Strengths Use and Psychological Richness: A Pathway to Wisdom

While strengths use has been widely associated with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, its link to psychological richness, a third dimension of well-being characterized by diverse, novel, and perspective-changing experiences, remains underexplored. This study examined the relationships between strengths use, psychological richness, and wisdom among 201 Filipino university students. Participants completed the Strengths Use Scale (SUS), the Psychologically Rich Life Questionnaire (PRLQ), and the Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index (JTWI). Spearman’s correlation showed that strengths use was moderately associated with psychological richness (ρ = .50, p < .001). Regression analyses revealed that strengths use significantly predicted psychological richness (β = .423, p < .001), even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and openness to experience. Furthermore, psychological richness significantly predicted overall wisdom (ρ = .51, p < .001; β = .470, p < .001), beyond the effects of personality and background variables. Subscale-level analyses showed that psychological richness significantly predicted four facets of wisdom after Bonferroni correction: Social Advising (adjusted R² = .298), Acceptance of Divergent Perspectives (adjusted R² = .224), Spirituality (adjusted R² = .154), and Emotional Regulation (adjusted R² = .091). These results provide the first empirical support for the theoretical claim that psychologically rich experiences contribute to specific components of wisdom. Conducted in a non-WEIRD, middle-income country, this study highlights the potential of psychological richness as an inclusive and context-sensitive form of well-being. The findings suggest that cultivating one’s strengths may serve as an accessible pathway toward a psychologically richer and wiser life, even outside socioeconomically privileged settings.