Notes on Mature Thought and Wisdom
Mature cognition during adulthood, also called postformal thought, has distinct patterns
of thought . The postformal thinker easily combines both abstract theoretical and
practical thinking processes.
Everyday problem-solving skills (e.g., resolving conflicts) remain stable or improve
with age.
Mature adults integrate new information by deciphering its meaningfulness for their
lives.
Postformal thought goes beyond Piaget’s explanation of abstract thinking ability to a
process that includes flexible, adaptive, and individualistic thought. It incorporates both
intuition and logic.
 Postformal thinkers move from polarized thinking to recognizing relativism in
judgments.
 Criteria are the ability to: (1) shift between abstract and practical problems, (2)
recognize multiple causes and solutions, (3) be pragmatic, and (4) be aware of
paradox.

Folk wisdom reflects practical and spiritual knowledge through tales that reflect
wisdom.
Erikson identified wisdom as the virtue that aging adults achieve during the last stage
of life.
Wisdom is the reflection on the meaning of one’s life, thus a product of old age
Researchers Clayton and Meacham described wisdom as an ability to recognize and
balance contradictions.
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Labouvie-Vief defined wisdom as the integration of logos—objective analytic and
rational, and mythos—subjective, experiental and emotional
This integration a major developmental task of a healthy adulthood
Wisdom broad enough to encompass morals and ethics.
Although age is associated with wisdom, middle age may be the heightened age.
Adulthood researcher Paul Baltes: wisdom defined as “expertise in the conduct and
meaning of life. Good judgement and advice about important but uncertain matters of
life.
wisdom seen as the knowledge of facts and procedures, awareness of uncertainties,
knowledge of relativism, and an understanding of context and societal change.
Fundamental pragmatics of life are developing a sense of how one’s life should be lived,
determining the importance of one’s own sense of self, and integrating multiple
viewpoints in order to solve a dispute
Characteristics of wisdom are that it;
Addresses important and difficult questions and strategies about the conduct and
meaning of life
Includes knowledge about the limits of knowledge and uncertainties of the world
Represents truly superior level of knowledge, judgement, and advice
Consists of knowledge with extraordinary scope, depths measure and balance
Represents knowledge used for the good or well-being of oneself and that of
others
Is easily recognized, although difficult to achieve and to specify
Baltes attempted to study wisdom---ask participants to “think aloud” about difficult life
dilemmas. Asked to discuss the problem and offer advice
Five components to wise judgement
Factual knowledge about matters of life: knowledge about human nature, interpersonal
relations and social norms
Procedural knowledge: involves strategies for dealing with life’s problems and weighing
goals, methods of handling conflict and ways of offering advice
Lifespan contextualism: knowledge about the different roles and contexts of life and how
these may change over the life span
Recognition and management of uncertainty: awareness that human knowledge is
limited, future can’t be fully known in advance and life is unpredictable. recogntion that
there may be no perfect solution
Relativism regarding solutions: acknowledgement of individual and cultural differences
in values and life priorities.
Learning Wisdom
1. Expect to work at acquiring wisdom. The capacity for sound judgment and
judicious action is an acquired strength. Making wise judgement result of effort
and experience.
Self development and self-discovery
2. Be open to experience. This may be the most influential factor in the development
of wisdom. Adventurous and inquisitive, reflect on life’s dilemmas and
challenges.
3. Stay keenly aware of the limits of human knowledge and intuition. Tolerate
ambiguity and learn to accept the unpredictability of life. Problems looked at in
many different ways—complexity and uncertainty of life often means no solution
4. Seek to understand significant problems from many different points of view.
Discussing life’s important challenges with others enables you to uncover and
critique your own values as well as those of others. Identify and correct errors in
social judgement, consider alternative actions.
5. Master wisdom by studying its exemplars. Study the classic works of literature
and philosophy and reflect on the collective wisdom of the ages and its
application to the present. Find role models.
6. Learn to strike an appropriate balance between knowing when to adapt and when
to select a new environment. Suppose you go to work for a computer company
because you are eager to write software for educators, but you find that your new
job involves stealing ideas from competitors. Wise people don’t adapt---they
leave.
7. Work at mastering the steps of effective problem solving. Work on areas of
successful intelligence as strive for wisdom. Sternberg (1996) has identified five
key skills in successfully intelligent people.
8. Balance your own interests with those of others. Demonstrate warmth and compassion
and develop your emotional intelligence so that you can understand and manage human
feelings.