report (eg Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom scale) and verbal think-aloud procedures
(eg Berlin wisdom paradigm) that allow people to give socially desirable answers
12 Innovative 2nd person wisdom measurement
The traditional Berlin wisdom paradigm (Baltes amp Staudinger 2000) is a 3rd-person
measurement and thus not relevant to the participantslsquo personal life and not emotionally-
engaging The Personal Wisdom paradigm a new version of Berlin paradigm in which
the participants think aloud about themselves as a friend (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) is
a 1st-person measurement which is vulnerable to social desirability Therefore I made
the best use of the advantages and bypassed the disadvantages of these two paradigms
developing a 2nd person measurement of wisdom the Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm in which the participants performed as if they were really addressing some
fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were familiar with in their
personal lives My hypothesis is that the participantslsquo habitual thinking emotion
reactivity and action might be revealed as integration in such performances
Correspondingly the raters were instructed to consider both the participantslsquo performance
and their personal character as integration
Instead of asking the participants to think aloud about some hypothetical life scenarios
we asked the participants to perform as if the hypothetical scenarios were realmdash
transforming it from an impersonal 3rd
person task (ie describing what he or she should
dolsquo) to a more emotionally-engaging 2nd
person task (ie performing what you would
dolsquo) More specifically they were asked to imagine the camera as the protagonistlsquos eyes
and look at it when talking to their hypothetical friend or teacher I expected that some
habitual cognition action and emotion activities spontaneously arise during the
participantslsquo daily interactions with others (eg friends) would be demonstrated in such
performance
The videotaped performance of the participants was then rated on the original Berlin
Wisdom criteria as well as our new Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria The original
Berlin Wisdom criteria were those typically acknowledged by those using the Berlin
64
performance measures the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria were developed based on
the five components of our Mainland Chinese wisdom model The original Berlin
Wisdom criteria are focused on General wisdom (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) whereas
the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria are about both General and Personal wisdom
There were two scenarios in my paradigm ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream invented by
me a common real life scenario in current Mainland China and ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream adapted from a classic Berlin scenario A previous study has demonstrated that
wisdom reasoning about fundamental life issues was related to the relevance of problems
in individualslsquo own lives (Thomas amp Kunzmann 2013) Thus wisdom vignettes based on
Mainland Chinese social cultural life should be more effective than the Berlin vignettes
for Mainland Chinese to generate a wisdom performance
Finally given the limitation of previous wisdom paradigms we need a new way to
objectively measure emotional components of wisdom In fact facial expression during
wisdom performance could be an ideal media Experts in emotion studies such as Paul
Ekman and Friesen (2003) believe that the real emotions behind the facial expressions
can be detected through transient subtle micro-expressions Therefore participantslsquo
emotion reaction during wisdom performance were recorded and then analyzed
contributing to the validity test of my paradigm
2 Hypotheses
Wisdom rating on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria should be positively correlated
with that on the Berlin Wisdom criteria due to the similarities between the Berlin
wisdom model and Mainland Chinese wisdom model Moreover certain emotion reaction
during the wisdom performance would be positively correlated with the wisdom ratings
3 Method
All information regarding sample size data exclusions experimental manipulations and
measures have been included in the following description of our method All procedures
used in the current study were approved by the Ethics Committees at Zhejiang Normal
University and the University of Toronto
65
31 Participants
The participants who had participated in Study1 were randomly asked about their
willingness to participate in this study Eventually 30 participants (12 males and 18
females) aged from 18 to 21 (M = 1910 SD = 075) agreed and participated in this
study They were financially rewarded for their participation with 20 RMB (about 5 CAD
or the price of two regular lunches in Jinhua)
32 Material
321 Berlin Wisdom paradigm vignettes
Two fundamental life scenarios were printed on an A4 paper
(1) Life plan problem ―Imagine one of your friends dreams of becoming a singer but he
is really bad at singing If he asked you how he sings what would you say to him
(Invented by the author of this thesis a common scenario in real lives of current
Mainland Chinese)
(2) Life review problem ―Imagine one of your teachers suddenly feels life is
meaningless because he has not realized a dream he always had since his youth What
would you say to him (Adapted from a Berlin scenario)
322 Berlin Wisdom manual (adapted)
The Berlin Wisdom manual was developed by the Berlin Wisdom researchers based on
their theories of wisdom (Staudinger et al 1994) It includes the five Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the necessary instructions on how to rate a transcript on a 7 points scale ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion It also includes the procedure of training the raters the raters allocated to one
criterion should discuss their interpretation of the criterion and reach a consensus
Our version of the Berlin Wisdom manual used was written in English in which our
raters were all fluent Some sections of the original Berlin manual were ignored because
our procedure was partially different from the Berlin Wisdom paradigm For example no
66
think-aloud procedure was used in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and thus the
sections related to think-aloud procedure were ignored and the Berlin wisdom ratinglsquo in
our study included both General and Personal Wisdom not only General Wisdom
323 Mainland Chinese wisdom manual
A Mainland Chinese wisdom manual was developed based on the Berlin Wisdom
manual as adapted for the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm (developed in Study 2)
The differences between the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and the Berlin Wisdom
manual were mostly about the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria adopted The Mainland
Chinese wisdom criteria were based on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom components
Some explanations were added to the criteria that may be difficult for the raters to
understand such as ―Buddhist Mind and ―Daoist Nature The word ―wisdom did not
appear in the criteria so that the rating would not be influenced by the raterslsquo implicit
theory of wisdom Moreover the raters were not told the purpose of the rating The
manual instructed that the rating should not be influenced by the raterslsquo own values or
their feelings of the quality of the participantslsquo advice They should only rate the
resemblance of the videotaped performance and the speakerslsquo personality to the criteria
Finally ―The speakers who gave advice in accordance with the criteria should be rated
higher than those who failed to do so even though their actual behaviors in their daily
lives are undetectable After all the participantslsquo speech was the major evidence of their
beliefs and actions
For the wisdom criteria ―Ability in Cognition ―Ability in Practice and ―Concern for
Others the rating scale was the same as that in the Berlin wisdom paradigm ―1
indicates ―Very little resemblance to the criterion while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the
criterion For wisdom criteria ―Positive Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality
the rating scale was modified ―1 indicates ―Totally inconsistent with the criterion
while ―7 indicates ―Closely fits the criterion and ―4 indicates ―Neutral Unclear We
made this modification because there were some advices against the criteria ―Positive
Mindset and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality among the participants
For the details of the wisdom criteria see Appendix 4
67
324 iMotions - Attention Tool FACET module (version 21)
Attention Tool FACET module is facial expression recognition and analysis software
developed based on the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT) This system
first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically
measures basic facial action units (AU) listed in the well-established facial action coding
system (FACS) FACS is a comprehensive compositional and anatomically based facial
muscular movement analysis system (Ekman amp Rosenberg 1997) Paul Ekman and
Friesen (2003) believe that authentic emotions behind facial expressions can be detected
through combined analyses of multiple facial muscular actions of transient subtle micro-
expressions
―It is useful to think of facial expressions as words and of AUs as the letters that make up
those words For example one of the most common expressions of fear contains a
combination of AU1 [Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU2 [Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis] AU4
[Brow Lowerer Depressor Glabellae] and AU5 [Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae
Superioris] (Quoted from the Manual of FACET module)
FACET module analyzes and outputs the probability of each emotionlsquos existence within
each frame of the video The exact mechanism FACET uses to calculate the probability of
each emotionlsquos existence is proprietary knowledge previous documentation indicates that
CERT the predecessor of FACET uses a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model
with action units (AUs) as predictors to calculate the probability of the existence of
seven basic emotions (joy sadness anger contempt fear surprise disgust) and three
general valences (negative positive neutral) (Littlewort et al 2011)
According to an evaluation report of FACET (an authorized documentation from the
company iMotion) performance of FACET was evaluated using Balanced Percent
Correct (BPC) which is percent correct using a decision threshold set to 0 and given
equal probabilities of positive and negative samples Performance is for binary YesNo
decisions (eg joylsquo vs everything else) for each emotion The accuracy of recognizing
emotions on CK+ Dataset (a publicly available dataset of facial expressions developed by
Carnegie Mellon University see httpwwwpittedu~emotionck-spreadhtm) was
68
higher than 80 percent for all seven basic emotions Because facial expression is
repeatedly confirmed as universal across different ethnicities (Ekman amp Rosenberg
1997) we assumed that FACET would be valid in analyzing facial expressions of
Mainland Chinese people as well
325 Others
An HP EliteBook8470w laptop with a camera captured 29 frames per second an
armchair etc
33 Procedure
The participants finished two scenario tests adapted from the Berlin Vignettes in a quiet
laboratory room They were instructed to read the vignettes printed on an A4 paper after
sitting down in an armchair The camera of the laptop in front of them was set about 30
cm away from their faces The participants imagined the camera as the eyes of the
friendteacher and talked to ―him Their responses were videotaped by the camera In
order to get a natural response there was no limitation of the time the participants
