Construction and Validation of Wisdom Questionnaire in Iran: An Integrated Approach to its Antecedents, Consequences and Concomitants

This study intended to construct and validate a wisdom questionnaire in Iran with regard to its dimensions, categories and components in the context. All above-20 Iranians comprised the population. Using random cluster sampling, 985 Iranians with different ethnic, gender, age and academic backgrounds were selected. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a 6 dimensional structure of wisdom fits the data. The dimensions were Causal Factors (cognitive skills and abilities, emotional intelligence, and personality characteristics), Core Category (existential integrity, harmony and equilibrium), Context Conditions (religiousness, spirituality, self-excellence, ethics, reflection, and challenging experiences), Intervening Conditions (environmental factors, official and unofficial education system, and family), Strategies (wise reasoning, prosocial attitude and behaviors, wellbeing, consulting, guiding and leading others), and Consequences (human perfection and flourishing, common good and a more just world). Overall, wisdom can be defined as a unique, complex, and multifaceted feature encompassing dynamic integrity and balanced account of different components. To describe wisdom as being the best in all its dimensions makes it an unachievable-for-many ideal but if viewed as a continuum, then individuals’ wisdom can be seen as ranging from much/many to less/few of its dimensions. In fact, wisdom dimensions work in a synergic manner to promote it and its sum is greater than its parts.