The strengths of wisdom provide unique contribution to improved leadership, sustainability, inequality, Gross National Happiness, and civic discourse in the face of contemporary world problems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Grossmann ◽  
Justin Peter Brienza

We present evidence for the strengths of intellectual virtues philosophers and behavioral scientists characterize as key cognitive elements of wisdom. Wisdom has been of centuries-long interest for philosophical scholarship, but relative to intelligence largely neglected in public discourse on educational science, public policy, and societal well-being. Wise reasoning characteristics include intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty, consideration of diverse viewpoints, and an attempt to integrate these viewpoints. Emerging scholarship on these features of wisdom suggest that they uniquely contribute to societal well-being, improve leadership, shed light on societal inequality, promote cooperation in Public Goods Games and reduce political polarization and intergroup-hostility. We review empirical evidence about macro-cultural, ecological, situational and person-level processes facilitating and inhibiting wisdom in daily life. Based on this evidence, we speculate about ways to foster wisdom in education, organizations and institutions.

Author(s):  
Sandra Kairė ◽  
Lilija Duoblienė ◽  
Irena Zaleskienė

AbstractThe contemporary world is marked by numerous new challenges: growth of inequality, migration, development of new technologies, climate change. All of them create tensions among nations, social groups or cultures. In the face of growing multiculturalism and need for dialogue, social responsibility as a concept in the educational field has received due attention. For instance, Berman (Educational Leadership, November:75–80, 1990; Children’s social consciousness and the development of social responsibility, University of New York Press, New York,1997; Leadership for social justice and democracy in our schools, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 123–144, 2011) emphasized the importance of education for social responsibility in school and classroom and defined it as personal investment in the well-being of others. Vallaeys (GUNI Report of Higher Education in the World 5:88–96, 2014) discussed social responsibility as a matter of university mission and function. Berman (Leadership for social justice and democracy in our schools, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 123–144, 2011) related the concept of social responsibility to the development of social consciousness that meant balancing on personal self-realization and personal achievement with equal focus on social self-realization and collective achievement. In particular, a person becomes conscious that personal development (i.e. How will I lead my life?) is interrelated with the development of others (i.e. What does the way I lead my life mean for the life of others?). In this case, social responsibility embraces cultural values and creates empowerment, cooperation, compassion, and respect.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Alessandri ◽  
Gian Vittorio Caprara ◽  
John Tisak

Literature documents that the judgments people hold about themselves, their life, and their future are important ingredients of their psychological functioning and well-being, and are commonly related to each other. In this paper, results from a large cross-sectional sample (N = 1,331, 48% males) are presented attesting to the hypothesis that evaluations about oneself, one’s life, and one’s future rest on a common mode of viewing experiences named “Positive Orientation.” These results corroborate the utility of the new construct as a critical component of individuals’ well functioning.


Author(s):  
Christopher A. Bail

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur'ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests across the Muslim world that left at least twenty people dead. This book demonstrates how the beliefs of fanatics like Jones are inspired by a rapidly expanding network of anti-Muslim organizations that exert profound influence on American understanding of Islam. The book traces how the anti-Muslim narrative of the political fringe has captivated large segments of the American media, government, and general public, validating the views of extremists who argue that the United States is at war with Islam and marginalizing mainstream Muslim-Americans who are uniquely positioned to discredit such claims. Drawing on cultural sociology, social network theory, and social psychology, the book shows how anti-Muslim organizations gained visibility in the public sphere, commandeered a sense of legitimacy, and redefined the contours of contemporary debate, shifting it ever outward toward the fringe. The book illustrates the author's pioneering theoretical argument through a big-data analysis of more than one hundred organizations struggling to shape public discourse about Islam, tracing their impact on hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles, television transcripts, legislative debates, and social media messages produced since the September 11 attacks. The book also features in-depth interviews with the leaders of these organizations, providing a rare look at how anti-Muslim organizations entered the American mainstream.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S Mascaro ◽  
Sean Kelley ◽  
Alana Darcher ◽  
Lobsang Negi ◽  
Carol Worthman ◽  
...  

Increasing data suggest that for medical school students the stress of academic and psychologicaldemands can impair social emotions that are a core aspect of compassion and ultimately physiciancompetence. Few interventions have proven successful for enhancing physician compassion inways that persist in the face of suffering and that enable sustained caretaker well-being. To addressthis issue, the current study was designed to (1) investigate the feasibility of cognitively-basedcompassion training (CBCT) for second-year medical students, and (2) test whether CBCT decreasesdepression, enhances compassion, and improves daily functioning in medical students. Comparedto the wait-list group, students randomized to CBCT reported increased compassion, and decreasedloneliness and depression. Changes in compassion were most robust in individuals reporting highlevels of depression at baseline, suggesting that CBCT may benefit those most in need by breakingthe link between personal suffering and a concomitant drop in compassion


Author(s):  
Sarah E. Walker ◽  
Brett L. Bruyere ◽  
Apin Yasin ◽  
Elizabeth Lenaiyasa ◽  
Anna Lolemu

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 442
Author(s):  
Meiqing Wang ◽  
Ali Youssef ◽  
Mona Larsen ◽  
Jean-Loup Rault ◽  
Daniel Berckmans ◽  
...  

