Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-vmslq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-25T23:18:26.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age differences in spirituality, mystical experiences and wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2008

THAO N. LE
THAO N. LE*
Affiliation:
Human Development and Family Studies Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Thao N. Le, Human Development and Family Studies, 119G Gifford, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. E-mail: tle@cahs.colostate.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although philosophical and contemplative traditions suggest that religiousness and spirituality are associated with wisdom, few empirical studies have examined the relationship. This paper investigates the associations between spirituality and mystical experiences and two types of wisdom: practical wisdom, primarily the ability to understand and resolve difficult life dilemmas (or an ‘expert’ knowledge system and the highest level of synthesised mental functioning), and transcendent wisdom, which goes beyond personal self-interests, biases and perceptions, and involves the ability to see things or others as they are directly. Two studies are reported. The first is of mostly older European-American and Vietnamese-American adults. It was found that mystical experiences promoted transcendent wisdom, but that the effect was moderated by self-enhancement values of power, status and achievement. The Vietnamese-American adults who reported mystical experiences and endorsed high self-enhancement values scored the lowest on transcendent wisdom. Being part of a religious or spiritual community positively associated with transcendent wisdom. On the other hand, religiousness, spirituality and mystical experiences did not relate to practical wisdom. The second study was of European-American and Vietnamese-American young adult students. It found that institutional and personal religious/spiritual practice was associated with two self-report measures of wisdom. Regardless of the mechanisms and processes associated with spirituality and mystical experiences, its fruits appear to be associated with transcendent wisdom.

Keywords

wisdomspiritualityself-enhancement valuesmysticismvaluesculture

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , April 2008 , pp. 383 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahmadi, F. 1998. Sufism and gerotranscendence: the impact of way of thinking, culture, and aging on spiritual maturity. Journal of Aging and Identity, 3, 4, 189–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aiken, L. S. and West, S. G. 1991. Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. Sage, Newbury Park, California.Google Scholar
Alexander, C. N., Davies, J. L., Dixon, C. A., Dillbeck, M. C., Druker, S. M. and Oetzel, R. A. 1990. Growth of higher stages of consciousness: Maharishi's vedic psychology of human development. In Alexander, C. N. and Langer, E. J. (eds) Higher Stages of Human Development: Perspectives on Adult Growth. Oxford University Press, New York, 286–341.Google Scholar
Ardelt, M. 1998. Social crisis and individual growth: the long-term effects of the great depression. Journal of Aging Studies, 12, 3, 291–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardelt, M. 2003. Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging, 25, 3, 275–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arlin, P. K. (1990). Wisdom: the art of problem-finding. In Sternberg, R. J. (ed.) Wisdom: Its Nature, Origins and Developments. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 230–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assmann, A. 1994. Wholesome knowledge: concepts of wisdom in a historical and cross-cultural perspective. In Featherman, D. L., Lerner, R. M. and Perlmutter, M. (eds) Life-Span Development and Behavior. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 188–224.Google Scholar
Atchley, R. C. 1997. Everyday mysticism: spiritual development in later adulthood. Journal of Adult Development, 4, 2, 123–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baltes, P. B. and Staudinger, U. M. 2000. Wisdom: a metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 1, 122–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batson, C. D., Schoenrade, P. and Ventis, W. L. 1993. Religion and the Individual: A Social-psychological Perspective. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bauer, J. J. and McAdams, D. P. 2004. Growth goals, maturity, and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1, 114–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beauregard, K. S. and Dunning, D. 1998. Turning up the contrast: self-enhancement motives prompt egocentric contrast effects in social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 3, 606–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, E. 1971. The Birth and Death of Meaning. Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Birren, J. E. and Fisher, L. M. 1990. The elements of wisdom: overview and integration. In Sternberg, R. J. (ed.) Wisdom: Its Nature, Origins and Developments. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 317–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birren, J. E. and Svensson, C. M. 2005. Wisdom in history. In Sternberg, R. J. and Jordan, J. (eds) A Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York, 3–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, S. and Gluck, J. 2005. From the inside out: people's implicit theories of wisdom. In Sternberg, R. J. and Jordan, J. (eds) A Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York, 84–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandstädter, J. and Rothermund, K. 2003. Intentionality and time in human development and again: compensation and goal adjustment in changing developmental contexts. In Staudinger, U. M. and Lindenberger, U. (eds) Understanding Human Development: Dialogues with Lifespan Psychology. Kluwer, New York, 105–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chinen, A. B. 1989. From quantitative to qualitative reasoning: a developmental perspective. In Thomas, E. E. (eds) Research on Adulthood and Aging: The Human Science Approach. State University of New York Press, Albany, New York.Google Scholar
