2025 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology

Stanford professor cited for research demonstrating the benefits of managing feelings early
By: Grawemeyer Awards, University of Louisville

For noticing and explicating the different ways people manage their feelings, and for creating and developing the field of emotion regulation, Stanford Psychology Professor James Gross, the Ernest R. Hilgard Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences will receive the 2025 Grawemeyer Award for Psychology.

Gross theorized that managing one’s feelings before they are fully formed (antecedent-focused emotion regulation) offers a healthier approach than trying to manage them after they’re in full swing (response-focused emotion regulation). In testing these predictions, he examined prototypical examples of each type of emotion regulation: cognitive reappraisal, whichinvolves interpreting a potentially emotional situation in a way that alters its impact, and expressive suppression, which involves inhibiting the behaviors that are associated with one’s feelings.

“Bringing simplicity to an age-old debate, James Gross has demonstrated that the manner in which people regulate their emotions deeply affects their lives and the lives of others,” said Director of Grawemeyer Awards in Psychology Brendan E. Depue, Ph.D. “Moreover, he and his research team have shown that reappraisal interventions — teaching people how to regulate their feelings before the feelings have ‘taken over’ — can dramatically improve the way people interpret and handle stress. Emotion regulation exemplifies the kind of powerful idea Charles Grawemeyer had in mind when he established the Psychology Award.”

Notable previous winners whose work relates to Gross’s include Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, who won the 2004 Grawemeyer; Antonio Damasio, who demonstrated the integral role emotions play in human reasoning and decision-making (2014); and James McGaugh, a neuroscientist who helped explain the way our emotions affect what we learn and remember (2015).