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Wisdom and Mental Health Across the Lifespan

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DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbs121 · Source: PubMed

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Webster, J.D., Westerhof, G.J., & Bohlmeijer, E.T. (2012). Wisdom and mental health across the lifespan. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
doi:10.1093/geronb/gbs121

Wisdom and Mental Health Across the Lifespan

Jeffrey Dean Webster,1 Gerben J. Westerhof,2 and Ernst T. Bohlmeijer2

1
Psychology Department, Langara College, Vancouver, Canada.
2
Psychology, Health, and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

Objectives.  The relationships between wisdom and age and between wisdom and mental health are complex with
empirical results often inconsistent. We used a lifespan sample and broad, psychometrically sound measures of wisdom
and mental health to test for possible age trends in wisdom and its subcomponents and the relationship between wisdom
and hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being.

Method.  Participants included 512 Dutch adults ranging in age from 17 to 92 (Mage = 46.46, SD = 21.37), including

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186 men and 326 women. Participants completed measures of wisdom, physical health, mental health, and personality.

Results.  Significant quadratic trends indicated that middle-aged adults scored higher on wisdom than younger and
older adults. Investigation of wisdom subcomponents illustrated that a complex pattern of increases and decreases in
different aspects of wisdom helped account for these age findings. Bivariate correlations showed the expected positive
association between wisdom and mental health. Hierarchic regression analyses indicated that the positive association
between wisdom and mental health remained significant after accounting for demographic variables (i.e., sex, age, educa-
tion) and personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience).

Discussion.  Age trends in the components of wisdom (older adults higher in life experience but lower in openness
relative to younger and middle-aged adults) help explain the curvilinear pattern showing an advantage in wisdom for
middle-aged adults. The greater association between wisdom and eudaimonic well-being suggests that wise persons
enhance mental health by pursuing meaningful activities.

Key Words:  Age differences—Eudaimonic well-being—Hedonic well-being—Mental well-being—Personality—Wisdom.

W isdom is an ancient concept (Birren & Svensson,

2005; Jeste & Vahia, 2008; Karelitz, Jarvin, &
Sternberg, 2010; Osbeck & Robinson, 2005), which, until
to the common perception that wisdom must, therefore,
increase with age. Although age and experience are posi-
tively correlated, experience per se does not necessarily
recently, has remained relatively underexamined by main- produce wisdom. In fact, the type of experience, one’s
stream psychology (Sternberg, 1990; Sternberg & Jordan, inclination to reflect upon and evaluate such events, and the
2005). Since pioneering work in the late 1970s and early competence to learn and grow from adversity (among other
1980s, however, (Clayton & Birren, 1980; Sternberg, 1985) issues) are more influential in wisdom development than
there has been a steady increase in conceptualization, meas- experience (and therefore age) alone (Webster, 2003).
urement, and empirical investigations of wisdom. This The relationship between wisdom and aging is complex
growth, triggered in part by a contemporary emphasis on (Ardelt, 2011; Jordan, 2005; Richardson & Pasupathi, 2005;
positive psychology, has taken many forms (Staudinger & Staudinger, 1999), with some theoretical models postulat-
Gluck, 2011) reflecting the emerging vitality of the field. ing a positive association with aging and wisdom (Erikson,
One of the positive outcomes of contemporary scholarship 1963), others (Meacham, 1990) postulating a loss of wis-
is the growing consensus concerning a definition of wisdom. dom in older adulthood, and others still postulating a peak
Recently, Jeste and coworkers (2010) conducted a two- in midlife (Sternberg, 2005). Whether, and how, wisdom
stage Delphi method using a sample of wisdom experts. develops with age, therefore, remains an open question.
Results revealed “a remarkable consensus” (p. 676) among Part of this lack of resolution may be due to differences
expert panel members concerning several components of in measures of wisdom used, the characteristics of samples
wisdom (e.g., differentiation from related constructs such employed, and even the definition of what constitutes older
as intelligence and spirituality), as well as characteristic adulthood, across various studies. For instance, with respect
features of wisdom and wise persons. Wisdom is generally to the latter, Karelitz and coworkers (2010) perceptively note
considered a multidimensional construct in which life les- that, given changes in average lifespan and the physical and
sons learned via evaluative reflection enable individuals to mental health improvements accompanying such changes,
not only grow individually but to contribute to the common what was once considered as older adulthood is now
good as well. considered late middle age by contemporary researchers.
The type of life lessons which ostensibly contribute to So, for instance, 65-year-old participants in studies
wisdom development accrue over time, a fact giving rise conducted in the 1980s were most likely considered elderly
© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.
All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].
Page 1 of 10
Received June 11, 2012; Accepted November 29, 2012
Decision Editor: Bob Knight, PhD
Page 2 of 10 WEBSTER ET AL.

