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The Roots of Virtue: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Analysis

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  • Tim Lomas

    (University of East London)

Abstract

Although the notion of virtue is increasingly prominent in psychology, the way it has been studied and conceptualised has been relatively Western-centric, and does not fully account for variations in how it has been understood cross-culturally. As such, an enquiry was conducted into ideas relating to virtue found across the world’s cultures, focusing specifically on so-called untranslatable words. Through a quasi-systematic search of academic and grey literature, together with conceptual snowballing and crowd-sourced suggestions, over 200 relevant terms were located. An adapted grounded theory analysis identified five themes which together provide an insight into the “roots” of virtue (i.e., the main sources from which it appears to spring): virtue itself (the concept of it); considerateness (caring about it); wisdom (knowing what it consists of); agency (managing to be/do it); and skill (mastery of the preceding elements). The results help shed further light on the potential dynamics of this important phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Lomas, 2019. "The Roots of Virtue: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1259-1279, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:20:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10902-018-9997-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-018-9997-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Joseph Henrich & Steven J. Heine & Ara Norenzayan, 2010. "Most people are not WEIRD," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7302), pages 29-29, July.
    2. Veronika Huta & Richard Ryan, 2010. "Pursuing Pleasure or Virtue: The Differential and Overlapping Well-Being Benefits of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(6), pages 735-762, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tim Lomas, 2019. "The Elements of Eco-Connection: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Enquiry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-16, December.

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