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The Journal of Value Inquiry

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19-09-2018

Growth through Adversity: Exploring Associations between Internal Strengths, Posttraumatic Growth, and Wisdom

Authors: Margaret Plews-Ogan, Monika Ardelt, Justine Owens

Published in: The Journal of Value Inquiry | Issue 3/2019

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The notion of positive transformation in the wake of suffering is not new. This concept is woven through religious and philosophical traditions, and countless examples of this can be found in literature. For years, psychology and medicine tended to focus on the adverse effects of trauma, specifically posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, more recently, psychology has appropriately widened its lens to study the positive effects of trauma, variously described as benefit finding (Affleck & Tennen, 1996), stress-related growth (Park, Cohen, & Murch, 1996), or adversarial growth (Linley & Joseph, 2004). Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996, 2004) termed this positive adaptation to trauma posttraumatic growth and implied that wisdom may be the ultimate result of this positive transformation. At the same time, researchers were beginning to study the elusive concept of wisdom, what it is, how it manifests, and more recently, how it forms (Ardelt, 2004; Ardelt, Gerlach, & Vaillant, (2017); Baltes & Staudinger, 2000; Staudinger & Glück, 2011; Sternberg, 1990). Although wisdom is much larger than positive adaptation to trauma, and arguably the development of wisdom does not necessitate trauma (Pascual-Leone, 2000), understanding the role of virtues in the relationship between posttraumatic growth and wisdom might be particularly important in exploring how wisdom is gained. Virtues might influence how an individual experiences, interprets, and responds to trauma but might also be an outcome of posttraumatic growth or greater wisdom after deeper insight into life, others, and oneself is gained. Understanding this interplay may provide pathways for helping people to move through the experience of adversity with the best chance of a positive outcome and for fostering wisdom in the context of life experiences. …

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Title: Growth through Adversity: Exploring Associations between Internal Strengths, Posttraumatic Growth, and Wisdom
Authors: Margaret Plews-Ogan
Monika Ardelt
Justine Owens
Publication date: 19-09-2018
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: The Journal of Value Inquiry / Issue 3/2019
Print ISSN: 0022-5363
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0492
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-018-9659-4

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