Developing the Character Strengths of Wisdom in Low-Security Contexts: Testing New Approaches in Sri Lanka and the Philippines

Developing the Character Strengths of Wisdom in Low-Security Contexts: Testing New Approaches in Sri Lanka and the Philippines

Project Director:  Maria Guadalupe C. Salanga
Funding Agency:  Templeton World Charity Foundation through the University of Colombo

The multi-method study seeks to examine how various types of adversity impact the development of wisdom across different cultural and faith-based communities, and provides state-of-the-art tools for assessing such development. It follows a three-step process, by a) examining how Sri Lankans and Filipinos from different faith-based communities and socio-economic backgrounds think about wisdom and express it in their lives through a series of qualitative assessments; b) developing culturally-sensitive quantitative assessments of wisdom suitable for these contexts; and c) testing the efficacy of existing interventions to boost wisdom with the goals of adapting and/or modifying these interventions for successful dissemination.

Key words: Sri Lanka, Philippines, development of wisdom, faith-based communities, culturally-sensitive quantitative assessment