Joy is a distinct positive emotion: Assessment of joy and relationship to gratitude and well-being

Joy is a distinct positive emotion: Assessment of joy and relationship to gratitude and well-being. Philip C. Watkins, Robert A. Emmons, Madeline R. Greaves & Joshua Bell. The Journal of Positive Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1414298

Abstract: In three studies we investigated joy and its relationship to subjective well-being (SWB). We developed measures of joy based on recent conceptualizations of joy in the humanities and social sciences. In Studies 1 and 2 we developed reliable measures of state and trait joy. In Study 3 we used a two-month prospective design to investigate the relationship of joy to gratitude and SWB. We found that dispositional gratitude predicted increases in state joy over time. We also found that trait joy predicted increases in state gratitude, providing evidence for an intriguing upward spiral between joy and gratitude. Finally, we found that trait joy was associated with increases in SWB over time. Factor analyses indicated that joy loaded separately from other positive emotions. We conclude that joy is a discrete positive emotion, it can be measured reliably with self-report instruments, and that it may be an important component of well-being.

Keywords: Joy, gratitude, subjective well-being, happiness

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We have seen that joy is not constrained to non-material pleasures. But what is the spiritual dynamic of joy? Much work remains to be done on this front, but in our studies we found small to moderate relationships between joy and spiritual well-being and gratitude to God. Thus, there is clearly a spiritual dimension to joy, in the words of C.S. Lewis, ‘Joy is the serious business of Heaven’ (1963, p. 93). The correlations between gratitude to God and joy support our suggestion that when a good object is experienced as a divine gift, joy is more likely, but clearly our results are far from definitive on this issue. We propose, along with Lewis (1955) and Nietzsche, that the spiritual dimension of joy may be in that it promotes spiritual longing – a longing for the transcendent. In Nietzsche’s words (2006, p. 264):

Yet all joy wants eternity –
    – Wants deep, deep, eternity.

In sum, we propose that the experience of joy is enhanced when there is a perceived spiritual purpose to the joy object, and that a spiritual thought/action tendency of joy is that it promotes a desire for the transcendent.