The Relationship Between Wisdom And The Meaning Of Life: Cross-section, Tracing, And Experimental Evidence

Wisdom and meaning in life were both crucial issues in philosophy for a long time,which have also been two key topics of positive psychology in the last half century.However,there is still room for new theorizing and empirical work on the relationship between wisdom and meaning in life.In theory,we could find relevant contents from Erikson's theory of psychosocial development,Berlin Wisdom Paradigm and eastern wisdom thoughts,but they seem too scattered.In empirical aspects,the causal relationship and underlying mechanism between these two variables were still unclear.And both wisdom and meaning in life are important developments for youth,so using young sample could not only illuminate the relationship between wisdom and meaning but also provide implications for educational practice.Thus,the current study,which was based on IWT(Theory of Wisdom Integrated Morality with Artificial Intelligence),designed a cross-sectional study(studyl),a longitudinal study(study2)and an experiment(study 2)to examine the relationship between wisdom and meaning in life among youth.Study 1 aimed to investigate the underlying mechanism between wisdom and meaning in life.Study 1 conducted Internet-based research by the Questionnaire Star(www.wjx.cn).getting a valid sample of 617 individuals(included students and workers).The measures included IWS(Integrative Wisdom Scale),C-MLQ(Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire)and C-SMLQ(Sources of Meaning in Life Questionnaire).Results showed that the chain mediating effect of SM-C(Sources of Meaning-Cognitive,Ideal)and SM-B(Sources of Meaning-Behavioral,Actual)between wisdom and meaning in life was significant.More specifically,wisdom could help individuals not merely comprehend sources of meaning in life but also acquire them successfully.and one would gain an abundant sense of meaning in life at last.Study 2 intended to explore the quasi-causal relationship between wisdom and meaning in life.The same measures with Study 1 were used in the same sample after 6 months.There were 530 valid young adults(T2)who matched with the data in Study 1(T1).Independent sample t-tests revealed no significant differences at the.05 level of significance between respondents who retained and those who were lost.Cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that wisdom(T1)could not predict meaning in life(T2).Instead,meaning in life(both PM and SM;T1)could positively predict wisdom(T2).Multiple regression analysis also showed that social concern(SM-C;T1)and self-growth(SM-B;T1)could positively predict wisdom(T2),and life enjoyment(SM-B;T1)could negatively predict wisdom(T2).Study 3 aimed to examine the causality between wisdom and meaning in life.study 3 recruited 109 volunteers from the internet,getting a convenience sample of 93 valid young subjects.The participants were randomly assigned to three conditions:wise reflection,pure reflection and no reflection.The researcher manipulated wisdom by a four-weeks diary task to examine the impact of wisdom on meaning in life.The results indicated that the diary task effectively manipulated subjects' degree of wise reflection;wise reflection could efficiently promote meaning in life.Finally,the causality and mechanism of wisdom and meaning in life are discussed.And the current study concludes that:(1)The association between these two variables may be reciprocal.(2)From the view of mental process,wise people could gain a sense of meaning in life through comprehending and acquiring sources of meaning in life;from the perspective of life realm,different levels of wisdom parallels with different depths of meaning in different layers of life realm.