drtimlomas/multidimensionalpositivepsychology

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Philosophical / speculative

I am drawn towards topics that could be regarded as unconventional and/or speculative, and which have a philosophical flavour (though I am by no means a philosopher!) This includes papers on the nature of consciousness, the history of humankind, and the issue of UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena).

Papers

Lomas, T., Teubner, J., Ivey, R. M., Case, C., & Larrey, P. (2026). Into the metaverse (with Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg): Exploring the ontological adventures, potentials, and risks of a new dimension of being. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678261426422

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 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 2023, which was not only about the nature and implications of the metaverse, but actually took place in Meta's prototype metaverse, thereby having the revealing property of Fridman actually experiencing it for the first time, offering a first-person phenomenological commentary and reaction. An analysis inspired and informed by grounded theory identified five main themes, namely new: ontological surprises, blended reality, identities, relationships, and ways of living. Together the results paint a vivid picture of the psychological and societal potentials and pitfalls of this new technology.

Lomas, T., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026). Contributions towards a positive epidemiology of compassion: Exploring the transmission dynamics of acts of microkindness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 16(2), 1–20.

Recent years have seen enthusiasm for a “positive epidemiology,” extending the standard focus on disease in epidemiology to encompass positive health-related qualities and states, including an epidemiology of compassion. We seek to contribute towards the latter by considering a prosocial state that is closely related to compassion, namely kindness. More specifically, we advocate for attention to a form of kindness which has received minimal attention, but which we consider potentially important, namely microkindnesses: small gestures motivated by genuine warm feelings for others that benefit another, where small refers both to (a) duration (i.e., lasting less than five seconds) and (b) personal consequence to the actor (i.e., involving minimal personal harm or expense). In particular, we focus on the possibility of microkindnesses being transmitted among people, drawing on literature around collective emotions and research on kindness more broadly. We conclude by proposing an epidemiological approach to studying transmission dynamics of microkindnesses, concentrating on smiling and the potential for using AI and emotion recognition software to explore these dynamics.

Lomas, T. (2025). A heuristic formula for appreciating the quality of art and its importance to wellbeing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 20(6), 1091-1099

This commentary proposes a heuristic for appreciating the quality of art and its importance to wellbeing. I begin with a taxonomy I developed in a paper on "positive art," which argued that art contributes to wellbeing in five main ways: aesthetic appreciation; enriching experience; sense-making; entertainment; and bonding. The present commentary suggests these do not merely outline the effects of art, but its very nature, proposing that all art fulfils at least one of these functions, and the more it does, the better the art. I augment that model by harnessing a related formula I created in a paper on "positive semiotics" that identified the ways a sign could be positive, drawing on Peirce's theory of semiotics, Pawelski's analysis of the positive, and the triad of the good, true, and beautiful. Together, these two frameworks create a handy formula that is useful in valuing and enjoying art.

Counted, V., Lee, M. T., Lomas, T., Cowden, R., Allen, K.-A., Basu, J., Laidler, D., Routledge, C., Seamon, D., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2025). Love of place: Conceptual framework and template for measuring the contributory and unitive affection towards a place. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 107, 102203.

This paper examines the construct of 'love of place'-a deep connection with a significant place (unitive love) and a desire to see it flourish (contributory love), which is distinct from and extends beyond traditional notions of place attachment, nostalgia, or belonging that are common in the literature on place. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives, including environmental psychology , urban studies, and cultural geography, we explore how individuals form deep affections to places that shape their admiration, care, and a sense of reverence or affection for a significant place. Using the Delphi method, a panel of experts and scholars with expertise on love, place, or the intersection between the two formed the basis for the thematic analysis, which helped refine the construct across seven core dimensions: identity, emotional attachment, biophilic connection, sacred spaces, communal harmony, and heritage. We operationalized each dimension according to unitive and contributory domains, emphasizing how this framing of love might foster personal and collective flourishing. Our findings highlight how environmental changes, in some cases leading to solastalgia, disrupt the spatial affections associated with some expressions or manifestations of love of place. Unlike related constructs, the contributory aspect of love of place involves a desire to contribute to the good of a place, akin to how people express unconditional love for individuals. We argue that a key difference lies in the nature of the affections involved. Love of place invokes deeper emotional and existential elements, as well as aspects beyond emotions, while an emotion like place attachment, for example, may focus more on functionality and familiarity. Our proposed framework of love of place offers a new lens for exploring place-related experiences and could inform future research on spatial affection and environmental stewardship.