thinking about the task and speaking to the camera most of the participants spent about 2
minutes thinking The duration of the participantslsquo responses ranged from 14 seconds to
502 seconds (M = 8803 seconds) We did not require the participants to control the
length of their responses otherwise they might be nervous and not able to perform
naturally During both the reflection time and the answering time the experimenter left
the laboratory room so that the participants felt less constrained in their performance
Considering the potential risk of negative effects of these wisdom performances on the
participantslsquo mental status the experimenter inquired about the participantslsquo feelings
during and after the test and also provided the contact information of Zhejiang Normal
University campus counseling service which was free for students However no
participant reported any negative feeling
69
34 Data analyses
341 Wisdom ratings
We recruited 20 raters from among graduate students at the Department of Psychology
They were all capable of reading academic papers in psychology written in Chinese or
English Each rater was compensated 200 RMB (about 40 CAD or the price of 20 regular
lunches in Jinhua) Ten raters (7 females 23 to 27 years old Mean age = 2420 SD =
133) were randomly chosen to be trained according to the Berlin Wisdom manual
(adapted) and then to rate the videotaped responses at a random order on the five Berlin
Wisdom criteria the other ten raters (6 females 24 to 28 years old Mean age = 2560 SD
= 120) were trained according to the Mainland Chinese wisdom manual and then rated
on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria In order to prevent mutual influence from
the ratings on different criteria (―halo effect) each rater rated the videos on only one
criterion In order to calculate the inter-raters reliability two raters rated each criterion (5
Mainland Chinese criteria + 5 Berlin criteria = 10 wisdom criteria 10 criteria X
2raterscriterion = 20 raters)
All of the raters passed a pretest of wisdom rating (rating a videotape of the authorlsquos
advice about the advantage and disadvantage for a Mainland Chinese student to study
abroad for a doctorate degree) before rating the participantslsquo videotaped performance
The raters rated the videotaped participantslsquo wisdom performance in a random order
342 Facial expression analysis
FACET also output values of emotional intensities However due to the individual
difference in baselines of emotional intensity and the difference in data robustness it is
indicated in the manual of the software that ―For in-depth analysis use Evidence and
neither Intensity nor Probability Here ―evidence value is 10-based log value of odds
Evidence value = log10[P(1-P)]
(―P refers to the probability of the emotionlsquos existence)
For example an evidence value of ―1 for ―joy signifies that the observed expression is
70
10 times more likely to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human
coder An evidence value of ―0 signifies that there is an equal chance that the expression
is to be categorized as joyful than not joyful by an expert human coder In general the
higher the evidence value of joy is the more likely joy exists within a frame of video
The aggregate time of the positive evidence frames for a category of emotion is an ideal
estimation of the aggregate time of that emotion because the chance when some frames
were mistaken as emotional would be the same as the chance when some of the
emotional frames failed to be identified2
In order to compare the aggregate time of emotion across different responses whose
durations were variant we calculated ―proportional time of emotion dividing the
number of the positive evidence frames by the total number of frames within a video
(excluding the ineffectively analyzed frames) For example when a female participant
performed in the first Berlin Wisdom test her response lasted for about 88 seconds There
were 2565 frames effectively analyzed within this time period 27 of them were positive
on surprise Thus the proportional time of surprise was 27 divided by 2565 about 105
percent A segment of this participantlsquos evidence value of surprise is shown in Figure 3
2 Choosing an evidence threshold lower than 0 to judge whether an emotion exist we are more likely to
mistake the frame without the emotion for a frame with the emotion (Type 1 error) while choosing a
evidence threshold higher than 0 to judge we are more likely to mistake a frame with the emotion for a
frame without the emotion (Type 2 error)
71
Figure 3 A segment of a participantlsquos evidence value of surprise
72
4 Results
41 Reliability of the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation between two raterslsquo ratings was analyzed for each criterion The
results revealed that in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream inter-rater
reliability was acceptable for the ratings on all criteria (all rs gt 060) except for the
Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality (r lt 0) however
inter-rater reliability was acceptable only for the rating on Berlin criterion ―factual
knowledge in the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream (r = 064) other rs
lt 060 Therefore only the Berlin ratings in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream were averaged across two raters for each of the Berlin criteria Then a reliability
test revealed that inter-items reliability of the averaged ratings on these five criteria was
ideal Cronbachs alpha = 091 Therefore the averaged ratings on these five criteria were
averaged again to get the final Berlin Wisdom rating ranged from 180 to 510 (M =
319 SD = 091) By the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm standard only if the participants score
high on all criteria would they be considered wise however none of the participants met
this criterion even the highest score on some criteria were only 5 points as shown in
Table 3
The Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality was probably
difficult for the student raters to comprehend Therefore two middle-aged raters were
recruited to rate the participantslsquo performances in the life plan problem on ―Eschewing-
world Spirituality (The life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream adapted
from a Berlin scenario was probably not suitable for testing the Mainland Chinese
undergraduate participantslsquo wisdom therefore we did not ask the middle-aged raters to
rate the videotaped performance in that scenario) One rater was a 35-year-old male
associate professor in Psychology the other was a 33-year-old male editor in an academic
publisher They were not financially rewarded for their ratings but were promised a
research report of this study For these newly-recruited middle aged raters the anchor
points on the rating scale were further explained if a participant did not talk about
73
anything related to ―Eschewing-world Spirituality then heshe would be rated 4 points
indicating ―NeutralUnclear Besides it did not matter whether a piece of advice such as
carrying out family responsibilities was related to Confucianism the raters only
considered whether it was against or consistent with the criterion
Inter-rater reliability for this new rating was acceptable r = 074 (The ratings of these
middle-aged raters were moderately positively correlated with one student rater
respectively r = 044 r = 055 whereas not significantly correlated with the other
student rater all r lt 015) Therefore the averaged rating from these middle-aged raters
was adopted as the final rating on ―Eschewing-world Spirituality Later a reliability test
revealed that inter-items reliability of the ratings on the five Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria was acceptable Cronbachs alpha = 061 The ratings on these criteria were
averaged to get the final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating ranging from 290 to 600 (M
= 437 SD = 067)
Table 3 Rating of the participantslsquo performance in the life plan problem on each criterion
Wisdom Component Minimum Maximum Mean SD
Ability in Cognition 30 65 493 088
Ability in Practice 15 60 327 099
Concern for Others 25 70 502 144
Eschewing-world
Spirituality
30 60 452 069
Positive Mindset 20 65 410 120
Factual Knowledge 20 60 450 101
Procedural Knowledge 10 50 250 117
Life-span Contextualism 10 50 253 131
Value Relativism 30 60 443 086
Uncertainty 10 50 307 111
74
42 Correlation between Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
Pearson correlation analyses revealed that in the life plan problem the Berlin Wisdom
rating was significantly positively correlated with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating r
= 073 p lt 0001 thus our hypothesis about their consistency was confirmed
Furthering correlation analyses revealed that the ratings on the Mainland Chinese criteria
―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on all the Berlin criteria all r gt 039
all p lt 003 (see table 4) The rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly
positively correlated with the ratings on ―Factual Knowledge ―Procedural Knowledge
and ―Uncertainty yet not significantly correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span
Contextualism and ―Value Relativism However the rating on ―Positive Mindset was
significantly negatively correlated with the ratings on ―Life-span Contextualism and
―Value relativism all r lt -039 all p lt 0031 the other correlations were not significant
These results together suggested that ―Positive Mindset was not related to the Berlin
wisdom ―expertise knowledge (Note that the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not
significantly positively correlated with the ratings on other Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria except for ―Ability in Practice r = 054 p = 0002) This is probably due to the
fundamental difference between the Personal Wisdom framed in Mainland Chinese
culture ie the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset and General Wisdom framed in
the Berlin wisdom model Positivity in life dilemmas was probably wise specifically for
Mainland Chinese undergraduate students whose lives were still much more difficult and
challenging than most Westerners
Table 4 Correlations between the ratings on Berlin and Mainland Chinese wisdom
criteria
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Factual 662 415 863 410 -086
75
Knowledge
Procedural
Knowledge
740 433 839 504 -345
Contextualism 769 193 713 642 -465
Value
Relativism
680 225 582 396 -395
Uncertainty 764 501 669 426 -122
(Note p lt 005 p lt 001)
43 Correlation between performance-based and self-report wisdom measures
Would the participants who score higher on our performance-based wisdom measure also
score higher on the self-report wisdom measure ie the Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional
wisdom scale To examine this issue we analyzed the correlations of the three-
dimensional wisdom score with the Berlin Wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom rating There was no significant correlation all r lt 011 all p gt 005 These
results demonstrated that wisdom measured in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
may be essentially different from wisdom measured by the self-report wisdom scale This
result echoes Western findings by Gluumlck J and Redzanowski U (2013) By contrast
the Berlin wisdom rating and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating in our Mainland
Chinese Wisdom Paradigm were highly correlated with each other (r = 073) perhaps
because they are both performance-based measures
44 Validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings
441 Correlations with previous scores on wisdom correlates
Study 3 was conducted within less than 3 months after Study 1 thus the participantslsquo
survey scores in study 1 were still valid 30 participants had finished the emotional
