There are many different definitions of wisdom. Clayton (1982) defines wisdom as the ability to grasp human nature, which is paradoxical, contradictory and subject to continual change. Clayton discusses research into wisdom and describes wisdom as a term used liberally “in contemporary and historical literature to describe a number of behaviors that have been not yet received recognition from psychologists”  
(p. 315). She is careful to state that the literature does not always show the old to be wise or the young to lack wisdom. 
Wisdom seems to have a function throughout life in terms of guiding development. One cannot discuss wisdom without discussing Erikson’s theory of human development, especially his original eight stages of development (Erikson, 1950, 1959). Erikson has, in his works, discussed thoughts about his own wisdom; and one gets the opinion that wisdom, from Erikson’s point of view, contains much compromise on rather  than solution to life’s major problems. 
Research originating in the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (Smith, Dixon, and Baltes, 1985) has investigated wisdom, looking at the relationship between intellectual growth and decline over the life span. The question about wisdom naturally evolving from intellectual aging is not really settled in this or other work, and wisdom is defined differently from mechanical and pragmatic points of view. 
Simonton (1990) discusses “creativity and wisdom in aging” and states that the capacity often human is wisdom. He reflects that, rather than living “from moment to moment with minimal reflection and even less foresight, human beings can acquire a broad perspective on life, discerning a larger view of life’s meaning than permitted by a hand-to-mouth subsistence”. He relates wisdom to creativity, looking at psychometric indicators and plotting intellectual creativity against age. He determines that precocity and production of intellectual material remains strong throughout life in higher intellectual groups. “Those who are precocious also tend  to display longevity, and both precocity and longevity are positively associated with high output rates per age unit” (p.324). 
The amount of writing on wisdom is far less than on creativity and far more specuative. Energy and aggression to produce and be creative are more likely to occur at a younger age. There are, nevertheless, great artists who have had long periods of unproductivity after initial artistic masterpieces who then, when older, go on to produce final artistic masterpieces. 
Generally, development in the later part of life has not been discussed in nearly the same way as cognitive skills and personality in younger life. More recent research, however, does challenge the view that the intellect deteriorates with age. Clayton and Birren (1980) present “evidence for the plasticity of intelligence as well as demonstrating the large influence  that contextual variables may have when compared with the role of biological factors in the adult intellectual performance.” 
As has been alluded to earlier in this chapter, with more of four population becoming older, retirement has lost much of its utility as a phase of demarcation in life and it has become important to find meaningful activities and roles for those who are older. Identifying wisdom with these older individuals offers a further dimension of usefulness and contribution. It may not exactly be knowledge, although certainly knowledge is part of it; the mastery of previous life and the maturation of view can certainly be seen as part of wisdom. As Meacham (1983) points out; the constructs of intelligence and knowledge “take on diverse meanings as they are considered within changing social and historical contexts” (p.111). He has a number of suggestions as to further research in order to define wisdom better. What is obvious is that new knowledge and wisdom are easier to acquire when there is already a solid previous foundation; wisdom does not therefore suddenly occur a product of aging.How does aging affect these issues? The nature of social transactions does change with age. The nature of understanding and using new knowledge changes with age. Although elsewhere in the chapter it is stated that research shows that personality does not change, we cannot be sure that this is absolutely reliable information and models of wisdom do tend to show a relationship between knowledge, personality, and action. 

Centers for the study of normal aging and development, such as the Foley Center in Milwaukee based at the Medical College of Wisconsin, are becoming more common. They have tended to concentrate in the main on cognitive factors, although more recently some very significant work has been done on personality and what happens to personality throughout the life span. 
The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BSLA), which is now past its thirty-fifth birthday and still grows and changes, has contributed a great deal to the biomedical literature on aging and, as its staff states, findings have helped change aging research, clinical practice, and the way aging is viewed. The study was almost fortuitous, in that it originally formed a group of patients for research on measurements of an enzyme that was predictive of prostate cancer. As more people came back and more new ones came in, the research began to involve a measurement of physical fitness and physical decline. Later on, there was an approach to what was called the aging mind. The work done was related primarily to cognitive features, although coincidentally it was discovered that mental skills probably decline  much less than believed.  
However their most important finding was the stability of personality over the life span. Also, the study has examined the aging spirit. In the GRC’s Laboratory of Personality and Cognition one stereotype after another has exploded . As BLSA participating age, they are not more conservative or cranky or prone to complaining about their health than they were when young. The five-factor model of personality was used which measures neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The dimensions of neuroticism and extroversion were found to be powerful predictors of psychological well-being; it was also found that “the ability to cope with stress does not decline with age” - at least according to the data. Wisdom as a specific aspect of the study was not discussed, although it can be read into the implications of those with stable personalities. 
In contrast to the Baltimore studies, more recent findings that have not yet been published tend to indicate that in fact some degree of isolation and obsessionality may be protective as far as the life span is concerned, and in fact may contributory factors to wisdom. The belief here is that some guardedness leads to taking precautions and care living. Developing observational features about life in general is one part of a looser definition of the development of wisdom. 

