ObjectivePost‐traumatic growth typically refers to enduring positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity, trauma, or highly challenging life circumstances. Critics have challenged insights from much of the prior research on this topic, pinpointing its significant methodological limitations. In response to these critiques, we propose that post‐traumatic growth can be more accurately captured in terms of personality change—an approach that affords a more rigorous examination of the phenomenon.MethodWe outline a set of conceptual and methodological questions and considerations for future work on the topic of post‐traumatic growth.ResultsWe provide a series of recommendations for researchers from across the disciplines of clinical/counseling, developmental, health, personality, and social psychology and beyond, who are interested in improving the quality of research examining resilience and growth in the context of adversity.ConclusionWe are hopeful that these recommendations will pave the way for a more accurate understanding of the ubiquity, durability, and causal processes underlying post‐traumatic growth.

multiple comparisons/tests, we adjusted P values in accord with the appropriate correction. Statistical significance was set at P less than 0.05 with respect to final (adjusted) P values. Variation is reported as SEM. Additional information about Materials and Methods can be found in the Supplemental Materials.

Posttraumatic growth typically refers to enduring positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity, trauma, or highly challenging life circumstances. Critics have challenged insights from much of the prior research on this topic, pinpointing its significant methodological limitations. In response to these critiques, we propose that posttraumatic growth can be more accurately captured in terms of personality change—an approach that affords a more rigorous examination of the phenomenon.We outline a set of conceptual and methodological questions and considerations for future work on the topic of post-traumatic growth.We provide a series of recommendations for researchers from across the disciplines of clinical/counseling, developmental, health, personality, and social psychology and beyond, who are interested in improving the quality of research examining resilience and growth in the context of adversity.We are hopeful that these recommendations will pave the way for a more accurate understanding of the ubiquity, durability and causal processes underlying post-traumatic growth.

How can people wisely navigate social conflict? Two preregistered longitudinal experiments (Study 1: Canadian adults; Study 2: American and Canadian adults; total N = 555) tested whether encouraging distanced (i.e., third-person) self-reflection would help promote wisdom. Both experiments measured wise reasoning (i.e., intellectual humility, open-mindedness about how situations could unfold, consideration of and attempts to integrate diverse viewpoints) about challenging interpersonal events. In a month-long experiment (Study 1), participants used either a third- or first-person perspective in diary reflections on each day’s most significant experience. Compared with preintervention assessments, assessments made after the intervention revealed that participants reflecting in the third person showed a significant increase in wise reasoning about interpersonal challenges. These effects were statistically accounted for by shifts in diary-based reflections toward a broader self-focus. A week-long experiment (Study 2) replicated the third-person self-reflection effect on wise reasoning (vs. first-person and no-pronoun control conditions). These findings suggest an efficient and evidence-based method for fostering wise reasoning.

Highlights Practical wisdom concerns superior deliberation about acting in complex situations  Most previous, person-centric methods to study wisdom are faulty and misguided  Wisdom varies across environments, incl. social class and self-centrality of situation  Social-ecological framework needed to understand practical wisdom's social function