Brown and Greene outline their efforts to developing and testing a reliable ‘Wisdom Development Scale’. Their study provides evidence to support the theory that wisdom is a multidimensional construct with the following 7 dimensions:
(1) Self-Knowledge
(2) Emotional Management
(3) Altruism
(4) Inspirational Engagement
(5) Judgment
(6) Life Knowledge
(7) Life Skills
Abstract: In a previous study, a conceptual model of wisdom was created (Brown, 2004a) to better understand integrated learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure this wisdom construct. This article discusses salient aspects of the extant professional literature regarding the measurement of wisdom and details the efforts to develop a valid and reliable Wisdom Development Scale (WDS) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Six of the seven factors were validated and the scale had acceptable confirmatory factor analysis fit. The article concludes with limitations of the study, implications for future research, and potential applications in higher education.
evidence-based wisdom 