Birren (1990) has explored the creative potentials and activities of senior scholars. Birren did a study in which he discussed the productivity of thirty and forty-year-old scholars. He then asks questions such as, “Should the emeritus professor be provided with an office and secretarial support, and access to laboratory, to continue research?” (p. 28). He states that “the scholarly career is odd in that it tends to bring about its own demise. That is, the quest for knowledge implies the goal of eventually rendering one’s own knowledge obsolete”.  
There have been notions that there are cycles in the academic world of senior scholars and that periods of research and scholarship expand and contract, which results in a considerable amount of diversity - a lot of it depending upon individual variations in health.  
He then comments, however, that health has been overemphasized in this group and, quoting research done in Sweden, he states that physical changes associated with advancing age “do not become a predominant limiting feature of life for most persons until 85 years of age, and may occur  even later for some academics” (p. 28).  
This is extremely important thinking; he goes so far as to suggest that “academics have a preferred way of life with regard to life expectancy” ( p. 29). He believes that academics are information seekers with less “exposure to noxious  conditions of the environment. Thus, senior scholars, with long life expectations and living a favorable lifestyle, are not typical of the average trends in the population” (p. 29).  
The point is that senior scholarship and productivity may not only be possible, but may be common up to the age of eighty. It can be quite tragic for scholars to leave universities too young-say, age fifty-five.  
The encouragement of scholarship must occur throughout the life span, with the enabling of senior scholarship to the benefit of both the individual and society. 
Although an attempt has been made to define wisdom above, when one looks at different definitions and concepts of wisdom, perhaps the best one can do is to call wisdom a variety of human behaviors. 
Sternberg (1990) examined wisdom from many different perspectives, from the cognitive trait of ability to problem-solve to more complex characteristics influenced by affective and motivational elements. Sternberg (along with Birren) comments that the older scholar may also show wisdom through an increasingly desirable balance in behavior, in which rash and impulsive acts diminish and interest in analyzing  the broader significance of events and behavior, rather than merely participating in them, grows. Another aspect of productivity is the fact that the wise older person can become an affective mentor of the young (p. 37). 

Mentorship 

Mentorship as an aspect of wisdom is well recognized. Older scholars, if supported, are generally more loyal to academic principles, bring with them a depth of experience, and understand academic values (which are particularly important nowadays when traditional academic values are being  reconsidered and questioned). Older scholars  willing to talk and reason about these values. 
Smith, Dion and Baltes (1985) state that “clearly, wisdom-related knowledge does not include only aspects of information search but also aspects of advice giving and judgment” (p. 16). Information searching seems to be an important aspect of a research measurement for wisdom; it was  found that reserve  capacity for average intellectual functioning goes on at least into the sixties. With aging “there is often change in structure of life goals, from school-related performance to pragmatic skills.” With aging, “increased vulnerability and decreased maximum levels of performance” occur. On the other hand, these investigators believe that this can be balanced by “selective optimization of functioning” (p. 16). 
Meacham’s (1983) paper “Wisdom in the Context of Knowledge; Knowing That One Doesn’t Know” mentioned previously, makes the point that “the relationship between the constructs of intelligence and knowledge, on the one hand” (p. 111), and its social and historical context, on the other, can only be understood by producing interpretations that give meanings to the behaviour. Interpretations are affected by their historical settings. Thus intelligence and knowledge have different meanings in different situations. If one accepts this, then the problem of doing reliable research becomes evident. Research will be based upon the values and interpretations used at a particular age or in a particular society. No matter how scientific the presentation, the context of history and developmental knowledge changes the findings and definitions of knowledge and wisdom. 

Optimism and pessimism  

Clayton (1975), in her paper “Erikson’s  Theory of Human Development As It Applies to the Aged: Wisdom as Contradictive Cognition,” seems to have a pessimistic view, The paper is  a nice discussion of Erikson’s ideas about human devlopment including wisdom. Other authors who have commented on some of the same issues as Erikson are mentioned and the author seems to conclude that there really are no wise men. 
She states: 
“It should be evident that the interest in wisdom is tantamount to a search for the reasons why many individuals do not seem to reach  the last stage of development in Erikson’s model. Perhaps the reason we do not seem to find many wise old men is that the most people fail to develop solutions which are appropriate to the crises they encounter as they chronologically age. That is, few individuals successfully resolve  the last developmental crisis because  they remain fixated at earlier stages” (p.126). 
She feels that the blockage is probably most common in the adolescent years and that the adolescent years now are more conflict-laden then they were some years ago. Thus, we have a view that would  cause us to see less wisdom in our elderly than in a previous ages. This view is in contrast and contradictory to other’ and this author’s view.  
People often make choices that have to do with ways of moving on and compromising. Seldom are conflicts completely resolved  before movement along the life span continues. Clayton states that complete crisis resolution is unrealistic. Perhaps if crisis resolution occurred, wisdom could not develop; perhaps some crisis needs to be left unresolved for wisdom to grow. 

Harry Prosen 
Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Psychiatry of the Medical College of Wisconsin