adults and were likely to be in poorer health compared 2008; Wink & Helson, 1997, respectively) showed that life
with 65-year-old persons today, who might very well be satisfaction and wisdom were unrelated. In contrast, studies
considered late middle aged by current research standards. by Kunzmann and Baltes (2003) and Webster (2010), which
Direct comparisons between older adults across earlier and examined the relationship between wisdom and values,
later studies, therefore, can be problematic. showed that those values associated with eudaimonic well-
Despite positive lay stereotypes, and some researcher being (i.e., those focusing on personal growth, pursuit of
expectations, much empirical evidence is inconsistent with meaning, positive contribution to others and society) were
an older and wiser outcome (Baltes, Staudinger, Maercker, & more strongly associated with wisdom relative to hedon-
Smith, 1995; Brugmann, 2006; Staudinger, 1999), prompt- istic values (e.g., pursuit of fun and pleasure for the self).
ing some researchers (Pasupathi, Staudinger, & Baltes, Nevertheless, despite the various approaches and measures
2001; Webster, 2010) to investigate the “seeds” of wisdom used, results are generally consistent with the theoretical
in younger adults. Precursors to, and emergent properties expectation that wisdom provides a suite of psychosocial
of, wisdom develop in late adolescence. Pasupathi and strengths, which enable individuals to experience life opti-
coworkers (2001), using the well-known Berlin Paradigm, mally even in the face of less than ideal objective life cir-

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found increases in wisdom-related behavior from late ado- cumstances (Ardelt, 1997; Ardelt & Oh, 2010; Le, 2011;
lescence to approximately the late twenties, followed by Linley, 2003; Takahashi & Overton, 2002; Webster, 2010).
little change throughout middle and early later adulthood. It appears, then, that wise persons do enjoy personal pleas-
Webster (2003, 2007) found no association between age and ures but are perhaps more concerned about growth, mean-
wisdom as measured with the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale ing, and contribution to others. Because the measure we use
(SAWS), a finding generally consistent with other question- to assess well-being in this study allows for an examination
naire measures of wisdom (Taylor, Bates, & Webster, 2011). of hedonistic and eudaimonic aspects of overall well-being
The latter findings, however, were simple bivariate correla- (Keyes, 2005; Westerhof & Keyes, 2010), we expect that
tions, and it is possible that curvilinear relationships went wisdom is related to positive mental health overall and that
undetected. According to Sternberg (2005), wisdom may the strength of the association between wisdom and eudai-
develop along several possible pathways that follow similar monic well-being is stronger than that between wisdom and
trajectories to crystallized and/or fluid intelligence. One of hedonistic well-being.
these models follows a combined crystallized/fluid intelli- The present project builds upon and extends earlier work
gence pathway. According to this model, crystallized intel- by including a non-North American (i.e., Dutch), lifespan
ligence increases with age to later adulthood after which it sample, multiple personality indicators, and broad meas-
levels off until a few years before death. In contrast, fluid ures of both mental health and wisdom. Our two main
intelligence reaches its peak in young adulthood and, there- hypotheses are (a) that total wisdom is related to age in
after, declines with age, precipitously so near the end of life. a curvilinear fashion such that middle-aged adults, as a
Wisdom, then, increases with lived experiences, much like group, will score higher than both younger and older adults
crystallized intelligence, but then at some point in early late and (b) that wisdom is positively related to overall mental
life, limitations in cognitive, physical, and social resources health when the latter is measured with instruments assess-
contribute to a decline in wisdom. In this study, we address ing emotional, social, and psychological well-being com-
this possible curvilinear relationship. Our first, and major, bined, and that this relationship holds even after accounting
expectation is that wisdom does not have a linear but a cur- for demographic and personality factors.
vilinear relationship with age, with a peak in midlife.
The relationship between wisdom and mental health is Methods
also complex (Ardelt, 2011; Richards & Hatch, 2011) and
depends to an extent on the measures of wisdom used (e.g., Participants
questionnaire, self-narratives, think aloud protocols, and Participants consisted of 512 Dutch adults ranging in age
peer ratings; Redzanowski & Gluck, 2012), as well as the from 17 to 92 years (Mage = 46.46, SD = 21.37), including
facets of well-being (e.g., values, happiness, life satisfaction) 186 men and 326 women. Students (17–29  years) in an
employed across studies. As one example, the theoretical introductory personality psychology class participated
relationship between wisdom and happiness is conten- themselves and then recruited two additional adults from
tious (Bergsma & Ardelt, 2012); some authors (Mansfield, a midlife group (30–59) and an older group (60–92). The
McLean, & Lilgendahl, 2010; Staudinger & Gluck, 2011) sample was basically healthy (67.8% reported no health
contend that because wisdom is likely to develop through limitations, 26.4% slight limitations, and 5.9% considerable
coping with negative life events, the development of a health limitations; mean subjective health is 7.7 on a scale
hedonistic type of happiness is certainly not guaranteed from 0 to 10). Completed education varied from lower
to occur later in life. Consistent with this position, stud- levels (i.e., 10  years or less, 23%) and middle levels
ies using the Berlin Wisdom model and studies employing (between 11 and 14 years, 41%) to higher levels (15 years
a transcendent wisdom measure (Mickler & Staudinger, or more, 36%). Older adults (M  =  3.78, SD  =  1.87) had
 WISDOM AND MENTAL HEALTH ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

