The Wisdom Development Scale: Translating the Conceptual to the Concrete

Journal of College Student Development

by Scott C. Brown and Jeffrey A. Greene

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.

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