intelligence scale 23 of the participants had finished Interpersonal Reactivity Index and
Eysenck personality scale The scores on these scales were chosen for validity tests
76
We analyzed correlations of the ratings on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion the
final Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the final Berlin Wisdom rating with scores on
Wong and Lawlsquos emotional intelligence Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eysenck
personality scales (the scales with acceptable inter-items reliabilities) The results
revealed that the Berlin Wisdom rating was significantly negatively correlated with
―Neuroticism r = -047 p = 0024 (N = 23) The Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating was
marginally positively correlated with emotional intelligence score r = 032 p = 008 (N
= 30) Note that the LieSocial Desirability score was not significantly correlated with the
Berlin or Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating all r lt 0 all p gt 005 The details of these
correlations are shown in table 5
Table 5 Correlations of the ratings on Chinese wisdom criteria with wisdom correlates
Ability in
Cognition
Ability in
Practice
Concern
for
Others
Eschewing-
world
Spirituality
Positive
Mindset
Chinese
Wisdom
Berlin
Wisdom
Three-
dimensional
wisdom
080 023 -003 -030 026 011 -001
Emotion
intelligence
36 42 011 -024 028 032 025
Extroversion 029 020 008 003 020 025 025
Neuroticism -041 -008 -035 -013 023 -022 -47
Social
desirability
-022 -002 009 -031 022 -001 -002
Perspective-
taking
009 012 -012 -010 007 001 003
Fantasy -029 -009 -46 -031 022 -029 -034
Empathic
concern
-015 -010 -016 -018 -005 -020 -014
Personal
distress
-031 -021 -001 -009 -017 -023 -022
77
(Note p lt 005)
442 Correlations with life satisfaction the following year
In order to test whether our Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating could predict the
participantslsquo life satisfaction of the following year we contacted the participants through
QQ Chinese online communication software about one year after their performance in
our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm 17 participants responded and finished a 5-
items ―Life Satisfaction with the Past Year scale adapted from the original Life
Satisfaction Scale invented by Pavot and Diener (1993) whose reliability and validity
were testified among Mainland Chinese participants (Xin Wu Wu Wang amp Zhang
2009) The items in this scale are listed in Appendix 5 The participants responded on a 7
points scale ―7 indicates ―Strongly agree ―4 indicates ―Neither agree nor disagree
and ―1 indicates ―Strongly disagree
A reliability test revealed that the inter-items reliability was ideal Cronbachs alpha was
090 Thus we averaged the scores on the five items to get the final score of life
satisfaction ranging from 180 to 600 (M = 395 SD = 130) Pearson correlation
analysis revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with the
rating on ―Ability in Practice r = 0502 p = 0040
443 Conclusion
The validity of our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Measure was partially confirmed In fact
with a bigger sample size more significant correlations may be found between wisdom
ratings in the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm and the wisdom correlates ie
emotional intelligence Moreover the ratings on some Mainland Chinese wisdom
components such as ―Ability in Practice may be effective in predicting some real life
performance However self-report empathy and personality scores may not be correlated
with our performance-based wisdom measure
45 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
For further validity test of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm the correlation
78
between emotion reactivity and wisdom rating was examined
Twenty-nine participantslsquo effectively measured frames were more than 84 of the total
frames in the videos (M = 9911 SD =258) (The facial expression of one female
participant ―14f was not effectively measured (5459) probably because she did not
look at the camera directly) Therefore data of these 29 participants were included in the
following analyses The proportional time of each category of emotion in each scenario
was listed in Table 4 Paired sample t tests revealed no significant difference in any
category of emotion between the performances in life plan and life review problems
79
Table 6 Proportional time of emotion during the participantslsquo performance in different
scenarios
Life plana friends unrealizable
dream
Life reviewa teachers unrealized
dream
Emotion Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD
Joy 00 914 95 181 00 344 61 45
Anger 00 937 170 245 00 1000 143 280
Surprise 00 657 59 128 00 663 41 133
Fear 00 604 158 213 00 757 159 207
Contempt 00 741 104 187 00 787 100 166
Disgust 00 1000 333 361 00 1000 304 351
Sadness 00 610 123 191 00 805 141 228
Neutral 00 1000 486 286 00 1000 504 297
Positive 00 938 211 255 00 533 166 151
Negative 08 1000 708 307 08 999 722 304
80
In order to test whether the participantslsquo emotion reactivity was related to their wisdom
performance Spearman correlation analyses3 were conducted between proportional time of each
emotion (seven basic emotion categories plus three valences) and the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese Wisdom ratings as well as the rating on each Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion The
results revealed that the proportional time of surprise was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings respectively rho = 048 p = 0008 rho
= 042 p = 0023
Furthermore the ratings on ―Ability in Cognition ―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality were also significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of surprise
all rho gt 037 all p lt 0047 the rating on ―Ability in Practice was significantly negatively
correlated with the proportional time of negative emotion rho = -038 p = 0045 and the rating
on ―Positive Mindset was significantly positively correlated with the proportional time of Joy
and positive emotion all rho gt 040 all p lt 003
Note that Spearman correlations between the proportional time of emotion (7 basic emotions and
three different valences of emotions) and the three-dimensional wisdom score were analyzed
and there was no significant correlation in either the life plan problem or life review problem all
p gt 005
46 Thematic contents in participantsrsquo responses
461 Life plan problem ldquoa friendrsquos unrealizable dreamrdquo
Thirteen Mainland Chinese participants lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing eg telling the
friend that ―you are not bad at singing ―your song brings happiness to us your friends Seven
of them discouraged the ―friend from striving for the unrealistic dream because the friend is not
young and being a singer is not very meaningful enjoyable or noble in their opinion eg
―professional singers are actually very hard-working and many of them have undergone plastic
surgery ―some singers are involved in scandals ―They (singers) may not be as happy as they
appear to be They advised the friend to treat ―singing simply as a hobby that could make him
3 The distribution of an emotionrsquos proportional time is not normal thus Pearson correlation analyses were not
suitable
81
happy since ―happiness is very important in life and the friend could use his talent in other
aspects such as teaching the old ladies in his community to sing Five of them encouraged the
―friend to strive for his dream For example a male participant ―22m said the friend was not
bad at singing ―you bring a lot of fun to your friends you could participate in some
competitions for singers and improve your singing as long as you have authentic emotion in
your songs then it will be good Another female participant 39f even encouraged him not to
care about his age even if he cannot be a famous singer he can be a common singer
Another 12 participants did tell the truth that the friend was really not good at singing eg ―you
are not suited to be a singer ―it is much better than before but you need more practice Even if
your skill in singing would improve in the future it would take a long time ―you do not have a
special talent ―you should not have too high an expectation for yourself otherwise you wonlsquot
be happy They advise the friend to consider other aspects of life eg ―You need to consider
multiple aspects in life and there are many other possible goals in life ―You need to consider
your family ―You need to consider otherslsquo potential negative opinion if you still want to
become a singer Only one of the participants encouraged the ―friend to quest for his dream
―you could learn [to improve yourself] believe in yourself
Four participants avoided talking about the friendlsquos skills in singing Nineteen participants
neither encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend For example a male participant ―80m told his
own life story about how his dream had changed and advised the ―friend to carefully plan his
life A female participant ―32f explained the same reasons for the friendlsquos not focusing on
becoming a singer but she finally concluded that if he really stuck to his dream he may become
a professional singer at last A female participant ―36f said that ―The competition in current
society is so fierce that if your mental strength is strong enough I would encourage you to strive
for your dream fearlessly however if you are only seeking fame social status and wealth
(through becoming a singer) I would advise you to quit
462 Life review problem ldquoa teacherrsquos unrealized dreamrdquo
Compared with the responses in the life plan problem the participantslsquo responses in the life
review problem were much more homogeneous probably due to their lack of experience in such
life dilemmas
82
Fifteen participants comforted the teacher by saying that he has taught so many students who
have benefited a lot from his education or contributed a lot to the society which is very
meaningful and thus his life is actually meaningful eg ―You could tell us students about your
dream and we will realize the dream for you One participant said that the teacher was not
fortunate and advised him to be more realistic Another reminded him that other people had not
realized their dreams as well They tried to pacify the teacher eg ―Questing for a dream is itself
meaningful It is already good if you have a dream ―There is no standard criterion to measure
whether you realize your dream or not Four participants also recommend the teacher to quest
for other dreams Nevertheless only 3 participants explicitly discouraged the teacher from
striving for his dream In contrast 14 participants encouraged the teacher to strive for his dream
even though it may not be realized anyway For example a female Participant ―06f said
―Actually if you realize your dream you may suddenly feel life is meaningless however if you
keep questing for your dream you may feel your life is meaningful even if it is not realized
Nine of these 14 participants said the teacher would have time for his dream after retirement
A female participant ―14f tried to sympathize with the teacher saying ―I really respect you my
teacher You have educated us diligently and contributed a lot And then you said life is
meaninglesslsquo which I could sympathize with your once busy life suddenly becomes idleness
You do not know what to do every day I feel it is really good of you to have such a feeling
Some people may have never felt it wasted their lives in idleness Then she encouraged the
teacher to quest for his dream since he had time now and did not have the anxiety he once had in
his youth Finally she concluded ―If I could I would try my best to help you so that I could
repay your favor of taking care of us students
463 Responses in the life plan problem rated highestlowest on BerlinMainland Chinese wisdom rating
Female participant ―74f was highest on both the Berlin Wisdom rating (score = 510) and the