significantly less education than both the midlife (M = 5.01, subscale (comprised the psychological and social well-
SD = 1.51) and younger (M = 4.73, SD = 1.01) adults, F(2, being items of the MHC-SF; Cronbach’s alpha = .86).
509) = 30.52, p ≤ .01, partial eta2 = .107, who did not differ
from each other. Wisdom.—Wisdom was measured with the SAWS
(Webster, 2003, 2007), a 40-item questionnaire reflecting
the following five components of wisdom (sample items are
Measures italicized): Critical life experiences: “I have experienced
many painful events in my life”; Reminiscence/reflective-
Demographic variables.—We asked for completed edu- ness: “Reviewing my past helps me gain perspective on
cational level in accordance with the Dutch educational current concerns”; Openness to experience: “I like to read
system (primary school, lower vocational level, lower sec- books which challenge me to think differently about issues”;
ondary level, higher secondary level, middle vocational Emotional regulation: “I am very good about reading my
level, higher vocational level, university). We also asked for emotional states”; and Humor: “Now I find that I can really
age and gender. As we were interested in curvilinear rela- appreciate life’s little ironies.” Participants respond to each

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tionships as well, we also computed age squared. To avoid question using a Likert type scale where 1 = strongly disa-
collinearity between age and age squared, age was centered gree to 6 = strongly agree.
on the mean. The SAWS has excellent reliability (i.e., test–retest
and internal consistency) and various forms of validity.
Physical health.—Physical health was assessed with With respect to the latter, the SAWS predicts levels of
both a subjective health questionnaire (“How would you foolishness (negatively), generativity, and ego integrity
rate your present health condition on a scale from 0 to 10?”) (Webster, 2007); positive psychosocial values such as
and a measure of physical health limitations (“Are you lim- personal growth and sense of coherence (Webster, 2010);
ited in your daily life due to health problems, e.g. in house- civic engagement and altruism (Bailey & Russell, 2009);
hold chores?” with three answering categories: Not at all, benefit finding in cancer patients (Costa & Pakenham,
Slightly; Considerably). 2012); forgiveness, psychological well-being, and a lack
of a socially desirable response style (Taylor et al., 2011);
Personality.—Three personality traits, neuroticism, a balanced time perspective (Webster, Bohlmeijer, &
extraversion, and openness to experience, were measured Westerhof, 2011); and identity processing styles (Webster,
with a Dutch translation (Hoekstra, Ormel, & de Fruyt, under review). Cronbach’s alpha for the total SAWS in this
1996) of Costa and McCrae’s (1992) NEO-FFI. In this study was .91, and for the experience, emotional regula-
study, the reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) was good (neuroti- tion, reminiscence/reflectiveness, humor, and openness
cism = .86; extraversion = .82; openness = .71). subscales, respectively, Cronbach’s alphas were .83, .81,
.85, .82, and .74.
Well-Being.—Well-being was measured with the Dutch
Mental Health Continuum—Short Form (MHC-SF;
Lamers, Glas, Westerhof, & Bohlmeijer, 2012; Lamers, Results
