What is happiness: a cross-cultural research into present-day associations

Abstract

The article under consideration is aimed at cross-cultural quantified associative mapping of the universal concept “happiness” and shaping the hierarchy of its cornerstone axiological constituents as perceived by Russian, French and English linguosocieties within the framework of the global pandemic reality. “Happiness” has been subject to transdisciplinary investigation since ancient times due to its dynamic character and ambiguity. The concept of “happiness”, although psychologically ingrained and biologically predetermined, can change significantly based on different outer and inner factors. It demonstrates an undeniable potential for multiple perceptions, various patterns of ethnic-specific and highly personalized verbalization, requiring unification and analysis of different sociocultural stimuli that trigger off this or that row of associations. The authors provide keen insight into the semantics of the concept and its static lexicographic axiological paradigm in the Russian, French and English languages. Three associative surveys were carried out through Google-forms to estimate the degree at which the “static projection” of “happiness” is relevant nowadays in pandemic-shaken societies as well as collect free associations, manually contrast the data and establish parallels and peculiarities within up-to-date Russian, French and English (American) visions of “happiness”. The survey results testify to the fact that “health”, “family”, “peace” and “freedom” are universally recognized constituents of “happiness” while certain elements prove to be ethnic-specific and arise due to concrete social circumstances.

Keywords

• happiness
• concept
• associative map
• national identity