Mainland Chines wisdom rating (score =600) in the life plan problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable
dream She did tell the truth that the friend was not good at singing She also mentioned the
difficulty of becoming a singer and the friendlsquos age She advised the friend to do something
relevant to singing such as ―disc jockey keep singing as a hobby and consider other aspects of
life such as building a family However she also advised the ―friend not to be affected by
83
otherslsquo opinion She told a story of a famous singer whom was once looked down upon by others
but did not give up her dream and eventually succeeded In the end the participant neither
encouraged nor discouraged the ―friend but concluded that he should carefully plan his life
The male participant ―47m and the female participant ―68f got the lowest Berlin Wisdom
rating (score = 180) Both of them lied about the friendlsquos skill in singing ―47m even advised
the friend that he could still improve his singing and may eventually become a singer whereas
―68f advised the friend to treat singing simply as a hobby The male participant ―86m got the
lowest Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating (score = 290) He addressed that the friend was really
not good at singing however it was not necessary to become a singer ―Everyone has a dream
but not every dream could be realized
84
5 Discussion
51 The role of experience in performance measure of wisdom
In the life review problem ―a teacherlsquos unrealized dream inter-rater reliability was not
acceptable on almost every wisdom criterion This may be due to the fact that the participants
were all undergraduate students without much experience of life review especially experience of
advising a teacher on life problem Besides inter-rater reliability was not acceptable between the
student raters on the Mainland Chinese wisdom criterion ―Eschewing-world Spirituality but
acceptable for that between the middle-aged raters This result demonstrated that the raterslsquo life
experience was also important for rating especially for ratings on elusive criteria that require a
certain amount of life experience to understand and master (―Daoist Nature and ―Buddhist
Mind are related to profound life philosophy) In fact previous researchers have suggested that
even well-trained student raters were not as optimal as middle-aged academics raters based on
the evidence that the inter-rater correlations among the student raters were lower than those
among middle-aged academic raters (Gluumlck amp Redzanowski 2013)
Perhaps the student participants and student raters had some experience related to the scenario a
friendlsquos unrealizable dream whereas little or no experience of the scenario unrealized dream
due to their age and thus inter-rater reliabilities of the Berlin Wisdom criteria ratings in the life
plan problem were acceptable even though most inter-raters reliabilities in the life review
problem were not This result suggested that the Berlin Wisdom measure could be reliable if the
student raters had adequate experience with the fundamental life problemsscenarios
52 Berlin Wisdom rating was highly consistent with Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
The Berlin wisdom rating was highly consistent with the Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating
across different participants confirming the similarities between the Berlin Wisdom and
Mainland Chinese Wisdom models One may argue that this may simply be due to confound of
the length of response the longer the response is the more likely it would be rated as wise mdash
Response length was considered a meaningful outcome of the wisdom performance in previous
study (Mickler amp Staudinger 2008) mdash Indeed response length (measured by the number of
Chinese characters within each response) was significantly positively correlated with both the
85
Mainland Chinese and Berlin Wisdom ratings all r gt 055 all p lt 0002 However partial
correlation analysis controlling response length still revealed a significant correlation between
the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings r = 057 p = 0001 Therefore there were
latent factors within the participantslsquo responses captured by both the Berlin and Mainland
Chinese wisdom models For example Factual (declarative) knowledge about the pragmatics
of life in the Berlin Wisdom Model is related to the subcomponent ―Cognitive outcome in the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Model Procedural knowledge of life is related to the Mainland
Chinese wisdom component ―Ability in Practice (see the discussion in section 561 of Study 2)
53 Relationship between emotion reactivity and wisdom performance
531 Measurement of emotional components of wisdom
The significant correlations between proportional time of different emotions and wisdom ratings
showed the validity of my wisdom measurement The relationship between emotion reactivity
and wisdom performance was effectively represented in our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm ie the proportional time of surprise was significantly correlated with both the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom rating and the Berlin Wisdom rating However there was no
significant correlation between wisdom score measured by Ardeltlsquos scale and emotion reactivity
during the wisdom performance These results together revealed the fundamental divergence
between these two methods of wisdom measurement the performance-based and the self-report
measurements While emotion reactivity is inherent in the wisdom performance the emotional
components assessed in the self-report scale may not be demonstrated in a short-period wisdom
performance (Mean duration = 8803 seconds) in a hypothetical scenario Nevertheless the
emotional wisdom component in Ardeltlsquos model may be demonstrated if we adopt a different
hypothetical life scenario For example a participant could perform in front of a camera
imagined as a friend who sincerely believes that the participant is selfish and thus the participant
would have to examine himself in a self-detached manner (reflective wisdom) and show
compassion toward his ―friend (affective wisdom) In any case our Mainland Chinese Wisdom
Paradigm provided a novel and objective way to measure these emotional components
86
532 Surprise and wisdom
The wisdom ratings were significantly positively correlated with proportional time of surprise
This is a novel finding Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was perhaps a sign of insight
that could contribute to wisdom performance This insight may be related to the ―insight顿悟
advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983)
Surprise may trigger the individuals to wonder and then reflect more upon their original idea and
thoughts arriving at a deeper understanding of the life problem There was a study to show that
the feeling of surprise was positively correlated with feeling of difficulty (Touroutoglou amp
Efklides 2010) the participants were instructed to discover the rule of two sequences of
subtraction numbers and then rated their feelings of difficulty and surprise Touroutoglou and
Efklides regarded the feeling of difficulty as important for metacognition and metacognition was
believed to be important for wisdom (Sternberg 2001) The more an individual feels surprise the
more cognitive effort may be exerted This is especially true for tasks requiring creativity and
complicated cognition such as wisdom performance In fact the proportional time of surprise
was significantly positively correlated with response length in both life dilemma tests all rho gt
040 all p lt 0030 df = 30 Besides response length was significantly positively correlated with
both the Berlin and Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings in the life plan problem a friends
unrealizable dream all r gt 055 all p lt 001 df = 30 These results together suggested that the
feeling of surprise might have triggered the participants to exert more effort on advising and
then performed better
Nevertheless the Spearman partial correlation controlling response length revealed that the
proportional time of surprise was still significantly positively correlated with the Mainland
Chinese Wisdom rating rho = 042 p = 0025 df = 26 and marginally positively correlated
with the Berlin wisdom rating rho = 035 p = 0070 df = 26 Therefore response length
(quantity of advices) alone can not account for the role of surprise in wisdom performance
Feeling of surprise should also contribute to the quality of advice that is related to wisdom
Indeed the positive correlation between surprise time and wisdom rating may reveal a core
attribute of wisdom openness to unexpected ideas and thoughts In fact openness was
demonstrated to be the most import personality trait underlying wisdom (Staudinger Lopez amp
Baltes 1997) Moreover the participantslsquo feeling of surprise could only be aroused by an
87
unexpected idea and thoughts from their own insights since nobody could give them feedback
when they were advising the hypothetical protagonists therefore an expression of surprise could
be a sign of insights which is advocated in Chinese Buddhism (see Feng 1983) and also a core
component in the westernerslsquo implicit theory of wisdom (Gluumlck et al 2005 see also Staudinger
amp Gluumlck 2011)
As far as we know this is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between surprise and
wisdom Most existing studies between emotion and cognition were conducted on the effect of
positive or negative emotion on cognition while the feeling of surprise which is neither positive
nor negative was generally neglected (for a review see Zhang Lu Zhang amp Wu 2013)
Previous wisdom studies had failed to discover this relationship probably due to the limited
methods used for wisdom measurement Nevertheless some Chinese Buddhists had applied
physical methods eg hitting a monklsquos head suddenly to surprise others so that they may
immediately get the insight and realize wisdom (Feng 1983) However future studies are needed
to find some gentle and tender ways to surprise individuals for their acquiring wisdom
533 Expression of negativepositive emotion may influence ratings on ldquoAbility in PracticerdquordquoPositive Mindsetrdquo
The significantly negative correlation between the proportional time of negative emotion and the
rating on ―Ability in Practice was probably due to the fact that the raters were influenced by the
participantslsquo negative expression because the participants were just advising a hypothetical
―friend without any real practice in life and thus the raters can only judge their ability in
practice through words as well as facial expressions Or negative emotion is really harmful for
real-world problem-solving ability and expression of negative emotion was a sign of poor ability
in practice Likewise positive emotion is probably inherent to Positive Mindset and expression
of positive emotion a sign of the wisdom component ―Positive Mindset
88
Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion
1 Concept of wisdom in a culture lay people VS philosophers
Staudinger and Gluumlck (2011) recommended that cross-cultural studies of wisdom need to apply
different paradigms We followed this advice in our studies to explore the potential components
of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and found many unexpected and inspiring results
For wisdom model construction a group of lay peoplelsquos conception of wisdom may be more
valid than several expertslsquo theories based on philosophy because culture is influenced by many
factors that can not be taken into account easily and thus a practical way of understanding the
conception of wisdom is interviewing the local people in that culture directly For example
―Positive Mindset may be really vital for Mainland Chinese to go through the difficult times of
life which most Westerners would not experience in their lives
