Because it sure seems like joy is a feeling, and if a feeling somewhat out of our control. Feelings are generally responses to external events. Something happens and I feel irritated, angry, happy, surprised, disgusted, afraid, or joyful. And that leaves us a bit stuck, because as I mentioned in the last post, for Christians joy is immune to external circumstances. Not that joy eliminates sorrow and grief, but that joy exists within and alongside our tears, as does gratitude, faith, and hope.
But again, if joy isn't a feeling, what exactly is it?
In the psychological literature on joy, the work of Robert C. Roberts has been influential.1 Specifically, Roberts argues that joy isn't a feeling but an emotion. The two are different.
Roberts defines emotions as concern-based construals. A "construal" is a perceptual "take" on the world. Roberts uses the famous rabbit or duck illusion to make this point. In the picture above, do you see a rabbit or a duck? Your perception of either is a construal. Roberts argues emotions are like that.
And yet, Roberts continues, emotions aren't just construals, they are construals of how the world is impinging upon my concerns, the things I value and care about. When I see the world affecting things I care about I have an emotional response. Roberts uses an example of seeing your child walking toward a cliff. We "see" the danger, there is a perceptual take on the world, and this perception creates an emotional response because that danger is impinging upon something I care about, the safety, life and well-being of my child.
But isn't that fear a feeling? Not as Roberts uses these terms. Yes, Roberts argues, our feelings (our affect) is generally the quickest and most direct route to understanding our emotions. But there are times when emotions and feelings are different. For example, sometimes we only get access to our emotions by watching our behavior. Sometimes we feel ourselves in the grip of an emotion but unable to express what we are feeling, or if we are feeling anything at all. As Roberts points out, much of the work we do in therapy is sorting out our true emotions and working to get them mapped correctly onto our feelings. That's often no easy task, and it illustrates the difference between feelings/affect and emotions.
If this is still a bit confusing, given how most of us think that "feeling" and "emotion" are synonymous, it might help to attend to the etymology of the word "emotion." The Latin root of the word "emotion" is movere, "to move, or set in motion." This is the same root for words like "motion," "movement," and "motivation." For Roberts, emotions are close to motivations, which makes emotion deeper than affect or feeling. Emotion is the "motor" (same Latin root of movere) that gets you up and running to your child to save them from falling. That "motor" has behavioral (running to your child), affective (flash of fear and panic), and physiological (release of stress hormones, increased heart rate) effects. But these are downstream effects and consequences of the "motor" firing up, not the motor/emotion itself.
Now, why have I taken you on this journey into Roberts' distinction between feeling and emotion?
Well, because understanding joy as a concern-based construal (an emotion) helps us separate joy from feelings, a contrast which gives us an entry point to see how joy can become a virtue.
Specifically, if joy is a construal, a perceptual "take" on the world, then we have here a lever to pull in acquiring joy as a virtue. Consider Paul's admonitions throughout the book of Philippians, often described as Paul's "letter of joy." Paul's encouragements to the church are less about forcing feelings than shaping their construals. Paul is sitting in jail, along with other hardships, but he doesn't see a duck, he sees a rabbit. And he calls the church to construe their lives in a similar way. We also see this at work in the book of James where we are encouraged to "consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds." Note that word "consider." Are you seeing a duck or a rabbit? Joy is cultivated by shifting our perceptual takes on the world.
More, these perceptual takes are related to our concerns and cares. And these are also within our control. We get to choose what we value and prioritize. We get to choose how we invest our hearts. We control what we care and are concerned about. And as those concerns shift so do our emotions shift, joy among them.
This is how joy, as an emotion, can become a virtue. We have control over our perceptual takes on the world, along with our cares and concerns. Work and investment across these two fronts--considering different "takes" on the world and shifting our cares and concerns--allows us to practice joy.
1See: Robert C. Roberts (2020) "Joy and the Nature of Emotion," The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15:1, 30-32.