Claxton, G. 1999. Neurotheology: Buddhism, cognitive science and mystical experience. In Watson, G., Batchelor, S. and Claxton, G. (eds) The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science and Our Day-to-Day Lives. Rider Random House, London, 90–111.Google Scholar
Clayton, V. and Birren, J. E. 1980. The development of wisdom across the life span: a reexamination of an ancient topic. In Baltes, P. B. and Brim, O. R. (eds) Life Span Development and Behavior. Academic, New York, 103–35.Google Scholar
Cloninger, C. R. 2003. Completing the psychobiological architecture of human personality development: temperament, character, and coherence. In Staudinger, U. M. and Lindenberger, U. (eds) Understanding Human Development: Dialogues with Lifespan Psychology. Kluwer, New York, 159–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Csiksentmihalyi, M. 1993. The Evolving Self. Harper Perennial, New York.Google Scholar
Curnow, T. 1999. Wisdom, Intuition and Ethics. Ashgate, Aldershot, Hampshire.Google Scholar
Deikman, A. 1966. Implications of experimentally produced contemplative meditation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 142, 2, 101–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, D. 1999. A newer look: motivated social cognition and the schematic representation of social concepts. Psychological Inquiry, 10, 1, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edmonson, R. 2005. Wisdom in later life: ethnographic approaches. Aeging & Society, 25, 3, 339–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, R. A. 1986. Personal strivings: an approach to personality and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 5, 1058–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman, R. 1990. The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy. Oxford University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helson, R. and Srivastava, S. 2002. Creative and wise people: similarities, differences, and how they develop. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 10, 1430–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hills, P. C. and Argyle, M. 1998. Musical and religious experiences and their relationship to happiness. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 1, 91–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hills, P. C. and Pargament, K. L. 2003. Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: Implications for physical and mental health research. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 64–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hills, P. C., Pargament, K. L., Hood, R. W. Jr, McCullough, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B. and Sinnbaver, B. J. 2000. Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 30, 1, 51–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, S. G. and Chandler, M. J. 1986. Wisdom: Explorations in Adult Competence. Karger, Basel, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Huitt, W. 1999. Conation as an important factor of mind. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia. Available online at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/conation.html [Accessed 11 September 2007].Google Scholar
James, W. 1985. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Jaynes, J. 1976. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G. and Sörbom, D. 2001. LISREL Version 8.54. Scientific Software International, Chicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. 1933. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Harcour, Brace and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Kass, J. D., Friedman, R., Leserman, J., Zuttermeister, P. C. and Benson, H. 1991. Health outcomes and a new index of spiritual experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 2, 203–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, S. 1978. Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. L., D'Mello, M. and Aldwin, C. M. 2004. Spirituality and Wisdom: Findings from the Davis Longitudinal Study. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the America Psychological Association. Honolulu, Hawaii, July 28.Google Scholar
Kramer, D. A. 1990. Conceptualizing wisdom: the primacy of affect-cognition relations. In Sternberg, R. J. (eds) Wisdom: Its Nature, Origins, and Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 279–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, D. A. 2000. Wisdom as a classical source of human strength: conceptualization and empirical inquiry. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 19, 1, 83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunzmann, U. and Baltes, P. 2003. Wisdom-related knowledge: affective, motivational and interpersonal correlates. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 9, 1104–19.Google ScholarPubMed