Westerhof, Bohlmeijer, Ten Klooster, & Keyes, 2011). The We first analyzed the data to confirm bivariate asso-
MHC-SF consists of fourteen items, which correspond to ciations for the expected relationships. Next, we tested
theoretical formulations of emotional, psychological, and for quadratic trends between age and wisdom in a series
social well-being (Keyes, 2005). Sample items are “In the of curve estimation regressions, first for the total wisdom
past month, how often did you feel: …happy?; …that your score and then for each of the SAWS subscales. Finally, we
life has a sense of direction or meaning to it? …that peo- used hierarchic regression analyses to determine whether
ple are basically good?” There were six answering cate- wisdom explained additional unique variance in mental
gories ranging from almost never to every day. The scale health beyond demographic and personality variables.
proved to have good concurrent and discriminatory valid- Bivariate correlational results, as can be seen in Table 1,
ity (Lamers et al., 2011). Analyses based on item response support our predictions. First the linear association between
theory showed that there is no substantial differential item wisdom and age is nonsignificant, whereas the curvilinear
functioning across sociodemographic variables, physical relationship (i.e., age2) is significant and remains so even
and mental illness, nor across time (Lamers et  al., 2012). after controlling for education level, r(509)  =  −.165, p <
Hence, the items are interpreted in a similar way by peo- .001. We discuss these age findings in more detail in the
ple from various backgrounds in Dutch society at different regression results below. Second, the correlation between
points in time. The overall MHC-SF is highly reliable in the total wisdom and mental health was positively correlated.
present sample (Cronbach’s alpha = .89), as is the hedonis- Additionally, the correlation between wisdom and hedonic
tic subscale (comprised the emotional well-being items of aspects of mental health (r(512) = .300) and the correlation
the MHC-SF; Cronbach’s alpha = .85) and the eudaimonic between wisdom and eudaimonic aspects of mental health
Page 4 of 10 WEBSTER ET AL.

Table 1.  Descriptive Statistics and Bivariate Correlations for Main Demographic and Study Variables 
M SD Sex Age Age2 Educ HM EM MHC Neur Extr Open SAWS
Sex — — — −.045 −.017 −.126 −.004 .033 .027 .269 −.028 −.031 .030
Age 46.46 21.38 — .069 −.262 −.072 −.075 −.081 −.100 −.160 −.273 −.009
Age2 456.19 395.93 — −.384 −.177 −.244 −.248 .120 −.082 −.212 −.224
Educ 4.53 1.58 — .178 .217 .226 −.169 .211 .316 .194
HM 13.55 2.93 — .576 .730 −.418 .382 .191 .300
EM 41.72 9.90 — .979 −.334 .415 .238 .443
MHC 55.28 11.84 — −.383 .442 .247 .445
Neur 30.17 7.87 — −.402 −.047 −.185
Extr 42.00 6.59 — .088 .345
Open 38.22 6.32 — .463
SAWS 171.88 21.91 —

Notes. Sex (males = 1; females = 2); Age2 = age squared; Educ = education level; HM = hedonistic mental health; EM = eudaimonic mental health; MHC = Mental
Health Continuum–SF; Neur = neuroticism; Extr = extraversion; Open = openness to experience; SAWS = Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale. Correlations at or above .15

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are statistically significant at the .05 level after Bonferroni correction.

(r(512)  =  .443) were both significant. Moreover, the which openness declines in older adulthood. Figure  1E
difference in strength between these two correlations is also shows a significant quadratic tend for humor (β  =  −.17,
statistically significant (Steiger’s Z = −6.84, p < .01), a point p < .001). Scores from young adulthood to midlife are ini-
we return to in the discussion section. tially high and stay stable, after which humor declines in
With respect to personality traits, wisdom is negatively older adulthood. Finally, Figure  1F shows the nonsignifi-
correlated with neuroticism and positively with extraver- cant quadratic trend for reminiscence (β = −.06, p > .05).
sion and openness. Finally, higher levels of education are Younger, midlife, and older adults all show a similar level
associated with higher levels of wisdom, but wisdom is of engagement with reminiscence and life reflection.
unrelated to gender. Mental health showed similar relation- In terms of well-being, the main finding that wisdom is
ships among demographic and personality variables as did positively correlated with mental health, supports our predic-
wisdom. Specifically, mental health was uncorrelated with tion at the bivariate level. However, some of the demographic
gender, curvilinearly related to age, negatively correlated variables and the three personality traits are interrelated with
with neuroticism, positively correlated with extraversion both mental health and wisdom. The question arises as to
and openness, and the demographic variable of education whether the association between wisdom and mental health
level. Given the significant curvilinear relationship between remains statistically significant when accounting for these
age and total wisdom score, we conducted a series of regres- other variables. To investigate this issue, we conducted a
sion analyses in which we used curve estimation procedures hierarchic regression analysis on the dependent variable of
to assess quadratic trends in the age by wisdom relationship. mental health, entering demographic variables, personality
Figure 1 illustrates the trends apparent in the scatterplots traits, and wisdom as hierarchic blocks. The results support
for the total wisdom score (a) and for the five subscales of our hypothesis and can be seen in Table 2.
the SAWS separately. Figure  1A shows the relationship In Model 1, the demographic variables (gender, age, age
between age and total wisdom score. The quadratic trend is squared, and education) were entered as a block. The overall
significant (β = −23, p < .001). Total wisdom increases from model, accounting for 7.7% of variance in mental health, was
younger adulthood, reaches a peak in midlife, and thereaf- significant, F (4, 507) = 11.64, p < .001; only age squared
ter declines. Because this type of curvilinear relationship is and education level contributed to the explained variance.
an important new finding, we examined the age profiles for In Model 2, the personality variables of neuroticism,
each of the SAWS subscales separately in order to deter- extraversion, and openness to experience were entered as
mine what might be driving this overall relationship. a block. The overall model, accounting for an additional
As can be seen in Figure  1B, the quadratic trend for 23.8% of the variance in mental health, was significant,
critical life experience is significant (β = −.13, p < .005). F (7, 504) = 34.26, p < .001; all three personality variables
Critical life experiences increase in age from young adult- contributed to the explained variance. Finally, in Model 3,
hood to midlife, after which they level out or slightly we added the total wisdom score as a block. The overall
increase in older adulthood. Figure 1C shows a significant model, accounting for an additional 4.4% of the variance in
quadratic trend in emotional regulation (β = −.22, p < .001). mental health, was significant, F (8, 503) = 36.30, p < .001.
Emotional regulation increases from young adulthood, In the final model, gender, age squared, neuroticism,
peaks in midlife, after which it declines to levels similar extraversion, and wisdom all significantly contributed to the
to younger adults. Figure 1D shows a significant quadratic explained variance in mental health scores. Age, education
trend for openness (β = −.23, p < .001). Scores from young level, and the personality trait of openness to experience
adulthood to midlife are initially high and stay stable, after failed to contribute to explained variance.
 WISDOM AND MENTAL HEALTH ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

A B

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C D

E F

Figure 1.  (A) Quadratic trend in wisdom as a function of age, (B) in critical life experiences as a function of age, (C) in emotional regulation as a function of age,
(D) in openness as a function of age, (E) in humor as a function of age, and (F) in reminiscence/reflection as a function of age.
Page 6 of 10 WEBSTER ET AL.

Table 2.  Hierarchic Regression on Total Mental Health Continuum-Short Form 

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Variable β t sig β t sig β t sig
Sex .042 0.974 .331 .111 2.884 .004 .095 2.532 .012
Age −.026 −0.591 .555 .012 0.303 .762 −.033 −0.830 .407
Age2 −.187 −4.049 .000 −.145 −3.600 .000 −.115 −2.938 .003
Educ .152 3.160 .002 .022 0.518 .605 .026 0.621 .535
Neur −.257 −6.009 .000 −.251 −6.055 .000
Extr .311 7.492 .000 .229 5.370 .000
Open .176 4.432 .000 .056 1.284 .200
SAWS .260 5.885 .000
R .290 .568 .605
Adj. R2 .077 .313 .356
ΔR2 .084 .238 .044
F 11.637* 34.256* 36.304*

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Note. Sex (males = 1; females = 2); Age2 = age squared; Educ = education level; Neur = neuroticism; Extr = extraversion; Open = openness to experience;
SAWS = Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale.
*p < .001.

