Summary: Researchers at the University of California San Diego have created a new assessment tool, the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), to measure individual levels of wisdom. The scale is grounded in a neurobiological and psychosocial model and aims to capture distinct components of wisdom.
Source: UCSD.
UC San Diego researchers introduce the San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), a new instrument designed to assess wisdom as a measurable trait informed by neurobiology and psychosocial theory.
The results appear in the September 2017 issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
“Emerging evidence suggests that levels of wisdom are substantially influenced by brain systems and specific neural regions,” said Dilip Jeste, MD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and director of the UC San Diego Center for Healthy Aging. “Existing wisdom measures do not fully incorporate these neurobiological models. SD-WISE was developed to reflect that contemporary understanding and to provide a practical tool for both clinical and research settings.”
For this initial validation, the research team drew on 524 participants from San Diego County, aged 25 to 104, enrolled in the longitudinal Successful Aging Evaluation (SAGE) study. The sample included slightly more women than men, a majority who identified as non-Latino white, and many with at least some college education. The average age of participants was 58.
Participants completed the newly developed SD-WISE alongside two established measures: the 12-item Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale and the 40-item Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale. These established instruments served as comparison standards because of their documented reliability and validity.
SD-WISE differs from prior scales by explicitly grounding its items in a literature review and expert consensus, aligning each item with commonly cited domains of wisdom and the neurobiological systems thought to support them. The researchers’ framework identifies six core domains commonly linked to wisdom: prosocial attitudes and behaviors (empathy, altruism, social cooperation), social decision-making or pragmatic life knowledge, emotional regulation, reflection and self-understanding, tolerance of diverse values, and the capacity to handle uncertainty and ambiguity.
Neuroscientific evidence links these domains to specific brain regions and systems. For example, prosocial attitudes and complex social behavior are associated with the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which governs executive function. Other domains relate to regions within the limbic system, the amygdala, and neurotransmitter systems such as monoamines. SD-WISE was constructed to reflect these conceptual and biological associations.
Factor analyses supported the intended measurement model: SD-WISE reliably captured five of the six target domains and partially measured the sixth (social decision-making) through items labeled as “social advising.” SD-WISE total scores demonstrated internal consistency, convergent validity with existing wisdom scales, and discriminant validity from measures of general mental state. As hypothesized, higher SD-WISE scores correlated positively with measures of psychological well-being and negatively with emotional distress, though these associations were modest—indicating SD-WISE measures a construct related to, but distinct from, global mood or mental health.
The investigators concluded that SD-WISE shows promising psychometric properties as a brief, theory-driven scale that connects psychosocial definitions of wisdom with a proposed neurobiological model. Michael L. Thomas, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and first author of the study, noted that aligning measurement with contemporary biological models increases the scale’s relevance for interdisciplinary research into how wisdom arises and functions across the lifespan.
Study limitations were acknowledged. The sample was demographically narrow—largely Caucasian and relatively well educated—which constrains the generalizability of findings. Data were self-reported, which is efficient for large studies but can introduce response biases. The authors emphasize that additional validation across diverse cultural, racial-ethnic, educational, and international samples is needed to confirm reliability and validity in broader populations.
Looking ahead, the research team suggests SD-WISE can support investigations into the development of wisdom, its neural correlates as revealed by neuroimaging and genetics, and potentially interventions designed to enhance wisdom-related capacities. With further validation, SD-WISE could be useful in clinical practice, aging research, and interdisciplinary studies that bridge psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and public health.
Study contributors: Michael L. Thomas, Katherine J. Bangen, Barton W. Palmer, Colin A. Depp, A’verria Sirkin, Julie A. Avanzino, Danielle Glorioso, Rebecca E. Daly, and Dilip V. Jeste, affiliated with UC San Diego and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Funding: Supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), the VA Clinical Science Research & Development Award, and the Stein Institute for Research on Aging.
Original research: “A new scale for assessing wisdom based on common domains and a neurobiological model: The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE),” Journal of Psychiatric Research, published online September 8, 2017.
Note: This summary synthesizes the study’s aims, methods, results, limitations, and implications without introducing new findings beyond those reported by the authors.