Introducing concept of wisdom in psychology and its Educational applications

Abstract

Wisdom is an old concept in ancient history of philosophical and religious texts, but it is about two or three decades that this concept was introduced to psychological debates and empirical research in various areas of psychology. Theorists based on their philosophical orientation and their psychological focuses have tried to define the concept, but up to now there is no accepted definition of it. Educational psychologists using this concept also make efforts to present applied theories and methods to teach this ability or virtue. This paper briefly have introduced and compared three comprehensive and new theories in this field: Balance theory of wisdom, Berlin wisdom paradigm, and three-dimensional model of wisdom. Also some ideas and findings in education of wisdom have been pointed out.

Keywords

• Wisdom
• Berlin wisdom paradigm
• Balance theory of wisdom
• implicit theories
• explicit theories
• Education