Wisdom has always been somewhat of an ambiguous term for me as I generally associate it with being old and having experienced the toils of life but my question is whether old age is a requirement to be wise. Jeste and Gloriosio found that there my questions are shared by others as old age does not guarantee wisdom.  The traits listed such as “emotional regulation, self-reflection, prosocial behaviors such as empathy and compassion” seem to me as traits that could be instilled in a person during their youth and skills that could be worked on. However, “decisiveness, social advising, tolerance of divergent values, and spirituality” may come through meeting more people throughout a person’s lifetime. Another finding is that mental health generally improves in a linear fashion as a person ages and I find this to be encouraging, despite the fact that mental health is usually at its worst during the 20s and 30s. 

I also found it interesting that “it’s not chronological age that determines priorities and hence emotional well-being, but rather it is perceived time horizons” because I can relate to this as a senior in college. If I were to take my age as a given and unchanging and leave the time frame of graduation and seeking employment to be open-ended I would feel a burden lifted off me and improve my mental health.

Lee and Depp’s article High prevalence and adverse health aspects of loneliness dispels the perceived negative correlation between wisdom and loneliness as wisdom requires at least some social skills but there can be cases where an individual can display evidence of wisdom through interaction but may not have an adequate social life. This spoke to me because I think that as we progress into our lives and times change it’s harder to spot loneliness since there is always a deeper story that is not perceptible. The general trend is that people move to urban areas where populations can become dense. It seems counterintuitive to me that despite a greater number of people in an area of space there is more loneliness and interaction does not go deep enough to being considered a trait of wisdom.