The Roots of Virtue: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Analysis

Article

Lomas, T. 2018. The Roots of Virtue: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies. 20 (4), pp. 1259-1279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9997-8
AuthorsLomas, T.
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.

JournalJournal of Happiness Studies
Journal citation20 (4), pp. 1259-1279
ISSN1389-4978
Year2018
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Accepted author manuscript
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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9997-8
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9997-8
Publication dates
Online16 Jun 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited18 Jun 2018
Accepted09 Jun 2018
Accepted09 Jun 2018
Copyright informationThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Happiness Studies. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9997-8
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