In order to study wisdom in a different culture researchers have to consider the conception of
wisdom in that culture Certainly it is difficult to reach a consensus on the definition of wisdom
even among wisdom experts Nevertheless the common themes of wisdom definition among a
group of lay people could reflect wisdom components generally emphasized in their culture and
thus be valid criteria for rating their wisdom performance as demonstrated by our results This
finding may inspire researchers in other fields of social psychology that are dominated by
Western researchers
On the other hand research methods involving introducing this abstract concept ―wisdom to
participants such as nominating wisdom exemplars are inevitably affected by the diversity of
the participantslsquo conceptions of wisdom
2 Universal Wisdom and cultural variation
In spite of this diversity in defining wisdom similarity rather than diversity was more obvious
between our Mainland Chinese participantslsquo implicit theory of wisdom and that of westerners
suggesting that wisdom as a necessary ingredient for a good life was actually more universal
89
than we thought Furthermore some wisdom components are more universal (eg Ability in
cognition and practice) others are more culturally specific (eg Positive Mindset Eschewing-
world Spirituality) This may be due to the fact that some basic life themes are the same in many
different cultures eg finding a job to make money as suggested by many participants in Study
3 others differ only in degree across different cultures eg supporting families as suggested by
the participants in Study 3
After all we human beings share the same life problems such as the unrealizable dream (life
plan) and the unrealized dream (life review) in our transient lives Our ancestors survived
difficult times in human history such as the Ice Age not because they are physically stronger
than animals but that they have superior abilities in cognition and practice furthermore they
cooperate with each other as a group In fact ―Ability in Cognition and Practice and ―Concern
for Others are probably two universal wisdom components for all human beings
Correspondingly there are many similarities among wisdom traditions from different cultures
For example both Confucianism and Christianity advocate humaneness it is proclaimed in
Confucianism that ―Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire己所不欲勿施
于人 (Lau 1979) and in Christianity ―Love your neighbor as yourself (Holy Bible Matthew
2239 New International Version)
However when a civilization has developed to a stage when some people have the luxury to
ponder the meaning of life rather than eat drink and die as animals do ―Eschewing-world
Spirituality would emerge as a wisdom component Moreover there are different answers to this
ultimate question of life in different traditions For example in Daoism man should forget self in
nature in Chinese Buddhism man should escape the endless transmigration of life and death in
Christianity man should live for God
Finally Globalization might have diminished the culture differences between Mainland of China
and the West For example Chinese traditions in Mainland of China were oppressed during the
Cultural Revolution and its society is now opening to the West (―Reform and Opening) thus
contemporary culture in Mainland of China is becoming closer to the Western culture than
before which may lead to the similarity between Mainland Chinese and Western wisdom
concepts
90
Taken all together wisdom studies in non-western culture need a model partially different from
western models however the tests or items in the paradigm should be different from the Western
ones because even the universal wisdom has differential manifestation in different cultural
contexts For example the scenario invented by the author of this thesis was reliable for wisdom
measurement among Mainland Chinese whereas the one adapted from a Berlin scenario was not
3 Advantages of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Despite the broad similarities the Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has many advantages compared
with previous wisdom measures
First the paradigm was based on a comprehensive wisdom model including both abilities and
personalities both general and personal wisdom both individual and other-related wisdom and
this wisdom model was proposed based on the local peoplelsquos implicit theory of wisdom rather
than foreign wisdom expertslsquo theories of wisdom In fact the method we used in our implicit
theory study may be the most important reason for our finding this comprehensive concept of
wisdom The conception of wisdom had been activated in each participantlsquos mind several times
before the participant reported herhis definition of wisdom (eg nominating wisdom exemplars
talking about wise moments in their own lives) Future studies across different cultures may also
find a comprehensive concept of wisdom among the people if the researchers apply methods
similar to ours
Second our Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm used an objective measure of emotion
reactivity with advanced software Moreover we are the first to discover a significantly positive
correlation between surprise and wisdom and this discovery provides an insight into the nature
of wisdom Koumlhler believed that insight is inherent to wisdom and we believe that an
individuallsquos expression of surprise aroused not by external stimuli but internal thoughts is a sign
of insight which could contribute to wisdom
Third we developed a hypothetical life scenario familiar for the participants ie the life plan
problem ―a friendlsquos unrealizable dream In fact the other scenario ―a teacherlsquos unrealized
dream was adapted from the original life review problem in the Berlin Wisdom paradigm yet
was not reliable for testing wisdom among our Mainland Chinese participants These results
91
together suggested that a performance-based wisdom measure should adopt or develop a life
scenario familiar for the participants Additionally it would also help the raterslsquo rating wisdom if
the scenarios used are familiar to the raters
Fourth we adopted two systems of wisdom criteria Moreover the ratings on these two systems
of wisdom criteria differ in certain aspects yet were largely consistent with each other For
example the rating on ―Positive Mindset was not significantly positively correlated with any
rating on the Berlin criteria whereas the ratings on the other Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
were significantly positively correlated with ratings on the Berlin criteria ―Factual Knowledge
―Procedural Knowledge and ―Uncertainty
4 Limitation of the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Naturally the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm has some limitations
First it was still not an ecological measure The participants were talking to a camera which was
not natural for them In fact the participants may have different advice in front of different
listeners eg a teacher vs a friend In the future the experimenter could invite the participantslsquo
friends to perform as the hypothetical friend who wished to become a singer However it would
be difficult to videotape the frontal view of the participantlsquo faces in such circumstances
(Software CERT is especially effective at analyzing frontal view facial expression) Therefore a
mini-camera that could be set at the head of the real friend or the experimenter would be very
helpful
Second there was only one life scenario proved to be reliable for wisdom rating A paradigm
with more scenarios of different life problems would be more effective for a comprehensive
measurement of different Mainland Chinese wisdom component For example talking to ―a
friend who decided to become a hermit because he feels society is totally corrupted may be a
better life scenario for representation of ―Eschewing-world Spirituality talking to ―a friend who
sincerely believes you are selfish may be a better scenario for measurement of ―Positive
Mindset and ―Concern for Others
Third wisdom is not only a matter of advising and teaching but also of listening and learning
Wise people are not only convincing speakers but also patient listeners Moreover individualslsquo
92
interaction with others is the most important occasion to demonstrate their other-related wisdom
components such as ―Concern for Others Therefore it would be more effective and ecological
to invite two participants to discuss about some fundamental life problems Their discussion
could be videotaped and then rated In fact given more time and funding the researchers could
improve their technology and invite a couple of friends to talk about some real life problems they
encountered through internet video-talk or face to face Their facial expressions could be
videotaped by a mini-camera This method is more natural and authentic compared with using
hypothetical life problems proposed by researchers Culture difference in the fundamental
problems people encounter in real life could also be found
Finally most Mainland Chinese Wisdom ratings such as those on ―Ability in Practice
―Concern for Others and ―Eschewing-world Spirituality were actually more about general
wisdom rather than personal wisdom The participants only demonstrated their knowledge
rather than actions in their personal lives It is easy to talk about practice concern for others and
spirituality but difficult to display them in real life In fact the most challenging requirement for
wisdom measurement is objective measurement of an individuallsquos personal wisdom in real life
Perhaps we could ask a participantlsquos friends to read the Mainland Chinese Wisdom criteria and
then report some real stories or details in the participantlsquos life related to the wisdom criteria
Later a group of trained raters could rate the participantslsquo wisdom on the wisdom criteria based
on these stories and details
5 Potential impacts on Western wisdom studies
In general our studies provided inspiring results for other wisdom researchers who are planning
to conduct wisdom studies in many other cultures including Western culture
51 Culture difference and universal wisdom model
Western researchers need to consider the difference in national culture There was a difference
between the conception of wisdom among Mainland Chinese and that among Taiwanese
Chinese Likewise there should be difference in the conception of wisdom among the people
grow up in Canada the USA and Germany Therefore researchers should not take for granted
that the Berlin Wisdom Model and Ardeltlsquos wisdom model would be suitable for measuring
wisdom among Canadians Culture difference in wisdom conception may lead to culture
93
difference in both General Wisdom 3rd-person knowledge and Personal Wisdom the 1st-person
experience Therefore researchers need to develop a corresponding wisdom model and paradigm
which embody conceptual wisdom components in that specific culture
In spite of the culture differences in wisdom conception and wisdom per se we believe that there
are some universal aspects of wisdom shared by all human beings because there are some
fundamental life problems shared by every nation (eg the life plan problem ―unrealizable
dream) as well as important and meaningful life events experienced by every human being
such as individual mortality and separation from beloved family and friends Western researchers
should not confine themselves to the life problems and life experiences of westerners An
ambitious but meaningful project may be identifying the common themes of life problems
through literature review of autobiographies across different cultures We hypothesize that some
culture differences in fundamental life problems should exist yet similarities of life problems
across different cultures should be predominant Moreover even though people in different
cultures may have different responses to these fundamental life problems there should be some