Discussion Many of the life events indexed in the SAWS are strongly
This study examined the relationship among wisdom, emotional in tone and require emotional regulation strate-
age, and mental health. We used a European lifespan sam- gies. We found that middle-aged adults scored higher than
ple, employing a psychometrically sound measure of wis- both the younger and older adults on the emotional regula-
dom. Results both augment and extend prior research in tion subscale. These findings are consistent with dynamic
this area. integration theory (Labouvie-Vief, 2009; Labouvie-Vief,
Bivariate correlations show that, consistent with most Diehl, Jain, & Zhang, 2007), which differentiates between
previous findings using the SAWS, neither age nor gender affect optimization and affect complexity. The former
was associated with wisdom (Taylor et  al., 2011). Other “reflects an emphasis on maintaining hedonic tone by max-
questionnaire measures of wisdom report similar findings imizing positive affect and minimizing negative affect in
when only younger and older adults are compared directly. regulating emotions” (Labouvie-Vief et al., 2007, p. 738).
The inclusion of a midlife sample in this study allowed us to Age differences in this facet parallel those reported by oth-
extend previous findings. As expected, midlife adults scored ers employing different conceptual orientations, such as
highest on measures of wisdom, with younger and older socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 2006) in
adults scoring at the same average level. These findings are which older adults report similar or slightly higher levels of
consistent with the combined crystallized/fluid intelligence happiness and life satisfaction relative to younger persons.
model proposed by Sternberg (2005) described earlier. In contrast, affect complexity focuses on “objectivity,
Such declines in later adulthood are seen in the Berlin wis- personal growth, individuation, and emotional and concep-
dom paradigm as well (Baltes & Staudinger, 2000) and so tual complexity” (Labouvie-Vief et al., 2007, p. 738). Here,
are unlikely to be restricted to the particular measure used a curvilinear relationship with age is often found, with mid-
in this study. We investigated this curvilinear trend in more dle-aged adults scoring higher than both younger and older
detail by examining the age trends in each of the subscales adults; these findings clearly mirror the present results.
of the SAWS separately. Thus, affect complexity is closer to eudaimonic, rather than
We found that critical life experiences increased from hedonic, well-being. As such, affect complexity should have
young adulthood to middle age. Thereafter, experiences a stronger relationship to wisdom than affect optimization.
continued to increase but at a nonsignificant level, sug- Indeed, in this study, we found that the association between
gesting that the type of life events that ostensibly con- wisdom and eudaimonic well-being was stronger than the
tribute to wisdom development accrue over time, a fact association between wisdom and hedonistic well-being.
giving rise to the common perception that wisdom must, According to Labouvie-Vief and coworkers (2007), the
therefore, increase with age. Although age and experience reflective and executive processes that are required for affec-
are positively correlated, experience per se does not nec- tive monitoring are jeopardized by later-life declines in cog-
essarily produce wisdom, as demonstrated in this study. nitive resources. This suggests that the emotional resources
In fact, the quality of the experience, one’s inclination required to sort through, evaluate, and eventually synthesize
to reflect upon such events, and the competence to grow complex affective states remain immature in younger adult-
from adversity (among other factors) are more influential hood, peaks in middle age, and then begins a decline after
in wisdom development than experience (and therefore about age 60 due to the impaired cognitive resources identi-
age) alone. fied by Labouvie-Vief and others. In order to fully examine
 WISDOM AND MENTAL HEALTH ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