Lomas, T., Case, B., Lee, M. T., Bear, L., Cowden, R. G., Greenberg, Y. K., Rashid, T., & VanderWeele, T. (2024). Love of creation: Exploring diversity and commonality among religious and philosophical traditions. Zygon, 59(2), 352–381.

Love is widely recognized as one of the most important, desired, and consequential aspects of the human condition, and thus has rightly been the focus of much academic attention. However, this interest has tended to concentrate on specific forms of love-especially romantic and familial forms-to the exclusion of others. One such overlooked form is love of "creation"-of the world and the wider cosmos in which human beings find themselves. Throughout history and across cultures, this kind of love has been developed and articulated by religious and philosophical traditions in diverse ways. This article showcases a selection of ten such traditions, generally through the prism of one particularly important figure within each tradition, including Hinduism, Judaism, Zen Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity, Islam, Maasai thought, Cherokee thought, Romanticism, and secular reverence. Through these lenses, the diverse ways love of creation has been expressed can be appreciated. In conclusion, we also try to find some common ground among these traditions by constructing a provisional set of items for a love of creation measure that would be applicable across traditions.

Cebral-Loureda, M., Lee, M. T., Hernández-Baqueiro, A., Lomas, T., & Tamés-Muñoz, E. (2024). Love as a concept in academic research: A bibliometric review. Methods in Psychology, 100153.

Love has a variety of different meanings from abstract notions to very concrete, everyday, instinctive ones. Research on love in the early years tended to focus on sexuality and romantic relationships, more recently towards ethics. Stenberg's triangular theory; Hendrick's model; Aron's framework; attachment theory are the main systematic academic studies. Work on love has grown from 2000 incorporating neuroscience, gender, or self-love, currently at the center of many debates.

Nilsson, A. H., Eichstaedt, J. C., Lomas, T., Schwartz, A., & Kjell, O. (2024). The Cantril Ladder elicits thoughts about power and wealth. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 2642.

The Cantril Ladder is among the most widely administered subjective well-being measures; every year, it is collected in 140+ countries in the Gallup World Poll and reported in the World Happiness Report. The measure asks respondents to evaluate their lives on a ladder from worst (bottom) to best (top). Prior work found Cantril Ladder scores sensitive to social comparison and to reflect one’s relative position in the income distribution. To understand this, we explored how respondents interpret the Cantril Ladder. We analyzed word responses from 1581 UK adults and tested the impact of the (a) ladder imagery, (b) scale anchors of worst to best possible life, and c) bottom to top. Using three language analysis techniques (dictionary, topic, and word embeddings), we found that the Cantril Ladder framing emphasizes power and wealth over broader well-being and relationship concepts in comparison to the other study conditions. Further, altering the framings increased preferred scale levels from 8.4 to 8.9 (Cohen’s d = 0.36). Introducing harmony as an anchor yielded the strongest divergence from the Cantril Ladder, reducing mentions of power and wealth topics the most (Cohen’s d = −0.76). Our findings refine the understanding of historical Cantril Ladder data and may help guide the future evolution of well-being metrics and guidelines.

Lomas, T. (2023). The person as an extended field: Querying the ontological binaries and dominant “container” metaphor at the core of psychology. New Ideas in Psychology, 70.

The Western-centricity of psychology means it has inherited some of the key ontological categories and distinctions at the heart of Western cultures. This paper identifies four such distinctions that have been particularly influential in psychology: mind-body; subjective-objective; self-other; and inner-outer. Together, these have created a pervasive view that the mind-and the person more broadly-is metaphorically like a "container." However, this paper proposes that a better conceptualization, or at least a complementary one, may be a "field," whereby people's being extends outwards, beyond the apparent boundary of their skin, into the world. Such perspectives have been especially prominent in other cultures and traditions (such as Buddhism), but have pedigree in the West too. The paper thus draws on various cultural sources, and numerous disciplines both within psychology and beyond. It is hoped the discussion may help psychology reflect on and re-evaluate the ontological assumptions at its core, and to engage with field-based perspectives that may be provide a useful alternative or complement to the standard container metaphor.

Lomas, T., Case, B., Cratty, F., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2021). A global history of happiness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 11(4).