universal criteria to rate their wisdom performance eg ―Abilities in cognition and practice and
―Concern for Others
52 Advantages of performance-based wisdom measure
Performance-based wisdom measurement is not only a proper method for cross-cultural wisdom
studies but also efficient for comparing different wisdom models and identifying universal
wisdom components and criteria Videotaped wisdom performance of a group of participants
could be rated on different systems of wisdom criteria based on different wisdom models For
example three wisdom criteria could be developed from Ardeltlsquos three-dimensional wisdom
model Then we could rate wisdom performance of different nations on Ardeltlsquos wisdom criteria
Berlin wisdom criteria and the Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria altogether Eventually
researchers could apply factor analysis method to identify the common factors and combine
these wisdom criteria into several universal criteria which would contribute to the Universal
Wisdom Model and Paradigm
In fact Charlotte Mickler and Ursula M Staudinger (2008) had adopted both the Berlin Wisdom
criteria and the Personal Wisdom criteria to rate the participantslsquo wisdom performance in a study
applying the Personal Wisdom Paradigm However the Personal Wisdom criteria were
94
developed from the Berlin Wisdom model and they used the same raters to rate the participantslsquo
performance on these two systems of criteria Not surprisingly they found significant positive
correlation between the Personal Wisdom and Berlin wisdom ratings In fact future researchers
in Western culture could develop a system of personal wisdom criteria independent from the
Berlin Wisdom model which defines wisdom as ―expertise knowledge Besides they need to
recruit two groups of raters to rate these two systems of criteria separately just as we did in
Study 3
53 The 2nd-person wisdom measure
Perhaps the most important innovation in our studies was the 2nd-person wisdom measurement
rating of the videotaped wisdom performance in which the participants performed as if they
were really addressing some fundamental life problems and talking to someone they were
familiar with in their personal lives Although such a performance was fictional the performerslsquo
habitual thinking emotion and action could be revealed and rated as a whole integration
Moreover there are probably some unspeakable wisdom components that would be missing in
the transcripted responses as the Chinese Buddhism proclaims that wisdom is unspeakable and
deep in mind Therefore looking into a personlsquos emotional expression associated with their
speech may be a more authentic way to assess such unspeakable wisdom components
The 1st-person measurement of wisdom (describing what I usually dolsquo) such as Ardeltlsquos three-
dimensional wisdom scale and the Personal Wisdom Paradigm is overwhelmingly affected by
social desirability and self-serving bias and thus not objective especially for assessing emotional
components of wisdom The 3rd-person measurement of wisdom (describing what he or she
should dolsquo) such as the traditional Berlin wisdom is not emotionally-engaging and barely
related to the participantslsquo personal life Comparatively speaking the 2nd-person measurement of
wisdom (suggesting what you should dolsquo) is more immune to social desirability and self-serving
bias than the 1st-person measurement while more emotionally-engaging and related to the
participantslsquo personal life than the 3rd person measurement
95
6 General Conclusion
Through a series of studies among about 200 Mainland Chinese participants we developed a
novel Mainland Chinese wisdom model which has components similar to those in the Western
wisdom models yet still embodies wisdom components specific to Chinese culture Based on
this wisdom model and the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (original and personal) we developed an
innovative 2nd person wisdom measure the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm The inter-
raters and inter-items reliabilities were ideal only for the scenario invented by the author of this
thesis The Berlin wisdom and Mainland Chinese wisdom ratings were highly correlated with
each other Moreover the validity of this Mainland Chinese Wisdom measurement was
confirmed by the significant correlations of the wisdom ratings with some wisdom correlates and
life satisfaction the following year as well as the emotion reactivity during the participantslsquo
responses Feeling of surprise by onelsquos own thoughts was probably a sign of insight that could
contribute to wisdom performance However the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm is still
rudimentary and awaiting development Moreover different methods may be needed to measure
different Mainland Chinese Wisdom components within an individuallsquos life experience In future
studies the researchers may need to measure these different wisdom components and assess their
effects on real life performance separately Nevertheless we believe the Mainland Chinese
Wisdom Model and the Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm would contribute to wisdom
studies in many other cultures including Western culture through its innovative 2nd-person
wisdom measure
96
References
Adams E M (1998) Emotional intelligence and wisdom The Southern Journal of Philosophy
36(1) 1ndash14 httpdoiorg101111j2041-69621998tb01741x
Ardelt M (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system A critical review of a contemporary
operationalization of an ancient concept Human Development 47(5) 257ndash285
httpdoiorg101159000079154
Ardelt M amp Ferrari M (2014) Wisdom and emotions The oxford handbook of emotion social
cognition and problem solving in adulthood 256 Oxford UK Oxford University Press
Baltes P B amp Smith J (2008) The fascination of wisdom Its nature ontogeny and function
Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1) 56ndash64 httpdoiorg101111j1745-
6916200800062x
Baltes P B amp Staudinger U M (2000) Wisdom A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate
mind and virtue toward excellence American Psychologist 55(1) 122ndash136
httpdoiorg1010370003-066X551122
Bangen K J Meeks T W amp Jeste D V (2013) Defining and assessing wisdom A review of
the literature The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
httpdoiorg101016jjagp201211020
Bang H amp Zhou Y (2014) The function of wisdom dimensions in ego-identity development
among Chinese university students International Journal of Psychology nandashna
httpdoiorg101002ijop12065
Birren J E amp Svensson C M (2005) Wisdom in history A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 3ndash31 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Blair C (1987) The forgotten war America in Korea 1950-1953 New York NY Times Books
97
New York
Bluck S amp Gluumlck J (2005) Peoplelsquos implicit theories of wisdom A Handbook of Wisdom
Psychological Perspectives 84 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Brezina I amp Oudenhoven J P V (2012) Do national cultures or religions shape conceptions of
wisdom Studia Psychologica 54(4) 299ndash311
Buddha (2007) Diamond Sutra Beijing CN Zhonghua Book Company
Chen L-M Cheng Y-Y Wu P-J amp Hsueh H-I (2014) Educatorslsquo implicit perspectives on
wisdom A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives International
Journal of Psychology 49(6) 425ndash433 httpdoiorg101002ijop12045
Christensen H Batterham P J amp Mackinnon A J (2013) The getting of wisdom Fluid
intelligence does not drive knowledge acquisition Journal of Cognition and Development
14(2) 321ndash331 httpdoiorg101080152483722012664590
Clayton V P amp Birren J E (1980) The development of wisdom across the life span A
reexamination of an ancient topic Life-Span Development and Behavior 3 103ndash135
Confucius (2009) The Confucian Analects the great learning amp the doctrine of the mean
Cosimo Inc
Confucius amp Mencius (2007) The four books Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Cupchik G (2010) Toward a general theory of emotion Lecture at University of Toronto
Davis M H (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy Evidence for a
multidimensional approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1) 113ndash126
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514441113
Dioko L A Harrill R amp Cardon P W (2013) The wit and wisdom of Chinese tour guides a
critical tourism perspective Journal of China Tourism Research 9(1) 27ndash49
httpdoiorg101080193881602013756767
98
Ekman P amp Friesen W V (2003) Unmasking the face a guide to recognizing emotions from
facial clues Los Altos CA Malor Books
Ekman P amp Rosenberg E (1997) What the face reveals basic and applied studies of
spontaneous expression using the facial action coding system (FACS) New York NY New
York Oxford University Press
Eysenck H J amp Eysenck S B G (1975) Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire
(junior and adult) London UK Hodder and Stoughton
Fairbank J K Twitchett D C amp Feuerwerker A (1986) The Cambridge history of China
Republican China 1912-1949 Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Feng Y (1983) A history of Chinese philosophy Princeton NJ Princeton University Press
Ferrari M Kahn A Benayon M amp Nero J (2011) Phronesis sophia and hochma
Developing wisdom in Islam and Judaism Research in Human Development 8(2) 128ndash
148
Ferrari M amp Potworowski G (2008) Teaching for wisdom cross-cultural perspectives on
fostering wisdom Springer
Giere R N (2009) Essay review Scientific representation and empiricist structuralism
Philosophy of Science 76(1) 101ndash111
Gluumlck J amp Bluck S (2012) The MORE life experience model A theory of the development of
wisdom The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
GluumlCk J Bluck S Baron J amp Mcadams D P (2005) The wisdom of experience
Autobiographical narratives across adulthood International Journal of Behavioral
Development 29(3) 197ndash208 httpdoiorg10117701650250444000504
Gluumlck J amp Redzanowski U (2013) How to measure wisdom content reliability and validity
of five measures Frontiers in Psychology Personality Science and Individual Differences
99
4 405 httpdoiorg103389fpsyg201300405
Grossmann I Karasawa M Izumi S Na J Varnum M E W Kitayama S amp Nisbett R
E (2012) Aging and wisdom culture matters Psychological Science 23(10) 1059ndash1066
httpdoiorg1011770956797612446025
Group V H S (2003) The seekerrsquos glossary of Buddhism Sutra Translation Committee of the
US amp Canada
Gu M D amp Guo J (2015) How can we cross the intellectual divide between east and west
Reflections on reading ―toward a complementary consciousness and mutual flourishing of
Chinese and western cultures the contributions of process philosophers Philosophy East
and West 65(1) 298ndash315 httpdoiorg101353pew20150017
Hampson K S (2012 June) The role of emotional intelligence in the criminal activity of young
people involved with the Leeds youth offending service (Doctoral dissertation) University of
Leeds Retrieved from httpetheseswhiteroseacuk3150
Hardy G (2014) Sacred texts of the world Chantilly VA The Great Courses Corporate
Headquarters
Hills P J Werno M A amp Lewis M B (2011) Sad people are more accurate at face
recognition than happy people Consciousness and Cognition 20(4) 1502ndash1517
httpdoiorg101016jconcog201107002
Holliday S G amp Chandler M J (1986) Wisdom Explorations in adult competence
Contributions to Human Development 17 100
Huang H Deng L Chen N amp Lu H (2009) A review of the studies on Chinese 80s 中国
青年研究China Youth Study (7) 4ndash13
Ivan B amp Alojz R (2010) Opinions of culturally diverse sample of Asians on wisdom
Socioloacutegia (Sociology) 42(6) 619ndash637
100
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001a) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jason L A Reichler A King C Madsen D Camacho J amp Marchese W (2001b) The
measurement of wisdom A preliminary effort Journal of Community Psychology 29(5)