powerful emotional experiences and appreciate and synthe- related to the type of humor measured by the SAWS and so
size complex and nuanced emotional states, an openness is remain suggestive rather than definitive.
required to do so. We found age differences in the SAWS Finally, the findings on the reminiscence/reflectiveness
openness subscale scores as well. component are consistent with results employing lifespan
Openness was lowest in the older adults in this sam- samples and using psychometrically sound measures of
ple. These results are consistent with personality findings, reminiscence (Webster, 1993, 2003; Webster, Bohlmeijer, &
both cross-sectional and longitudinal, in which openness Westerhof, 2010). Using the Reminiscence Functions Scale
shows small declines with age (Donnellan & Lucas, 2008; (RFS; Webster, 1993) with adults ranging in age from late
Pedersen & Reynolds, 1998; Stephan, 2009). Because adolescence to the mid-90s, results consistently show that
openness is associated with curiosity, engagement in novel there are no age differences in total reminiscence score, but
actions, and willingness to entertain complex and perhaps there are age differences on the subscores (the RFS assesses
initially uncomfortable new opinions, it plays a strong role eight different reminiscence functions). For instance, older
in the development and maintenance of wisdom. Small adults tend to score higher on social functions of reminis-
declines in older adulthood in this component, then, help cence, such as teaching others about their life experiences,

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explain the overall decrease in total wisdom reported in the whereas younger adults tend to score higher on self-related
current project. Openness also increases the likelihood that functions having to do with identity formation, as well as a
persons can laugh at themselves and not take themselves ruminative type of reminiscence associated with negative
too seriously. As Erikson (cited in Friedman (1999)) stated, memories.
“I can’t imagine a wise old person who can’t laugh. The In summary, midlife adults score higher than both
world is full of ridiculous dichotomies” (p. 468). younger and older adults on certain subdimensions of wis-
Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence dom (e.g., critical life experiences, emotional regulation,
specifically investigating age differences in sense of humor relative to younger adults; openness, humor, and emotional
(Ruch, McGhee, & Hehl, 1990). A relatively recent, large regulation, relative to older adults). Midlife adults have a
scale study of over 55,000 Norwegians, however, provides critical mass of life experiences and the cognitive strengths
some preliminary evidence. Svebak, Martin, and Holmen and emotional resources to process such events. Midlife
(2004) administered a 3-item sense of humor scale, as part is a time when adults are often at their peak in terms of
of a larger health study, to the entire population of adults earning power, crystallized intelligence, empathy (O’Brian,
20 and older in a county in Norway. Results indicated that Konrath, Gruhn, & Hagen, 2012), and social engagement
sense of humor and age were significantly, and negatively, (e.g., caregiving for both older parents and younger chil-
correlated (r = −.29). These results are consistent with our dren; colleague interactions at work). Moreover, physical
bivariate finding that age and humor were also negatively health and cognitive resources (e.g., fluid intelligence) are
correlated (r  =  −.17). Caution must be used in this also at high, albeit not maximum, strength. As such, they are
comparison, however, as the type of humor assessed via the both more likely to be in a position in which wise decisions
SAWS (i.e., a willingness to laugh at oneself, a prosocial and behaviors are required, as well as have the resources
type of humor used to put other persons at ease, and a sense (e.g., cognitive, motivational, emotional) at their disposal
of irony) is not identical to the type of humor assessed to evince sagacity. In terms of mental health, bivariate cor-
in Svebak and coworkers (2004). Notwithstanding these relations supported our prediction that wisdom would be
potential differences, Svebak and coworkers’ (2004) results positively correlated with overall well-being. These results
corroborate our findings. Given the paucity of research are consistent with prior findings using the SAWS and psy-
on age differences in the sense of humor, theoretical chological well-being (Taylor et  al., 2011) and different
explanations for the current results are difficult to identify. measures of wisdom (e.g., 3-dimensional wisdom scale;
One possible link is with openness, which as described Ardelt, 1997) and life satisfaction. Our measure of mental
earlier, shows a well-documented decline with age. In the health included the three components of emotional, social,
current project, openness and humor are positively corre- and psychological well-being, and wisdom has been associ-
lated (r = .55), suggesting a link between the two. Ruch and ated with this broad measure of mental health.
coworkers (1990) also noted a link between certain types of For instance, wise persons have a rich and differenti-
humor (e.g., incongruity resolution versus nonsense humor) ated emotional life and can recognize and utilize both
with personality traits such as conservatism and sensation subtle nuances and gross feeling states to solve problems
seeking. The former personality dimension increases, and and adapt to their environment; moreover, wise individuals
the latter personality dimension decreases, with age that cultivate, nurture, and exercise positive social exchanges,
helps explain the finding that older adults tended to prefer which have benefits for both themselves and others, as
incongruity-resolution types of humor (which is simpler indicated by associations with wisdom and measures of
and has closure) in contrast to nonsense humor (which is forgiveness and generativity, for instance (Taylor et  al.,
more open ended and ambiguous). Again, the results of 2011; Webster, 2010); finally, wise people, through their
Ruch and coworkers (1990) are relevant but not directly reflective, ironic, and perspective-taking abilities, are able
Page 8 of 10 WEBSTER ET AL.

