 24. Emotion Regulation  525
emotion regulation strategies (Webb, Miles, 
& Sheeran, 2012). Much of this work has 
compared expressive suppression, a form of 
response modulation, to cognitive reapprais -
al, a form of cognitive change. Experiments 
reveal that compared to individuals who re -
spond naturally, those who are instructed to 
use suppression show heightened physiologi -
cal reactivity (Gross, 1998a), poorer memo -
ry (Richards & Gross, 2000), and lower rap -
port with interaction partners (Butler et al., 
2003). In contrast, using reappraisal leads to 
less negative emotional experience without 
the physiological (Gross, 1998a), cognitive 
(Richards, Butler, & Gross, 2003), or social 
costs (Butler et al., 2003). Despite these dif -
ferences in the consequences of suppression 
and reappraisal, it is important to note that 
no strategy is inherently adaptive or mal -
adaptive (Catterson, Eldesouky, & John, 
2017; Troy, Shallcross, & Mauss, 2013; 
Troy, Ford, McRae, Zarolia, & Mauss, 
2017). Instead, effective regulation requires 
the ability to flexibly deploy the appropri -
ate strategy to meet one’s goals in a given 
context (Aldao, Sheppes, & Gross, 2015; 
Bonanno & Burton, 2013).
Recently, the process model was extended 
to further explicate how emotion regulation 
occurs across four different stages: iden -tification, selection, implementation, and 
monitoring (Gross, 2015; see Figure 24.1). 
The identification  stage involves the initial 
decision of whether to regulate or not. In 
order to make this decision, the individual 
needs to be able to decipher his or her cur -
rent emotional state and compare it to his 
or her goals, then determine whether the re -
sulting discrepancy warrants the activation 
of regulation processes. The selection  stage 
involves choosing which type of strategy 
to use for regulation. Strategy selection re -
quires knowledge of various ways to modu -
late emotion, including how appropriate a 
strategy would be to use in the current regu -
lation context (e.g., whether distracting one -
self by humming a tune will work to reduce 
one’s anxiety in the waiting room at the den -
tist). The implementation  stage involves de -
ploying a specific regulation tactic. In order 
to use a tactic effectively, the regulator must 
have the necessary cognitive, physiological, 
and social resources. For example, someone 
who wants to seek out social support when 
feeling sad might not be able to if he or she 
lives far from family and friends. Once a tac -
tic is deployed, the individual must engage 
in monitoring  the situation and his or her 
emotional state in order to determine wheth -
er to continue regulating in the same way, 
FIGURE 24.1. A simplified version of the extended process model of emotion regulation adapted from 
Gross (2015). The labels refer to the four stages in emotion regulation, and the small boxes refer to the 
five families of emotion regulation processes by which emotion can be changed.
A PIDENTIFICA TIONSELECTION
IMPLEMENT ATION
MONIT ORING