585ndash598 httpdoiorg101002jcop1037
Jinhua (2014 March 24) In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Retrieved from
httpenwikipediaorgwindexphptitle=Jinhuaampoldid=567816924
Kohler W (1924) The mentality of apes Oxford UK Harcourt Brace
Kunzmann U amp Baltes P (2003) Wisdom-related knowledge Affective motivational and
interpersonal correlates Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(9) 1104ndash1119
httpdoiorg1011770146167203254506
Lau D C (1963) Dao de Jing London UK Penguin
Lau D C (1979) The Analects London UK Penguin
Law K S Wong C-S Huang G-H amp Li X (2008) The effects of emotional intelligence on
job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China
Asia Pacific Journal of Management 25(1) 51ndash69 httpdoiorg101007s10490-007-
9062-3
Law K S Wong C-S amp Song L J (2004) The construct and criterion validity of emotional
intelligence and its potential utility for management studies Journal of Applied Psychology
89(3) 483
Levitt H M (1999) The development of wisdom An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39(2) 86ndash105
httpdoiorg1011770022167899392006
101
Li T Saklofske D H Bowden S C Yan G amp Fung T S (2012) The measurement
invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) across three
Chinese university student groups from Canada and China Journal of Psychoeducational
Assessment 30(4) 439ndash452 httpdoiorg1011770734282912449449
Littlewort G Whitehill J Wu T Fasel I Frank M Movellan J amp Bartlett M (2011) The
computer expression recognition toolbox (CERT) In Automatic Face amp Gesture
Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011) 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp 298ndash
305) IEEE
Lu X (2004) Dang dai Zhongguo she hui liu dong Social mobility in contemporary China
(Vol 2) Shanghai CN Social Science Academic Press
MacFarquhar R (1991) The Cambridge history of China Vol 15 The Peoplersquos Republic Part
2 revolutions within the Chinese Revolution 1966-1982 Cambridge UK Cambridge
University Press
Mao T (1972) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung Beijing CN Foreign Language Press
Mao T (1996) Poetry of Mao Beijing CN Central Literature Publishing House
Mickler C amp Staudinger U M (2008) Personal wisdom Validation and age-related
differences of a performance measure Psychology and Aging 23(4) 787ndash799
httpdoiorg101037a0013928
Mingyi Q Guocheng W Rongchun Z amp Shen Z (2000) Development of the revised
Eysenck personality questionnaire short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) Journal of Chinese
Psychology Acta Psychologica Sinica 3
Ministry of Education in China (2003) Ideology and Politics Beijing CN Peoplelsquos Education
Press
Ministry of Education in China (2003) A modern history of China Beijing CN Peoplelsquos
102
Education Press
Nan H (1996) A brief history of Chinese Buddhism Shanghai CN Fudan University Press
Oatley K (2008) Emotions A brief history New York NY John Wiley amp Sons
Opdebeeck H amp Habisch A (2011) Compassion Chinese and western perspectives on
practical wisdom in management Journal of Management Development 30(78) 778ndash788
httpdoiorg10110802621711111150272
Orwoll L amp Perlmutter M (1990) The study of wise persons Integrating a personality
perspective Wisdom Its Nature Origins and Development 160ndash177
Pasupathi M (2001) Do advanced moral reasoners also show wisdom Linking moral
reasoning and wisdom-related knowledge and judgement 25(5) 401ndash415
Pavot W amp Diener E (1993) Review of the satisfaction with life scale Psychological
Assessment 5(2) 164
Peng F (2007) The way of mind in Chinese Zen禅宗的心灵之道 Philosophical Researches
(Chinese Journal) 4
Raven J (2000) The Ravenlsquos progressive matrices change and stability over culture and time
Cognitive Psychology 41(1) 1ndash48 httpdoiorg101006cogp19990735
Habermas J amp Shapiro J J (1987) Knowledge and human interests Polity Press
Shirer W L (2011) The rise and fall of the Third Reich A history of Nazi Germany New York
NY Simon and Schuster
Siu A M H amp Shek D T L (2005) Validation of the interpersonal reactivity index in a
Chinese context Research on Social Work Practice 15(2) 118ndash126
httpdoiorg1011771049731504270384
Stange A amp Kunzmann U (2009) Fostering wisdom A psychological perspective In M
Ferrari amp G Potworowski (Eds) Teaching for Wisdom (pp 23ndash36) Amsterdam NL
103
Springer Netherlands
Staudinger U M (1996) Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind Interactive
Minds Life-Span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition 276
Staudinger U M (2008) A psychology of wisdom history and recent developments Research
in Human Development 5(2) 107ndash120 httpdoiorg10108015427600802034835
Staudinger U M amp Baltes P B (1996) Interactive minds A facilitative setting for wisdom-
related performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(4) 746ndash762
httpdoiorg1010370022-3514714746
Staudinger U M Baltes P B amp Smith J (1994) Manual for the assessment of wisdom-
related knowledge Berlin DE Max Planck Institue for Human Development and
Education
Staudinger U M Doumlrner J amp Mickler C (2005) Wisdom and personality A Handbook of
Wisdom Psychological Perspectives 191ndash219
Staudinger U M amp Gluumlck J (2011) Psychological wisdom research commonalities and
differences in a growing field Annual Review of Psychology 62(1) 215ndash241
httpdoiorg101146annurevpsych121208131659
Staudinger U M Lopez D F amp Baltes P B (1997) The psychometric location of wisdom-
related performance intelligence personality and more Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 23(11) 1200ndash1214 httpdoiorg10117701461672972311007
Sternberg R J (1985) Implicit theories of intelligence creativity and wisdom Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 49(3) 607ndash627
httpdoiorghttpdxdoiorgmyaccesslibraryutorontoca1010370022-3514493607
Sternberg R J (1990) Wisdom its nature origins and development Cambridge UK
Cambridge University Press
104
Sternberg R J (2001) Why schools should teach for wisdom the balance theory of wisdom in
educational settings Educational Psychologist 36(4) 227ndash245
httpdoiorg101207S15326985EP3604_2
Sternberg R J amp Jordan J (2005) A handbook of wisdom psychological perspectives
Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press
Stokstad M (2005) Art History Combined volume Saddle River NJ Pearson Prentice Hall
Takahashi M amp Bordia P (2000) The concept of wisdom a cross-cultural comparison
International Journal of Psychology 35(1) 1ndash9 httpdoiorg101080002075900399475
Takahashi M (2000) Toward a culturally inclusive understanding of wisdom Historical roots in
the East and West The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 51(3)
217ndash230
Takayama M (2002) The concept of wisdom and wise people in Japan Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation Tokyo University Japan
Taylor M Bates G amp Webster J D (2011) Comparing the psychometric properties of two
measures of wisdom predicting forgiveness and psychological well-being with the Self-
Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS)
Experimental Aging Research 37(2) 129ndash141
httpdoiorg1010800361073X2011554508
Thomas S amp Kunzmann U (2013) Age differences in wisdom-related knowledge Does the
age relevance of the task matter The Journals of Gerontology Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences gbt076 httpdoiorg101093geronbgbt076
Touroutoglou A amp Efklides A (2010) Cognitive interruption as an object of metacognitive
monitoring feeling of difficulty and surprise In A Efklides amp P Misailidi (Eds) Trends
and prospects in metacognition research (pp 171ndash208) New York NY Springer
105
Tzu C (1968) The complete works of Chuang Tzu Trans Burton Watson New York
Tzu L (1985) The way of life Shanghai CN Shanghai Classics Publishing House
Wailu H Hansheng Q amp Qizhi Z (1987) History of Neo-Confucianism Peoplelsquos Press
Weatherley R D amp Rosen A (2013) Fanning the flames of popular nationalism the debate in
China over the burning of the old summer palace Asian Perspective 37(1) 53ndash76
httpdoiorg1055550258-9184-37153
Weidong Z (2006) The psychological adaptation of the city elderly in the process of society
development a Berlin Wisdom Paradigm research Psychological Science (Chinese
Journal) 心理科学 6 049
Weng H Y Fox A S Shackman A J Stodola D E Caldwell J Z K Olson M C hellip
Davidson R J (2013) Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to
suffering Psychological Science 0956797612469537
httpdoiorg1011770956797612469537
Winfield B H Mizuno T amp Beaudoin C E (2000) Confucianism collectivism and
constitutions Press systems in China and Japan Communication Law and Policy 5(3)
323ndash347 httpdoiorg101207S15326926CLP0503_2
Wright A F (1959) Buddhism in Chinese history Redwood City CA Stanford University
Press
Xin J Wu S Wu K Wang W amp Zhang J (2009) Social support system of people in
Sichuan earthquake area and its relationship with subject well-being Advances in
Psychological Science (Chinese journal) 17(3) 532ndash536
Yang F (2006) The red black and gray markets of religion in China Sociological Quarterly
47(1) 93ndash122 httpdoiorg101111j1533-8525200600039x
Yang S Y (2001) Conceptions of wisdom among Taiwanese Chinese Journal of Cross-
106
Cultural Psychology 32(6) 662ndash680
Yang S Y (2007) Forms and functions of wisdom in real-life contexts Chinese Journal of
Psychology 49(2) 185
Yang S Y (2008a) A process view of wisdom Journal of Adult Development 15(2) 62ndash75
Yang S Y (2008b) Meanings and processes of wisdom Indigenous Psychological Research in
Chinese Societies (29) 185ndash237 httpdoiorg106254200829185
Yang S Y (2008c) Real-life contextual manifestations of wisdom The International Journal of
Aging and Human Development 67(4) 273ndash303 httpdoiorg102190AG674a
Yang S Y (2014a) From personal striving to positive influence Exploring wisdom in real-life
contexts The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom New York NY Springer
Yang S Y (2014b) Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences
Journal of Adult Development 21(3) 129ndash146 httpdoiorg101007s10804-014-9186-x
Yu D (2006) Thoughts on Confuciusrsquo Analects Hong Kong HK Chung Hwa book co
Zacher H McKenna B amp Rooney D (2013) Effects of self-reported wisdom on happiness
not much more than emotional intelligence Journal of Happiness Studies 14(6) 1697ndash
1716 httpdoiorg101007s10902-012-9404-9
Zhang P Lu J Zhang Q amp Wu Y (2013) Empirical research of the interaction of cognition-
emotion review and prospect Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology 1 010
Zhu Y amp Han S (2008) Cultural differences in the self from philosophy to psychology and
neuroscience Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(5) 1799ndash1811
httpdoiorg101111j1751-9004200800133x
107
Appendices
1 Three-dimensional wisdom scale items
1 In this complicated world of ours the only way we can know whatlsquos going on is to rely on
leaders or experts who can be trusted
2 I am annoyed by unhappy people who just feel sorry for themselves
3 Life is basically the same most of the time
4 People make too much of the feelings and sensitivity of animals
5 You can classify almost all people as either honest or crooked
6 I would feel much better if my present circumstances changed
7 There is only one right way to do anything
8 There are some people I know I would never like
9 It is better not to know too much about things that cannot be changed
10 Things often go wrong for me by no fault of my own
11 Ignorance is bliss
12 I can be comfortable with all kinds of people
13 A person either knows the answer to a question or heshe doesnlsquot
14 Itlsquos not really my problem if others are in trouble and need help
15 People are either good or bad
16 I try to look at everybodylsquos side of a disagreement before I make a decision
17 If I see people in need I try to help them one way or another
18 When Ilsquom upset at someone I usually try to ―put myself in his or her shoes for a while
