The purpose of the present study was to explore characteristics of the wisd
om of older adults, and to examine the relation of their wisdom to their li
fe experiences. The verbal responses of 50 older adults (65 82 years of age
, average 71 years old) to 3 tasks concerning conflicts with others, based
on Smith & Baltes's (1990) "life-planning dilemma" task, were recorded and
later rated according to factual knowledge, proce dural knowledge, life-spa
n contextualism, uncertainty, and value relativism. The results showed that
scores tended to he higher on life-span contextualism and uncertainty. Alt
hough no differences on the wisdom measure were found in terms of gender or
education, scores for factual knowledge were higher for subjects with expe
rience in managerial positions or various occupations. Scores for life-span
contextualism. uncertainty. and value relativism were higher for persons w
ho had participated in community activities, while scores for procedural kn
owledge were higher for those spending more time reading newspapers every d
ay. These results suggest that wisdom is closely related to life experience
s.