to generally maintain feelings of self-efficacy, satisfaction, development of positive mental health, or perhaps some
meaning, and purpose in life. other variable (e.g., relationship quality) causes both wis-
Our findings further our understanding of the relationship dom and mental health to increase. Longitudinal studies are
between wisdom and mental health by examining hedon- needed to disentangle such rival explanations. It is likely
istic and eudaimonic aspects separately. Wise persons do that the wisdom–mental health relationship is complex,
in fact, like the majority of adults, seek out and appreciate dynamic, and dialectic. Despite this caveat, given the strong
pleasure in life, as indicated by the significant positive cor- association between wisdom and mental health in this
relation between wisdom and hedonistic elements of well- study, it seems reasonable for future research to explore if
being in this study. But more than that, wise persons pursue and how wisdom may be enhanced in persons throughout
the good life through the pursuit of meaning and purpose, as the life course.
illustrated by the stronger correlation between wisdom and For instance, recent conjectures on the teachability of
eudaimonic elements of well-being reported here. wisdom (Ferrari & Potworowski, 2008) suggest that pro-
Finally, the regression results are important in that they grams to enhance wisdom might pay important dividends in
mitigate earlier concerns (Staudinger, Dorner, & Mickler, mental health for adults of all ages, perhaps in particular for

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2005) that questionnaire measures of wisdom may be mostly older individuals. Such efforts can involve both structured,
explained by personality factors. We found that, indeed, didactic approaches in school settings (Sternberg, Jarvin,
the personality variables of neuroticism, extraversion, and & Reznitskaya, 2008), community activities such as inter-
openness to experience are related to wisdom and to mental generational volunteering (Parisi et  al., 2009), and thera-
health. Despite this, wisdom accounted for an additional peutic interventions aimed at increasing wisdom (Knight &
amount of variance above and beyond personality and Laidlaw, 2009). For instance, wisdom might be a relevant
demographic variables combined (see Model 3, Table  2) process measure in the context of life-review interventions
and so it seems unlikely that the wisdom–mental health (Korte, Bohlmeijer, Cappeliez, Smit, & Westerhof, 2012;
association can be explained away by personality traits. In Westerhof, Bohlmeijer & Webster, 2010). Wisdom has been
fact, wisdom was found to have the strongest relation to linked to increased self-knowledge in the context of auto-
mental health. biographical reasoning (Randall, 2011). An interesting new
line of research would then be to include wisdom as a pos-
sible mediating factor in experimental studies of the effects
Limitations and Future Directions of life review.
As with any cross-sectional study, certain limitations Aging well requires adaptation and accommodation to
are apparent, the primary one being the age by cohort con- the changing vicissitudes of life. Developing a mature, bal-
found. Although the age differences in educational levels anced, and eudaimonic orientation as we grow older may
can be seen as a potential cohort effect, they only explain facilitate optimal aging, and wisdom is one means through
part of the curvilinear relationship between age and wis- which this may be accomplished.
dom. Still, it is possible that the age differences we describe
are due to different formative experiences of the three age Acknowledgments
groups (e.g., perhaps humor levels reflect parental training Parts of this paper were presented at the Gerontological Society of
practices that differed across the earlier part of the 20th America’s 64th Annual Scientific meeting, November 18–22, 2011,
Boston, MA.
century) rather than true developmental changes per se.
Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate such issues.
Moreover, as Figure 1A–F makes clear, although there are Correspondence
significant trends for wisdom and its subcomponents as a Correspondence should be addressed to Jeffrey Dean Webster, M.Ed.,
Psychology Department, Langara College, 100 West 49th Avenue,
function of age, it is important to acknowledge the large Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Y 2Z6. E-mail: jwebster@lan-
variability within age groups. In all three age groups, there gara.bc.ca.
is a wide deviation in scores, suggesting that even in the
younger and older categories, a certain percentage of people References
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