108
19 There are certain people whom I dislike so much that I am inwardly pleased when they are
caught and punished for something they have done
20 I always try to look at all sides of a problem
21 Sometimes I feel a real compassion for everyone
22 I try to anticipate and avoid situations where there is a likely chance I will have to think in
depth about something
23 When I look back on what has happened to me I canlsquot help feeling resentful
24 I often have not comforted another when he or she needed it
25 A problem has little attraction for me if I donlsquot think it has a solution
26 I either get very angry or depressed if things go wrong
27 Sometimes I donlsquot feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems
28 I often do not understand peoplelsquos behavior
29 Sometimes I get so charged up emotionally that I am unable to consider many ways of dealing
with my problems
30 Sometimes when people are talking to me I find myself wishing that they would leave
31 I prefer just to let things happen rather than try to understand why they turned out that way
32 When I am confused by a problem one of the first things I do is survey the situation and
consider all the relevant pieces of information
33 I donlsquot like to get involved in listening to another personlsquos troubles
34 I am hesitant about making important decisions after thinking about them
35 Before criticizing somebody I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place
36 Ilsquom easily irritated by people who argue with me
109
37 When I look back on whatlsquos happened to me I feel cheated
38 Simply knowing the answer rather than understanding the reasons for the answer to a problem
is fine with me
39 I sometimes find it difficult to see things from another personlsquos point of view
Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale
1 在我们生活的复杂世界里我们了解发生了什么事情的唯一渠道就是依赖那些可以信赖
的领袖或专家
2 我讨厌那些只知自责埋怨自己而生活不开心的人
3 生活在大多数时候基本都一样
4 人们太过于关注动物的感受
5 几乎所有的人都能够被分为诚实和欺诈两类
6 如果我目前的境况有所改变我将会感觉好很多
7 做任何事情的正确方法都只有一种
8 我知道有些人我永远都不会喜欢
9 对于那些无法改变的事情知道的太多反而不好
10 事情经常在我没有做错任何事的情况下还会出差错
11 无知是福
12 与各种各样的人在一起我都感觉舒服
13 一个人要么知道问题的答案要么不知道
14 如果其他人有麻烦而且需要帮助与我无关
110
15 人要么是好人要么是坏人
16 我试图考虑争论各方的立场之后才做决定
17 如果看到需要帮助的人我总会以某种方式努力去帮助他
18 当我因某人烦恼时我通常试着花些时间从他的角度看问题
19 有些人我特别不喜欢当他们因为自己做过的事被人逮住受到惩罚时我心里就很
高兴
20 我总是尽量考虑问题的方方面面
21 有时候我真地同情每一个人
22 我试图预料并且避免那些有可能使我不得不努力思考的情境
23 当我回顾发生在自己身上的事情时总忍不住感到愤恨
24 当别人需要被安慰时我经常不去安慰
25 如果我认为某个问题没有解决办法那它对我来说没有多少吸引力
26 如果事情出错了我要么特别生气要么特别沮丧
27 我有时不会因为别人有困难而太难过
28 我常常不理解人们的行为
29 有时我会被情感左右以至不能想到多少解决问题的办法
30 有时就在别人和我讲话时我会希望他们离开
31 我更喜欢让事情顺其自然地发生而不是试图弄明白它们为什么会那样
32 当我因为某个问题迷惑时我首先做的一件事就是调查情况考虑所有相关的信息
111
33 我不喜欢听别人说自己的烦恼
34 思考过后我还会在重大决策上犹豫不决
35 在责备他人之前我会试着想象如果自己在他的处境上会有什么感觉
36 我很容易被那些跟我争论的人惹怒
37 当我回顾那些发生在我身上的事情时我会觉得自己被骗了
38 只知道问题的答案而不知道为什么是这个答案我不会在意
39 我发现有时候从别人的角度看问题很难
2 Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale items
1 I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions
3 I really understand what I feel
4 I always know whether or not I am happy
5 I always know my friendslsquo emotions from their behavior
6 I am a good observer of otherslsquo emotions
7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others
8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people around me
9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
10 I always tell myself I am a competent person
11 I am a self-motivating person
12 I would always encourage myself to try my best
112
13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle difficulties
rationally
14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry
16 I have good control of my own emotions
Chinese version of the Wong and Law Emotional intelligence scale
1 大多数时候我都很清楚自己为什么会有某种感觉
2 我能很好地理解自己的情绪
3 我很能理解自己的感受
4 我总能知道自己是否快乐
5 我总是能够从我朋友的行为中了解他们的情绪
6 我很会观察别人的情绪
7 我对别人的感觉情绪很敏感
8 我能很好地理解周围人的情绪
9 我总是为自己设立目标然后尽全力实现它们
10 我总是告诉自己我是一个能干的人
11 我是个自我激励的人
12 我总是激励自己尽全力做事
13 我能够控制自己的脾气从而理智地解决困难
14 我有能力很好地控制自己的情绪
113
15 我在非常生气的时候总是能够迅速冷静下来
16 我将自己的情绪控制得很好
3 Scenarios in Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm
Imagine one of your friends dreaming of becoming a singer but he is really bad at it when he
asked you how he sings What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the friend and talked to ―him
Imagine one of your teachers feel life is meaningless because he has not realized his dream he
always has since youth What would you say to him Imagine this camera in front of you as the
eyes of the teacher and talked to ―him
4 Mainland Chinese wisdom criteria
41 Criterion 1 Ability in Cognition认知能力
Excellent cognitive ability is demonstrated in the following three aspects
良好的认知能力体现在以下三方面
1 Cognitive skill
eg excellent reasoning and comprehension ability to associate different phenomenon and grasp
their essence foresee the future quick reaction creative capable of innovative ideas to solve
problems
1认知技巧
例如良好的推理能力综合能力关联不同的现象和把握现象本质的能力预测未来快速反
应创造性的思维 有创新的想法去解决问题的能力
2 Cognitive trait
Eg rational preference for pondering habits of thinking positively comprehensively
holistically deeply and orderly zeal for knowledge and wisdom zeal for learning about
114
situations (eg social environment at a time) and learning from others generalizing from
experience reconcile with both sides
2 认知特点
例如理性喜欢仔细思考惯于积极综合全面深入和有序地思考热心知识和智
慧热心了解时势情况(例如某个年代的社会环境)和向他人学习能够从经验中概括出
规律和道理喜欢―中庸之道
3 Cognitive outcome
eg knowledge information and facts about life human society and nature expertise gained
through professional or life experience theories generalized from multiple phenomena
understanding of life the meaning of life answers to the fundamental questions of life attitudes
toward life knowing what one wants in life with a clear goal in mind
Demonstrating their enriched cognitive outcome in their advices these cognitive outcomes are of
good quality as well unlike shallow understanding The cognitive outcome should be rated based
on both its quantity and quality
3 认知成果
例如1知识关于生活人类社会和自然的信息和真相2专业特长通过专业人员
生活经验来获得专业特长3从大量现象中归纳出来的理论4对生活的理解人生的意
义对于生活中最基本问题的回答对生活的态度知道自己在生活中想要什么明确的
人生目标
在建议中体现了他丰富的认知成果这些认知成果的质量也不差不是肤浅的认识评价
认知成果应该统合考虑数量和质量
42 Criterion 2 Ability in Practice 实践能力
1 Practice
11 general practice carry out the theory in the practice transform knowledge expertise and
115
talents into authentic power in real situations (especially in critical situations) plant ones feet on
solid ground step by step handling practical issues (eg handing multiple issues in life at the
same time) solving practical problems
12 Conduct of life know how to lead a better and happier life make life decisions and make
choices among multiple targets in life
Eg advising ―solving practical problems with the help of your enriched life expertise
1 实践
11 一般性的实践把理论运用到实践中将知识专业知识和才能转化成真正的能力(特别
是关键的情况下)脚踏实地一步一步地做事处理实际事务(例如协调好生活中同时发生
的多个问题)解决实际的问题
12 把握人生知道如何过一个更好更快乐的生活做出人生抉择在生活的多个目标之间
做出选择
例如给出建议―你依靠自己的生活经验的帮助解决实际的问题
2 Being Successful and the Characteristics (techniques skills capability and characters) needed
to be successful (according to the common conception of success) in practical affairs and onelsquos
career eg arranging events orderly
Eg advising ―Strive for your aim and realize it eventually
2 成功以及使人在实际问题和职业中成功的特点(社会大众认可的成功)包括技术
技巧能力人格比如 事件安排地井然有序
例如给出建议―努力为你的目标奋斗最终实现它
43 Criterion 3 Concern for Others 关心他人
1 Virtue impartial humble honest unselfish moral righteous altruistic loving towards others
(ie family friends and people in general) benefiting all people in society including future
generations tolerant of otherslsquo faults and shortcomings teaching wisdom to others giving advice
116
to others unconsciously influencing others to be a better person through onelsquos actions
Eg ―It is not easy for everyone to live in this world We all want to be happy If you show off
your intelligence others would feel they are foolish and thus you give them more pressure
1品德公正的谦虚的诚实的无私的有道德的正直的利他的对他人的爱
(如对家人朋友和一般人的爱)对社会上所有人甚至子孙后代都是有利的包容他人
的缺点与不足像老师一样给别人以建议通过自己的行为不自觉的影响他人(使他人
成为一个更好的人)
例如给出建议―人生在世并不容易我们都想要幸福如果你向他人炫耀你的智
慧就会让他人感受到自身的愚昧也会给他人带来更大的压力
2 Social interaction adapting oneself to human society other-related emotional intelligence
(eg ability to know otherslsquo emotions and mental activities) handling and using social
relationship in daily life social interaction and leadership skills
Eg advising ―Behave so as to adapt yourself to this society Use every aspect of your social
network
2社会交往使自我适应人类社会与他人交往相关的情绪智力(例了解他人的情绪和
心理活动的能力)处理和利用日常生活中的社会关系社交能力领导技能
例如给出建议―注意自己的言行举止以适应这个社会―对你的社交网络的各方面加
以利用
44 Criterion 4 Eschewing-world Spirituality出世精神
1 Daoist Nature
Tranquil simple plain and thus long-lasting not petty trick not technical not tactful not
knowledgeable transcendence from secular goals such as monetary rewards
Eg advising ―use the most simple and common way to achieve the simplest state
First it is against passions complexity and decoration it is trying to be peaceful simple and
117
natural aiming for a long life
Second it is not technical or tactful but ―non-action follow the tide and exert the least effort to
achieve something not work against the original development path of the beings
Finally it is not aiming for any secular goals such as fame and fortune
1 道家的自然
平静简单朴素并长寿不耍小聪明没有技巧没有机心甚至没有博识超脱于世
俗目标之外比如金钱奖励
例如―用最简单最普遍的方法达到最简单的状态
首先是反对轰轰烈烈复杂化和修饰追求平静简朴和自然以达到长久
其次是反对机巧捷径追求―无为以最小的力气顺势而为不与事物本来的发展趋势
背对而为
最后是反对世俗功利目的诸如名利金钱
2 Buddhist Mind
Listen to the voice from inner heart unspeakable enlightenment and truth hidden deep inside
onelsquos inner heart through a pure mind transcendent from desires and external delusions
Eg advising ―You should listen to your heart
First it is focusing on your own heartmind carefully inspecting your inner feelings realizing
the truth through your thoughts and feelings inside your heart Then it is resisting external
temptation and illusion preserving the purity of your inner heartmind without any pollution
caused by desires
2佛家的心灵
倾听发自内心的话语无声的启迪和自我内心深处隐藏的真知以纯洁心灵超越欲望和外
118
界的迷惑
例如建议说―你应倾听你内心的声音
首先是对自己心灵的关注和重视仔细体察自己内在的感受通过自己内心深处的想法
感觉了解真相其次是不被外界诱惑迷惑保持自己内心的纯洁干净使它不被欲望污
染
45 Criterion 5 Positive Mindset 积极心态
1 Agency amp resilience
Diligence in learning and practice persistence and willpower in facing difficulties agency in
difficult times of life being positive and optimistic self-motivating utilizing self-emotion and
overcoming difficulties
Eg advising ―would not act as a youth complaining about the societyHe would lead a
positive and good life even in difficult situations
1主观能动性
在学习和实践中的勤奋在困难中的坚持和意志力在困难时期的主动力量积极乐观自
我激励有效使用自己的情感克服困难
例如给出建议―我不会像一个年轻人那样抱怨社会我会在任何困难的局面中积极行
动
2 Self-transformation
Appraisal and regulation of self-emotion knowing oneself love oneself (ie being satisfied with
oneself and onelsquos situation) improving oneself excellent temperament and character
courageous open-minded and independent
Eg advising Change your own ideas instead of trying to change others ―Do not feel pain in
yourself while showing compassion for others We all have shortcomings Overcome your
shortcomings and improve yourself and then face it from a positive perspective
119
2自我蜕变
评估和调节自我的感情自知自爱(对自己及自己的处境满意)自我提升优秀的性
格和品质勇气思想开放独立思考而不受他人意见左右
比如给出建议―改变自己的观点而不是改变别人的观点―同情别人时不要让自己
悲伤―每个人都有不足战胜不足提升自我从积极的角度看待它人都是会遇到
挫折的 然后你能克服它 完善自己的缺陷然后再寻找一个积极的方式去面对它
5 Items in the scale of life satisfaction with the past year
1 In most ways my life is close to my ideal in the past year 在过去的一年里我的生活大致
符合我的理想
2 The conditions of my life in the past year are excellent 在过去的一年里我的生活状况非
常好
3 I am satisfied with my life in the past year 在过去的一年里我很满意自己的生活
4 So far I have gotten the important things I want in life in the past year 在过去的一年里我
得到了我在生活上希望拥有的重要东西
5 If I could live the past year over I would change almost nothing 如果我能重新来过这一
年我基本上会按原样去过不会做出什么改变
120
Copyright Acknowledgements
To use our Chinese version of the Three-dimensional wisdom scale Chinese version of the Wong
and Law Emotional intelligence scale Scale of life satisfaction with the past year and the
Mainland Chinese Wisdom Paradigm please cite this thesis as
Hu C S (2015) Measurement of wisdom among Mainland Chinese (Doctoral Dissertation)
University of Toronto