Theory and application of Gross’s emotion regulation process interpretation model

Abstract: Gross explicitly defines emotion regulation as the process by which individuals influence what emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. According to Gross, emotion regulation folds along with the process by which emotions are produced. In the explanation of the emotion regulation, Gross's emotion regulation process model has been widely recognized and constantly expanded, such as the process model of emotion regulation and the extended process model of emotion regulation. This article integrates Gross's series of models to explain emotion regulation, taking as the main thread three salient features of condensed model development, namely from the traditional linear model to the current spiral model, from the individual-based emotion regulation model to the group-based emotion regulation, and from emotion regulation to emotion polyregulation. Then, the main points of each model are illustrated in the context of time, explaining how empirical research contributes to the development and optimization of the models. Then, combined with the three advances of Gross's emotion regulation process interpretation model, the empirical studies in these three aspects are summarized and reviewed: The first is to explore and put forward the monitoring stage. Further exploration found that it can promote emotion regulation flexibility, that is, individuals can change their strategies more flexibly to adapt to changes in the environment. The second is to distinguish the group-based emotion regulation from the individual-based emotion regulation and to analyze and explore the group-based emotion regulation. The third is to get rid of the limitation of exploring single emotion regulation strategy in previous studies, and further explore multivariate emotion regulation, that is, the simultaneous or continuous use of multiple methods to regulate emotions in a single emotional event. The empirical study of these three aspects further explains the theoretical rationality and wide applicability of Gross's emotion regulation process interpretation model and confirms the dynamic interaction of the mechanism of emotion regulation from the perspective of practical application. Finally, the problems existing in the empirical research of these three aspects and the future exploration direction are briefly discussed.