Of all the wide range of emotions that we can experience, probably the one that we are all looking forward to experiencing is joy. It is a fundamental emotion whose presence not only gives us pleasure but also seems to facilitate our lives in all aspects and domains and also usually means that everything or at least something that matters and excites us is working just as we would like.
But the truth is that we do not always experience joy for the same things or in the same way, or sometimes it can be superficial or manifest despite being non-existent, or even be a symptom that something is working incorrectly. It is because of that we can talk about different types of joy which we are going to see throughout this article.
The joy is one of the basic and most important emotions of the human being, also being one of the most rewarding and appetizing. It is a sensation that is linked to the existence of a series of activations and physiological effects (among them an increase in heart and respiratory rate and the secretion of hormones and endorphins) and that generally occurs based on an experience (be it this or internal) that the subject values at a cognitive level as favorable.
It usually generates typical behavioral manifestations such as smiling (sincere joy being the only emotion that in said act generates the activation of certain eye muscles), or laughter. It generally appears associated with and is one of the fundamental parts of the concepts we call happiness, fulfillment or well-being.
Regardless of the well-being it generates, joy is a deeply adaptive emotion: it facilitates exploration and contact with others and the environment, in addition to stimulating creativity and mental flexibility. It has been observed that it speeds up information processing and facilitates the search for new and more effective methodologies.
Makes socialization and community life easier and also favors the repetition of the behaviors that have generated said sensation. Likewise, joy encourages the overall information to be observed more than each of the elements that are part of the situation, something that in turn can cause one to lose attention to details and even commit more risks in one’s actions.
In fact, it has been observed that feeling joy is positive for health, since it improves our immune system, is linked to better cardiac recovery after coronary events and improves the subject’s prognosis in a large number of disorders, diseases and injuries. It also reduces or counteracts the reactions of negative emotions, such as anxiety or sadness.
Different types of joy
Most people and in general, we tend to think of joy as a single and unitary concept, and it is not common for us to stop and talk about the possible existence of types of joy. However, it is possible to make a brief classification based on its suitability in relation to the situation experienced or even the level of realism with which it is experienced.
1. Authentic joy
We understand authentic or felt joy as that type of joy that is truly experienced by the person who claims to do so, with a positive state of mind in which physiological activation and excitement and a feeling of happiness, desire to experiment and well-being appear. This sensation appears naturally and is expressed fluidly to the outside being the product of a situation or achievement considered positive by the subject.
2. Hilarious joy
Hilarious joy is that which appears as a result of a sense of humor or physiological reactions that do not necessarily appear in a situation of happiness and well-being but after the capture and processing of generally unexpected stimuli or situations that we find comical. This is one of the most common types of joy.
Joy can have diverse origins, and participates in phenomena as relevant as the perception of happiness. As far as this is concerned, you can become happy and experience joy based on different aspects. One of them is derived from the experience of pleasure, obtained through the satisfaction of the person’s most basic needs and desires, as well as the avoidance of what generates discomfort.
4. Derived from eudaimonia
Along with hedonia, another cause of happiness and the joy that is usually part of it is what is known as eudaimonia: in this case, well-being and joy are experienced derived from the fact of working on one’s own development and search. of objectives and purposes. It is about the joy that comes from self-realization.
5. Fake
We understand by feigned joy that set of samples of a positive, expansive and even happy state of mind that is carried out intentionally and without there really being an emotionality that justifies them, said joy being a falsification generated with some type of purpose. So we are actually looking at someone who is not really feeling joy. To recognize it, the most effective thing is to look at whether there are any discrepancies between the gestures of the mouth and those of the eyes when smiling.
6. Cynical
It is a type of joy very similar to feigned joy and could in fact be considered a subtype of it, cynical joy is that joy manifested as a mask or defense mechanism in order to avoid showing another emotion generally negative.
7. Pathological: manic and hypomanic states
It is likely that at a general level, whenever we imagine the presence of joy, we do so in a context in which it is positive, improves our mood and facilitates our well-being, and is generally caused by a beneficial event that gives rise to said emotion.
However, it is also possible to find people who experience a type of joy that is not normative but pathological, which escapes the control of the situation and that can overflow and become maladaptive and even dangerous.
This is what happens in some pathologies such as manic episodes typical of bipolar disorder, some cases of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders or after substance intoxication. Rather than authentic joy, we would be talking about situations of euphoria, in which expansiveness, logorrhea and increased speed of thought arise. In these circumstances it is possible to lose control of the situation and suffer a decreased capacity for judgment and risk analysis, to the point where delusions of grandeur, irritability and hostility towards others may even appear.
8. Parathymic
It is understood as such a type of joy which is considered pathological because said emotion appears in a situation that does not correspond to something that generates joy for the subject or that appears at a time or in a situation that should not generate it (not It is necessarily that it occurs in a situation in which it is socially considered inappropriate, that also, but even that the emotion of joy appears even though what happened may actually be sad for the subject itself) or in which the physiological expression does not accompany the felt emotion.
9. Moria: empty joy
Another type of joy, present among other cases in people with brain injury, brain tumors, cognitive impairment or dementia, is moria. It is understood as such a positive and expansive mood but empty in content, which appears without there being a reason for said joy. It is common for people with this symptom to show a desire to joke, eccentric behavior and extreme joviality regardless of the context.
