Joy

JOY !!

Joy means pleasure, happiness and delight. The stimuli that make a child satisfied, and contented give rise to the feelings of joy. Joys are expressed by smile, laughter, shouting, dancing with glee and hugging mother or peers, smiling does not appear till the boy is two months old. Joy or pleasure is an emotional reaction to the satisfaction of a motive. It is also as the result of reaching a goal. Unhindered exploration, patting, stroking, and touching evoke feeling of joy. Child shows joy when he/she is having close physical contact with the mother. In the beginning, joy is a generalized and undifferentiated reaction. It comes from physical comfort. Joy is associated with baby's new activities such as cooing, babbling, creeping, standing up, walking and running. The chiId becomes joyous being active on his own accord (Jersild, 1960). When overcomes an obstacle to reach the goal the joy increases. Babies get pleasure when they learn a new skill (reaching out, shaking a rattle, opening a box, and when some body plays hide and seek with newspaper in between). Smiling and laughter are the expressions of joy in different situations at different ages (Washburn, 1929). Children laugh when there are odd behaviours, fun sight, and funny stories. Teasing others, playing pranks, putting animals other children in difficulties give him/her pleasure too. Cartoon scenes in T.V. and movies also give joy to children. They transfer joy to pet animals, to pet dolls or pillows. Older children experience joy emotion when they feel superior. Plutchik's wheel of human emotion reveals that of the eight pairs of primary emotions joy and sadness is one pair.