Heart rate (HR) is a vital bio-signal that is relatively easy to monitor with contact sensors and is related to a living organism’s state of health, stress and well-being. The objective of this study was to develop an algorithm to extract HR (in beats per minute) of an anesthetized and a resting pig from raw video data as a first step towards continuous monitoring of health and welfare of pigs. Data were obtained from two experiments, wherein the pigs were video recorded whilst wearing an electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring system as gold standard (GS). In order to develop the algorithm, this study used a bandpass filter to remove noise. Then, a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) method was tested by evaluating different window sizes and window functions to accurately identify the HR. The resulting algorithm was first tested on videos of an anesthetized pig that maintained a relatively constant HR. The GS HR measurements for the anesthetized pig had a mean value of 71.76 bpm and standard deviation (SD) of 3.57 bpm. The developed algorithm had 2.33 bpm in mean absolute error (MAE), 3.09 bpm in root mean square error (RMSE) and 67% in HR estimation error below 3.5 bpm (PE3.5). The sensitivity of the algorithm was then tested on the video of a non-anaesthetized resting pig, as an animal in this state has more fluctuations in HR than an anaesthetized pig, while motion artefacts are still minimized due to resting. The GS HR measurements for the resting pig had a mean value of 161.43 bpm and SD of 10.11 bpm. The video-extracted HR showed a performance of 4.69 bpm in MAE, 6.43 bpm in RMSE and 57% in PE3.5. The results showed that HR monitoring using only the green channel of the video signal was better than using three color channels, which reduces computing complexity. By comparing different regions of interest (ROI), the region around the abdomen was found physiologically better than the face and front leg parts. In summary, the developed algorithm based on video data has potential to be used for contactless HR measurement and may be applied on resting pigs for real-time monitoring of their health and welfare status, which is of significant interest for veterinarians and farmers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155982762110081
Author(s):  
Neha Pathak ◽  
Amanda McKinney

Global environmental degradation and climate change threaten the foundation of human health and well-being. In a confluence of crises, the accelerating pace of climate change and other environmental disruptions pose an additional, preventable danger to a global population that is both aging and carrying a growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Climate change and environmental disruption function as “threat multipliers,” especially for those with NCDs, worsening the potential health impacts on those with suboptimal health. At the same time, these environmental factors threaten the basic pillars of health and prevention, increasing the risk of developing chronic disease. In the face of these threats, the core competencies of lifestyle medicine (LM) present crucial opportunities to mitigate climate change and human health impacts while also allowing individuals and communities to build resilience. LM health professionals are uniquely positioned to coach patients toward climate-healthy behavior changes that heal both people and the planet.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 807
Author(s):  
María-José Foncubierta-Rodríguez ◽  
Rafael Ravina-Ripoll ◽  
José Antonio López-Sánchez

Climate change is emerging as an issue of progressive attention, and therefore awareness, in societies. In this work, the problem is addressed from a generational perspective in Spanish society and is carried out from the approaches of awareness, human action, and self-responsibility. All this from the search of the subjective well-being and the citizens’ happiness, as one of the bases of sustainable development initiatives. With data from the European Social Survey R8, from EUROSTAT, we work in two phases: (1) descriptive and inferential on possible associations of the items with the variable Age, and (2) calculation of probabilities between groups through logistic regression. The results confirm a general awareness, but with apparent statistical differences between age groups. In general, the youngest are the most aware, blame human activity most intensely, are the most concerned, and are the most willing to act. And it is the older people who are less aware of all these issues. Based on this finding, and from the approach mentioned above, it is recommended that leaders, both in the macroeconomic and microeconomic sectors, develop initiatives that sensitize and encourage older age groups.


2020 ◽  
pp. 073401682095770
Author(s):  
Kate Kelly ◽  
Nai Soto ◽  
Nadi Damond Wisseh ◽  
Shaina A. Clerget

Although often left out of public health efforts and policy decisions, prisons, jails, and detention centers are integral to community health. With an average of 650,000 citizens returning home from prison each year in the United States, and thousands of correctional staff members returning home every night, there are millions of touchpoints between outside communities and carceral settings. For this reason, carceral communities should be central to planning and policy making in response to the spread of the COVID-19 illness. As social workers and clinicians, we are urgently concerned that efforts to prevent COVID-19 infections in prisons are underdeveloped and inadequate in the face of a fast-spreading virus. In this commentary, we outline a set of public health, policy, and clinical recommendations based upon the existing literature to mitigate various risks to the well-being of carceral communities.


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