Happiness is an increasingly prominent topic of interest across numerous academic fields. However, the literature can sometimes imply it is predominantly a modern concern. Relatedly, critics have argued that contemporary scholarship on happiness is Western-centric, yet in so doing can appear to suggest that happiness is mainly a Western preoccupation. However, taking an expansive view of happiness-defining it broadly as a desirable mental experience-one can appreciate that versions of this phenomenon have been of interest to humans across cultures and throughout history. To articulate this perspective, this paper offers a brief overview of 14 different eras, spanning a range of global regions, in each case highlighting concepts and concerns that bear some close resemblance to happiness. In so doing, the paper encourages a deeper and more inclusive understanding of this vital topic.

Lomas, T. (2021). Life balance and harmony: Wellbeing’s golden thread. International Journal of Wellbeing, 11(1), 18-35.

The relevance of balance and harmony to wellbeing has been under-appreciated in psychology. Even though these concepts have received considerable attention across different contexts (e.g., work-life balance), this literature is fragmented and scattered. There have been few attempts to bring these disparate threads together, or to centre these concepts as foundational and important across all aspects of human functioning. This paper remedies this lacuna by offering a narrative review of these diverse works. Relevant literature is organised into four emergent categories: affect, cognition, behaviour, and self-other relations. Throughout these, balance and harmony can be appreciated as not merely relevant to wellbeing, but arguably a defining principle, a 'golden thread' running through its myriad dimensions (though this thread is itself multifaceted, comprising a cluster of interlinked concepts). Based on this analysis, an overarching definition of wellbeing is offered: the dynamic attainment of optimal balance and harmony in any-and ideally all-aspects of life. This paper provides a foundation and stimulus for further work on these important topics.

Lomas, T. (2019). Positive semiotics. Review of General Psychology, 23(3): 359-370

Although semiotics has historically been a focus of interest in psychology, its impact over recent decades has been fairly muted. Moreover, no systematic efforts have been made to study and understand it from a positive perspective, i.e., the way sign-systems are or can be “positive.” As such, this paper introduces the notion of “positive semiotics,” a label for the disparate research and theorising that is already underway across academia relating to this topic. The paper draws on the work of C. S. Peirce, particularly in terms of his triadic view of sign-systems as comprising a sign, an object, and an interpretant. The idea of positivity is then elucidated using the criterion of desirability, drawing on the work of James Pawelski. Attempts are also made to ascertain the nature of desirability, including normative forms (clarified here using the conceptual triad of goodness, truth, and beauty) and non-normative forms (understood as personal wants). The paper then considers four key semiotic channels – discursive language, body language, symbols, and art – looking at selective examples of how positive semiotics might pertain to that channel. It is hoped the paper will stimulate further interest in, and work on, a phenomenon that is of considerable importance to psychology and beyond.

Lomas, T. (2018). The spatial contours of wellbeing: A content analysis of metaphor in academic discourse. Journal of Positive Psychology. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1450437

In thinking and talking about wellbeing, people often deploy spatial metaphors, such as identifying positive and negative affect with “up” and “down” respectively. However, there has not yet been a systematic investigation of how wellbeing is represented through metaphor. To shed light on this topic, a content analysis was conducted of spatial metaphors in academic discourse on wellbeing, focusing on recent editions of two leading journals, the Journal of Positive Psychology, and the British Journal of Clinical Psychology. Across 28 papers, 54 spatial metaphors were identified, grouped into four main categories: verticality; horizontality; configuration; and dynamism. Above all, wellbeing is associated with interior expansiveness, with positive valence usually attaching to vertical metaphors of height and depth, horizontal metaphors of width and breadth, and configuration metaphors of size and growth. The analysis thus offers valuable insights into the subjective dynamics of wellbeing.

Lomas, T., & Lomas, C. (2018). An art history of happiness: Western approaches to the good life through the last 1000 years, as illustrated in art. Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, 1-24.

A prominent criticism of positive psychology is that it has been shaped by its Western context, and yet that this ‘situatedness’ often remains unacknowledged. Consequently, this paper offers an archaeological analysis of conceptualisations of happiness in the West. More specifically, the paper explores the emergence of significant ideas relating to the good life through the innovative device of studying artworks, on the premise that being featured in art is an effective signifier of when a given idea rose to prominence. Taking a time span of 1,000 years, one artwork per century has been selected to illustrate the emergence of a particular stream of thought during that centennial period. The paper elucidates the roots of current ideas around happiness in fields like positive psychology, and in the West more generally. It is hoped this type of ‘consciousness-raising’ activity may help such fields acknowledge and overcome any limitations arising from their cultural situatedness.

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