Gender Differences on the Concept of Wisdom: An International Comparison

Women and Men Differ in Relative Strengths in Wisdom Profiles: A Study of 659 Adults Across the Lifespan

“…Boys and men tend to be socialized toward behaviors including toughness and leadership, which may translate into being more decisive and in control of emotions, whereas girls and women tend to be socialized toward behaviors including warmth and caretaking, which may translate into pro-social behaviors including being compassionate and accepting of diverse people and ideas (Eagly, 2013). Male adolescents conceptualize wise people as somewhat more calculating, strict, and questioning than female adolescents do (Hollingworth et al, 2013); a description that fits well with being decisive and more focused on cognitive processes rather than emotion. Female adolescents conceptualize wise people as somewhat more cooperative, optimistic, extroverted, and spontaneous than male adolescents do (Hollingworth et al, 2013); which similarly aligns with being compassionate and oriented toward others.…”

“…It also allows for the consideration of individualized pathways to wisdom. The existence of wisdom subdomains, alongside previous discussion regarding individual development and pursuit of wisdom (e.g., Aldwin, 2009;Hollingworth et al, 2013), suggests the existence of 'wisdom profiles, ' with varying strengths and weaknesses. It may further suggest that individuals, and perhaps identifiable groups like women and men, may pursue and achieve wisdom and its associated positive psychiatry outcomes, via different paths.…”

“…This variance may impact the development of wisdom. For example, an international study of 800 female and male adolescents 15-18 years old identified different conceptualizations of wisdom; male adolescents tended to describe wise people as calculating, strict, and questioning, while female adolescents tended to conceptualize wise people as cooperative, optimistic, extroverted, and spontaneous (Hollingworth et al, 2013). However, gender differences between adults in wisdom concepts tend to be quite small (e.g., Glück et al, 2009;Glück and Bluck, 2011;König and Glück, 2013), although they do follow the integrative/cognitive pattern.…”

“…Therefore, although there is notable overlap in wisdom conceptualization across gender, there are also some distinctions. Those distinctions may translate into differences into how people develop or intentionally pursue wisdom (Hollingworth et al, 2013). Ardelt (2003) also suggested that women and men may receive different levels of support from others in the pursuit of different components of wisdom based on gender-based norms; i.e., that an average man might be encouraged to advance their cognitive wisdom through learning and reflection more than an average woman.…”

Factors Affecting the Wisdom of Counselors: Perceptions of Indonesian Pre-service Counselors

“…Empirical studies show that gender and age have a significant positive effect on overall wisdom and on the cognitive, reflective, and affective dimensions (Cheraghi, Kadivar, Ardelt, Asgari, & Farzad, 2015). Other studies (Hollingworth, Sánchez-Escobedo, Graudina, Misiuniene, & Park, 2013) indicated that gender contributes 52% to the variation in wisdom of adolescents aged 15-18 years in Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Korea, and the USA. In adolescent boys, 34.7% of variation in wisdom is explained by factors of personality, responsibility, goal orientation, and creativity.…”