What is Emotion regulation?
Emotion regulation encompasses the processes by which people influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. It is a core component of mental health and effective functioning.
How it works
Gross’s process model identifies five families of regulation strategies corresponding to different points in the emotion generation process: situation selection (avoiding triggers), situation modification (changing the trigger), attentional deployment (redirecting attention), cognitive change (reappraising meaning), and response modulation (suppressing expression). Earlier strategies (reappraisal) are generally more effective than later ones (suppression) because they change the emotional experience rather than just masking it.
Applied example
A person who feels anxious about a presentation can regulate the emotion by: avoiding the situation (declining to present, but losing an opportunity), reappraising (‘This is excitement, not fear—my body is preparing me to perform’), or suppressing (hiding the anxiety while still feeling it). Each strategy has different consequences for performance and well-being.
Why it matters
Emotion regulation is a foundational skill for behavior change because emotional dysregulation drives impulsive behavior, avoidance, and the abandonment of long-term goals.