Langer, E. J. 1989. Mindfulness. Addison Wesley, Redding, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Le, T. N. 2004. A Cross-Cultural Study of Practical and Transcendent Wisdom. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Davis. Available through Dissertation Abstracts International, DAI-B 65/09 (AAT 3148469). ProQuest Information and Learning, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Online at http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0035.htmlGoogle Scholar
Leary, M. 2004. The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Levenson, M. R. and Crumpler, C. A. 1996. Three models of adult development. Human Development, 39, 3, 135–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levenson, M. R., Jennings, P. A., Aldwin, C. M. and Shiraishi, R. W. 2005. Self-transcendence: conceptualizations and measurements. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60, 2, 127–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewin, F. A. 2001. Gerotranscendence and different cultural settings. Ageing & Society, 21, 4, 395–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lutz, A., Greischar, L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M. and Davidson, R. J. 2004. Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 46, 16369–73.Google Scholar
McCullough, M. E., Hoyt, W. T., Larson, D. B., Koenig, H. G. and Thoresen, C. 2000. Religious involvement and mortality: a meta-analytic review. Health Psychology 19, 3, 211–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKee, P. and Barber, C. 1999. On defining wisdom. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 49, 2, 149–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, W. R. and Thoresen, C. E. 2003. Spirituality, religion, and health: an emerging research field. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 24–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newberg, A. B. and D'Aquili, E. G. 2000. The neuropsychology of religious and spiritual experience. In Andresen, J. and Forman, R. K. C. (eds) Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps: Interdisciplinary Explorations of Religious Experience. Imprint Academic, Bowling Green, Ohio, 251–66.Google Scholar
Newberg, A. B., D'Aquili, E. G. and Rause, V. 2001. Why God Won't Go Away. Ballantine, New York.Google Scholar
Oishi, S., Schimmack, U., Diener, E. and Suh, E. M. 1998. The measurement of values and individualism-collectivism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 11, 1177–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osbeck, L. M. and Robinson, D. N. 2005. Philosophical theories of wisdom. In Sternberg, R. J. and Jordan, J. (eds) A Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York, 61–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L. and Thoresen, C. E. 2003. Religion and spirituality: linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 36–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosch, E. 2002. What Buddhist Meditation Has To Tell Psychology About the Mind. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, California, August 23, 2002.Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H. 1994. Are there universal aspects in the structure and content of human values? Journal of Social Issues, 50, 4, 19–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, T. B., McCullough, M. E. and Poll, J. 2003. Religiousness and depression: evidence for main effects and the moderating influence of stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 4, 614–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spilka, B., Hood, R. W., Hunsberger, B. and Gorsuch, R. 2003. The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach. Guilford Press, New York.Google Scholar
Staudinger, U. M. 1996. Wisdom and the social-interactive foundation of the mind. In Baltes, P. and Staudinger, U. M. (eds) Interactive Minds. Cambridge University Press, New York, 276–315.Google Scholar
Staudinger, U. M., Smith, J. and Baltes, P. B. 1997. Manual for the Assessment of Wisdom-Related Knowledge. Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, Berlin.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. 1990 a. Wisdom in its relations to intelligence and creativity. In Sternberg, R. J. (eds) Wisdom: Its Nature, Genesis and Development. Cambridge University Press, New York, 142–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. 1990 b. Wisdom: Its Nature, Genesis and Development. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. and Jordan, J. 2005. A Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, L. E. 1991. Dialogues with three religious renunciates and reflections on wisdom and maturity. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 32, 3, 211–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tiberius, V. 2005. Wisdom and perspective. Journal of Philosophy, 102, 4, 163–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tornstam, L. 1997. Gerotranscendence: the contemplative dimension of aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 11, 2, 143–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, S. G., Aiken, L. S. and Krull, J. L. 1996. Experimental personality designs: analyzing categorical by continuous variable interactions. Journal of Personality, 64, 1, 1–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wink, P. and Dillon, M. 2002. Spiritual development across the adult life course: findings from a longitudinal study. Journal of Adult Development, 9, 1, 79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wink, P. and Dillon, M. 2003. Religiousness, spirituality, and psychosocial functioning in late adulthood: findings from a longitudinal study. Psychology and Aging, 18, 4, 916–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed