T Lomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 53637 |
|---|---|
| NAME | T Lomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | T |
| FAMILY NAME | Lomas |
| SIGNATURE | LOMAS T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of East London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9458-6185 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 86 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A comparative “report card” wellbeing assessment of 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study
When evaluating how countries are faring, there is a widespread tendency to rely on single metrics or indices, whether objective (e.g., GDP) or subjective (e.g., life evaluation). However, flourishing is multidimensional, and societies invariably do better in some ways and less so in others (even if some places get more things “right” than others), so any comprehensive assessment must be multifaceted. We demonstrate this by evaluating 22 countrie…
Harmonic Principles of Wellbeing: Structural and Discriminant Validity of a Gallup World Poll Module Encompassing Life Balance, Harmony, Stability, and Peace
Human Flourishing from a Complex Adaptive System Perspective: Exploring the Wellbeing of Social Groups as Emergent Entities
Can qualities of wellbeing and flourishing be meaningfully applied at the level of the social group, not merely as an aggregation of the wellbeing or flourishing of its members, but on its own terms as an emergent entity? This paper proposes that this is indeed the case, over three sections. First, we introduce the notions of wellbeing and flourishing, and note that these are usually applied to individual humans, not to groups (other than as the …
The Complex Relationship between Inner and Outer Peace: New Global Insights from the Gallup World Poll
Swedish Well-Being: The Rising Importance of Age Among Demographic, Personality, and Social Relationship Factors
The main demographic and psychological correlates of Well-Being (WB) are well-established, but have not yet been assessed in the Swedish population–regularly ranked among the world’s top five ranked WB nations–based on large, nationally representative data. Using 2023 Global Flourishing Study data ( N = 15,068), this paper analyzes Swedish WB across three domains: demography (e.g., gender, age, and income), individual personality traits (e.g., Bi…
Towards a Data-Driven and Globally-Informed Framework of Flourishing: A Seven-Factor Model Derived from Factor-Analysis of 38 Indicators in the Gallup World Poll
Into the Metaverse (With Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg): Exploring the Ontological Adventures, Potentials, and Risks of a New Dimension of Being
The rise of technologies such as virtual reality and the emergence of various metaverse platforms have raised myriad questions and concerns, from their implications for human relationships to suggestions that these may constitute a radical new dimension of existence. This paper explores these considerations by conducting a qualitative analysis of a unique interview between podcaster Lex Fridman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, conducted in September…
Demographic Variation in Inner Peace Across 22 Countries: A Cross-National Analysis of the Global Flourishing Study
Although peace is invariably regarded as a universal good, most research focuses on ‘outer’ forms (e.g., societal relations), with little attention to ‘inner’ peace (IP, i.e., tranquil states of mind). This may reflect the Western-centrism of academia, with low arousal positive states like IP being relatively undervalued in the West. But alongside broader efforts to redress such Western-centricity, an emergent literature is now exploring this con…
Conspiracies, Cover-Ups, Compartmentalization, and Containment: The Complex, Secrecy-Related Information Dynamics of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
Over recent years Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) have become an increasingly visible topic in public discourse. However, the epistemological picture is highly opaque, with few concrete details confirmed or publicly available, and with the discourse beset with allegations of concealment and cover-ups, with long-held suspicions that information has been kept secret. This paper sheds lights on these dynamics by delving into the informational…
Religious/Spiritual Connection and Subjective Well-Being Across Religious and Nonreligious Individuals in 121 Countries
Prior research suggests a positive association between some religious/spiritual variables and well-being. However, many measures of religious/spiritual constructs are often within explicitly religious contexts, limiting the conceptualization of links between spiritual connection and well-being among nonreligious individuals. The present study employs a novel, versatile measure assessing how frequently individuals feel connected to a religion or f…
Measuring wellbeing in the Global Flourishing Study: Insights from a cross-national analysis of cognitive interviews from 22 countries
Prior research suggests that cross-national cognitive interviewing can provide preliminarily insights into the extent to which survey items that will be employed in large-scale global research might be understood similarly or differently across countries. Against the backdrop of the recently launched Global Flourishing Study, we used multinational cognitive interview data from 116 individuals ( M = 41.4 years, SD = 14.9, female = 50.9%) in 22 cou…
Religious/Spiritual Connection and Subjective Wellbeing Around the World: A Cross-Sectional Analysis with Nationally Representative Samples from 121 Countries
Demographic Variation in Balance in Life Across 22 Countries: A Cross-National Analysis of the Global Flourishing Study
The importance of balance has been selectively acknowledged in modern scholarship through notions such as work-life balance. However, the broader notion of balance in life has remained underappreciated. This may reflect the Western-centric nature of academia, with balance having received less attention in the West compared to other cultures. But aligning with efforts to make scholarship more globally inclusive, an emergent literature is exploring…
Love of place: Conceptual framework and template for measuring the contributory and unitive affection towards a place
Multidimensional Flourishing in Africa: An Intracontinental Analysis of 38 Well-Being Indicators in 40 Countries
Despite the rising global interest in well-being and its various dimensions, research in this area has been criticized for its Western-centric conceptual and geographical emphasis. In this cross-sectional study, we leverage more than 30 indicators of well-being from three years of Gallup World Poll (2020–2022) data to explore the diversity of well-being in nationally representative samples from 40 countries on the African continent (N = 90,093). …
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure as Ontological Shock? Exploring Diversity Among Social Media Responses to a Congressional UAP Hearing
The topic of “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAP) has risen to increasing prominence recently, as exemplified by the Congressional UAP hearing in July 2023. Indeed, some observers interpreted the event as “disclosure” – a process by which authorities, long suspected to have withheld evidence that some UAP are genuinely anomalous (e.g., extraterrestrial), admit this to the public. Whether it actually constituted disclosure is another issue, bu…
A global picture of unidentified anomalous phenomena: Towards a cross-cultural understanding of a potentially universal issue
Over recent years, the issue of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) has increasingly captivated attention and even concern, as reflected in the US military establishing a UAP Task Force in 2020. However, the discourse and debate around this important topic are beset with misunderstandings and a general lack of knowledge and information. One prominent point of contention is the claim or insinuation that this is a uniquely Western concern, and e…
The appeal of aesthetics: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
Flourishing in critical dialogue
We discuss various critiques of the research literature on flourishing. We fully agree with calls for greater attention to qualitative work, to cultural differences, and to questions of power and justice concerning flourishing. We argue, however, that in spite of notable differences in understandings of flourishing across cultures, there is also a great deal that is held in common, including on topics considered by some as more controversial, suc…
Complexifying Individualism Versus Collectivism and West Versus East: Exploring Global Diversity in Perspectives on Self and Other in the Gallup World Poll
A wealth of research has suggested the West tends toward individualism and the East toward collectivism. We explored this topic on an unprecedented scale through two new items in the 2020 Gallup World Poll, involving 121,207 participants in 116 countries. The first tapped into orientations toward self-care versus other-care (“Do you think people should focus more on taking care of themselves or on taking care of others?”). The second enquired int…
Promoting Kindness Through the Positive Theatrical Arts: Assessing Kuwait’s Boomerang Programme
Toward an Expanded Taxonomy of Happiness: A Conceptual Analysis of 16 Distinct Forms of Mental Wellbeing
Recent decades have seen a surge of scientific interest in happiness. However, its theoretical conceptualization is a work in progress. Much of the literature focuses on two main forms: hedonic (encompassing life satisfaction and positive affect) and eudaimonic (encompassing phenomena such as character development and meaning in life). However, this binary has been critiqued as being incomplete, in part because it reflects a Western-centric persp…
Global Trends of Mean and Inequality in Multidimensional Wellbeing: Analysis of 1.2 Million Individuals From 162 Countries, 2009–2019
INTRODUCTION: Human flourishing is a multidimensional concept characterized by a state of complete wellbeing. However, much of the prior research on wellbeing has principally focused on population averages assessed using a single item of wellbeing. This study examined trends in population averages and inequalities for a multidimensional index of wellbeing and compared emergent patterns with those found for Cantril's ladder, a measure of life sati…
The Architecture of Happiness
Happiness is an increasingly prominent topic of interest across academia. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how it is created, especially not in a multidimensional sense. By ‘created’ we do not mean its influencing factors, for which there is extensive research, but how it actually forms in the person. The work that has been done in this arena tends to focus on physiological dynamics, which are certainly part of the puzzle. Bu…
The Garden and the Orchestra: Generative Metaphors for Conceptualizing the Complexities of Well-Being
Our understanding of well-being, and related concepts such as health and flourishing, is shaped by the metaphors through which we think about such ideas. Current dominant metaphors-including a pyramid, ladder, and continuum-all have various issues. As such, this paper offers two other metaphors which can better do justice to the nuanced complexities of these notions, namely, a garden and an orchestra. Through these metaphors, this paper articulat…
Second Wave Positive Psychology: Exploring the Positive-Negative Dialectics of Wellbeing
Critical Positive Masculinity
Although theorists like Connell (1995) have emphasised diversity in men and masculinities, there remains a tendency to present masculinity in singular terms as an assemblage of toxic traits, constructing men as ‘damaged and damage doing’ (Mac an Ghaill & Haywood, 2012). However, an emergent body of work suggests men are able to resist or define traditional norms to negotiate a more ‘positive’ construction of masculinity, e.g., conducive to health…
New Ways of Being a Man: “Positive” Hegemonic Masculinity in Meditation-based Communities of Practice
Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity is often reduced to a singular construct, consisting of 'toxic' traits viewed as detrimental to well-being. However, the concept allows for variation in hegemony, including the possibility of forms more conducive to well-being. Through in-depth interviews with thirty male meditators in the United Kingdom, we explored the social dimensions of meditation practice to examine its potential implications for w…
It's like taking a bit of masculinity away from you: Towards a Theoretical Understanding of Men's Experiences of Infertility
In theUK, nearly half of all cases of infertility involve a 'male-factor'. Yet, little empirical work has explored how men as men negotiate this terrain. Three interrelated concepts; 'hegemonic masculinity', 'embodied masculinity' and the linkages between 'masculinities' and male help-seeking, provide the theoretical framework that guided a qualitative study conducted with 22 men experiencing infertility. The paper explores men's propensity to de…
"I was so done in that I just recognized it very plainly, "You need to do something: Men's narratives of struggle, distress and turning to meditation
Traditional masculinities can mean men are unable or unwilling to deal constructively with distress. However, researchers increasingly acknowledge that men and masculinities (including hegemonic styles) are diverse. Moreover, men can positively manage their well-being, although little research explores how they do so. Uniquely, our study sought to find men who report finding ways to care for themselves to examine narratives about how such self-ca…
The flavours of love: A cross‐cultural lexical analysis
Linguists have often remarked upon the polysemous nature of love, whereby the term encompasses a wide diversity of emotional relationships. Several typologies have been constructed to account for this diversity. However, these tend to be restricted in scope, and fail to fully represent the range of experiences signified by the term ‘love’ in discourse. In the interest of generating an expanded typology of love, encompassing its varied forms, an e…
The Life Model: A Meta-Theoretical Conceptual Map for Applied Positive Psychology
Toward an Expanded Taxonomy of Happiness: A Conceptual Analysis of 16 Distinct Forms of Mental Wellbeing
Recent decades have seen a surge of scientific interest in happiness. However, its theoretical conceptualization is a work in progress. Much of the literature focuses on two main forms: hedonic (encompassing life satisfaction and positive affect) and eudaimonic (encompassing phenomena such as character development and meaning in life). However, this binary has been critiqued as being incomplete, in part because it reflects a Western-centric persp…
The value of ambivalent emotions: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
Although wellbeing tends to be associated with positive affect, theorists have suggested it might also involve more ambivalent emotions. Scholars have further argued that although such emotions are somewhat overlooked in Western societies, other cultures are more attuned to them. In the interest of exploring the value of ambivalent emotions, an enquiry was conducted into relevant concepts found across the world’s cultures, focusing specifically o…
Men developing emotional intelligence through meditation? Integrating narrative, cognitive and electroencephalography (EEG) evidence
Traditional masculine norms around emotions (e.g., inexpressiveness) can mean men have difficulties managing their emotions, contributing to potential mental health problems. However, it is recognized that men and masculinities are diverse, and that some men can positively self-manage their mental health, although this has received little attention in the literature. Uniquely, we sought to find men who had discovered ways to engage constructively…
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure as Ontological Shock? Exploring Diversity Among Social Media Responses to a Congressional UAP Hearing
The topic of “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (UAP) has risen to increasing prominence recently, as exemplified by the Congressional UAP hearing in July 2023. Indeed, some observers interpreted the event as “disclosure” – a process by which authorities, long suspected to have withheld evidence that some UAP are genuinely anomalous (e.g., extraterrestrial), admit this to the public. Whether it actually constituted disclosure is another issue, bu…
Masculinity in the Midst of Mindfulness: Exploring the Gendered Experiences of At-risk Adolescent Boys
Teenage boys are a source of considerable concern in society, with generally poorer health, educational, and social outcomes than their female counterparts. Of particular concern are 'at-risk' adolescents, who by definition are liable to poorer outcomes than peers not deemed at-risk. However, there are indications that activities such as mindfulness may offer opportunities for such adolescents to negotiate more positive constructions of masculini…
The dimensions of prosociality: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
Positive social psychology: A multilevel inquiry into sociocultural well-being initiatives
Although the field of positive psychology has made great strides in developing interventions for wellbeing, many of these are aimed at individuals, designed to engender adaptive psychological qualities and skills. As such, relatively little attention has been paid within the field to the socio-cultural factors that influence health and wellbeing. However, there is an emergent body of work that does focus on these factors, as summarised in this pa…
Critical Positive Masculinity
Although theorists like Connell (1995) have emphasised diversity in men and masculinities, there remains a tendency to present masculinity in singular terms as an assemblage of toxic traits, constructing men as ‘damaged and damage doing’ (Mac an Ghaill & Haywood, 2012). However, an emergent body of work suggests men are able to resist or define traditional norms to negotiate a more ‘positive’ construction of masculinity, e.g., conducive to health…
Men developing emotional intelligence through meditation? Integrating narrative, cognitive and electroencephalography (EEG) evidence
Traditional masculine norms around emotions (e.g., inexpressiveness) can mean men have difficulties managing their emotions, contributing to potential mental health problems. However, it is recognized that men and masculinities are diverse, and that some men can positively self-manage their mental health, although this has received little attention in the literature. Uniquely, we sought to find men who had discovered ways to engage constructively…
"I was so done in that I just recognized it very plainly, "You need to do something: Men's narratives of struggle, distress and turning to meditation
Traditional masculinities can mean men are unable or unwilling to deal constructively with distress. However, researchers increasingly acknowledge that men and masculinities (including hegemonic styles) are diverse. Moreover, men can positively manage their well-being, although little research explores how they do so. Uniquely, our study sought to find men who report finding ways to care for themselves to examine narratives about how such self-ca…
A religion of wellbeing? The appeal of Buddhism to men in London, United Kingdom
Against a backdrop of increasing secularization, the number of Buddhists in Britain continues to rise (Office for National Statistics, 2012). However, few studies have explored the reasons people are drawn toward Buddhism, with none focusing on men specifically. Uniquely, we conducted in-depth narrative interviews with 30 male meditators in London, United Kingdom, to explore the appeal Buddhism held for them. Buddhism was portrayed as a nexus of …
The Life Model: A Meta-Theoretical Conceptual Map for Applied Positive Psychology
Positive social psychology: A multilevel inquiry into sociocultural well-being initiatives
Although the field of positive psychology has made great strides in developing interventions for wellbeing, many of these are aimed at individuals, designed to engender adaptive psychological qualities and skills. As such, relatively little attention has been paid within the field to the socio-cultural factors that influence health and wellbeing. However, there is an emergent body of work that does focus on these factors, as summarised in this pa…
Second Wave Positive Psychology: Exploring the Positive-Negative Dialectics of Wellbeing
A meditation on boredom: Re-appraising its value through introspective phenomenology
Boredom is almost universally regarded as a dysphoric mental state, characterised by features such as disengagement and low arousal. However, in certain quarters (e.g., Zen Buddhism), boredom is seen as potentially having great value and even importance. The current study sought to explore boredom through a case study involving introspective phenomenology. The author created conditions in which he would experience boredom for an hour and recorded…
New Ways of Being a Man: “Positive” Hegemonic Masculinity in Meditation-based Communities of Practice
Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity is often reduced to a singular construct, consisting of 'toxic' traits viewed as detrimental to well-being. However, the concept allows for variation in hegemony, including the possibility of forms more conducive to well-being. Through in-depth interviews with thirty male meditators in the United Kingdom, we explored the social dimensions of meditation practice to examine its potential implications for w…
Recontextualizing mindfulness: Theravada Buddhist perspectives on the ethical and spiritual dimensions of awareness
Although mindfulness has been embraced by the West, this has mostly been a secular ‘de-contextualised’ form of mindfulness, dis-embedded from its original Buddhist nexus of beliefs/practices. This has arguably deprived the practice of its potential to effect more radical psychospiritual development. This paper therefore argues for the ‘re-contextualisation’ of mindfulness, drawing explicitly on Buddhist philosophy to enhance our appreciation of i…
Zen and the Art of Living Mindfully: The Health-Enhancing Potential of Zen Aesthetics
I feel I can live every minute if I choose to”: Participants’ experience of a positive mindfulness programme
Both separately and together, mindfulness and positive psychological interventions have been found to increase wellbeing against a number of measures. Research has been primarily based on the application of self-report scales, and little has been done to examine the lived experience of participants. The aim of this study was to apply an interpretative phenomenological approach to the experience of participants in a Mindfulness Based Flourishing (…
The value of ambivalent emotions: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
Although wellbeing tends to be associated with positive affect, theorists have suggested it might also involve more ambivalent emotions. Scholars have further argued that although such emotions are somewhat overlooked in Western societies, other cultures are more attuned to them. In the interest of exploring the value of ambivalent emotions, an enquiry was conducted into relevant concepts found across the world’s cultures, focusing specifically o…
It's like taking a bit of masculinity away from you: Towards a Theoretical Understanding of Men's Experiences of Infertility
In theUK, nearly half of all cases of infertility involve a 'male-factor'. Yet, little empirical work has explored how men as men negotiate this terrain. Three interrelated concepts; 'hegemonic masculinity', 'embodied masculinity' and the linkages between 'masculinities' and male help-seeking, provide the theoretical framework that guided a qualitative study conducted with 22 men experiencing infertility. The paper explores men's propensity to de…
Experiential cartography and the significance of “untranslatable” words
Mainstream psychology can be regarded as largely Western-centric, with its concepts and priorities biased towards Western ways of thinking and understanding. Consequently, the field would benefit from greater cross-cultural awareness and engagement. To that end, this article offers one means of engagement, the study of “untranslatable” words (i.e., terms without an exact equivalent in another language, in our case English). A key function of lang…
Gritty Leaders: The Impact of Grit on Positive Leadership Capacity
The concepts of grit and positive leadership are central to extraordinary performance. However, to date there has been little empirical analysis of the relationship between a leader's level of grit and their capacity to implement positive leadership strategies and practices. This correlational study explores these linkages, taking grit subfactors into consideration as well as three dimensions of positive leadership. Convenience sampling was used …
The dimensions of prosociality: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
The flavours of love: A cross‐cultural lexical analysis
Linguists have often remarked upon the polysemous nature of love, whereby the term encompasses a wide diversity of emotional relationships. Several typologies have been constructed to account for this diversity. However, these tend to be restricted in scope, and fail to fully represent the range of experiences signified by the term ‘love’ in discourse. In the interest of generating an expanded typology of love, encompassing its varied forms, an e…
The dynamics of spirituality: A cross-cultural lexical analysis
The notion of spirituality is increasingly prominent in academic and cultural discourse alike. However, it remains a nebulous concept, capable of diverse interpretations, particularly cross-culturally. In the interest of exploring this diversity, yet also with the aim of identifying common themes, an enquiry was conducted into conceptualizations of spirituality across cultures. Specifically, the enquiry focused on so-called untranslatable words, …
The Elements of Eco-Connection: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Enquiry
The environment is widely recognised to be in peril, with clear signs of a climate crisis. This situation has many dimensions and factors, but key among them are the often-destructive ways in which humans interact with the natural world. Numerous cultures-particularly more industrialised and/or Western ones-have developed predatory and disconnected modes of interaction. In such modes, nature tends to be constructed as a resource to be exploited (…
Masculinity in the Midst of Mindfulness: Exploring the Gendered Experiences of At-risk Adolescent Boys
Teenage boys are a source of considerable concern in society, with generally poorer health, educational, and social outcomes than their female counterparts. Of particular concern are 'at-risk' adolescents, who by definition are liable to poorer outcomes than peers not deemed at-risk. However, there are indications that activities such as mindfulness may offer opportunities for such adolescents to negotiate more positive constructions of masculini…
Third wave positive psychology: Broadening towards complexity
The development of academic fields is often described through the metaphor of ‘waves.’ Following the instantiation of positive psychology (the first wave), scholarship emerged looking critically at the notions of positive and negative, becoming known as its second wave. More recently, we discern an equally significant evolution, namely scholarship that in various ways goes beyond the individual and embraces greater complexity. This includes going…
Global Trends of Mean and Inequality in Multidimensional Wellbeing: Analysis of 1.2 Million Individuals From 162 Countries, 2009–2019
INTRODUCTION: Human flourishing is a multidimensional concept characterized by a state of complete wellbeing. However, much of the prior research on wellbeing has principally focused on population averages assessed using a single item of wellbeing. This study examined trends in population averages and inequalities for a multidimensional index of wellbeing and compared emergent patterns with those found for Cantril's ladder, a measure of life sati…
The Architecture of Happiness
Happiness is an increasingly prominent topic of interest across academia. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how it is created, especially not in a multidimensional sense. By ‘created’ we do not mean its influencing factors, for which there is extensive research, but how it actually forms in the person. The work that has been done in this arena tends to focus on physiological dynamics, which are certainly part of the puzzle. Bu…
The Garden and the Orchestra: Generative Metaphors for Conceptualizing the Complexities of Well-Being
Our understanding of well-being, and related concepts such as health and flourishing, is shaped by the metaphors through which we think about such ideas. Current dominant metaphors-including a pyramid, ladder, and continuum-all have various issues. As such, this paper offers two other metaphors which can better do justice to the nuanced complexities of these notions, namely, a garden and an orchestra. Through these metaphors, this paper articulat…
Psychology (32 works) · Social Psychology (28 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (22 works) · Political science (15 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (10 works) · Flourishing (10 works)