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Vocabularies of happiness
Vocabularies of happiness

Author(s): Roxana Bratu
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Universitatea din Bucuresti, Facultatea de Sociologie si Asistenta Sociala
Keywords: happiness; discourse analysis; discursive psychology; vocabularies of motive

Summary/Abstract: This paper seeks to explore through interviews the vocabularies of happiness that interviewees invoke in face-to-face interactions to account for their happiness or lack thereof and, especially, for the (un happiness of others. In other words, how do respondents present their own or others’ happiness - be they close or distant acquaintances, or people in general, in an interview conversation? Also, what understanding of others do these accounts make visible? This work embraces a discursive psychological (DP) perspective, focusing on how different versions of happiness are being put together by respondents presenting themselves as competent and credible individuals, while at the same time positioning themselves in a moral order of happiness.

  • Issue Year: 4/2013
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 33-50
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English
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