Introduction
Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), emotion regulation includes three styles: integrative (autonomous exploration of emotions), suppressive (e.g., ignoring emotional information), and dysregulated (being overwhelmed by emotions). While prior work confirmed the independent positive and negative effects of integrative and suppressive styles on goal pursuit, this work has largely treated them as separate predictors.


Purpose
Consequently, it remains unknown if the benefits of an adaptive style like integration are universal or contingent on concurrent maladaptive style tendencies.


Method
Participants were 119 Chinese undergraduate students (82.4% female; age range 18-24), with baseline goal stress and competency assessed. Using an Experience Sampling Method (ESM), we collected 5693 data points over three weeks, each separated by a two-week interval. Following goal-related emotional events, participants' momentary reports on their use of integrative, suppressive, and dysregulated styles were aggregated into overall tendencies. Goal progress was assessed weekly, and a Bayesian three-way interaction model was estimated.


Results
A credible three-way interaction emerged. Overall, the suppressive style promoted goal progress while the dysregulated style hindered it. The effect of the integrative style, however, was highly conditional and paradoxical: while beneficial in most cases, a higher integrative tendency predicted lower goal progress for individuals with high suppression and low dysregulation tendencies. Post-hoc tests confirmed a 'low integration, high suppression, low dysregulation' tendency yielded the highest goal progress.


Conclusions
By aggregating momentary behaviors, this study reveals a more ecologically valid, configurational relationship between regulatory styles and goal progress. Our East Asian findings challenge a simple "good vs. bad" view of these styles. The paradoxical result shows a focused, suppressive style can be functional when individuals are not overwhelmed by emotion, as the resource-intensive process of integration can be disruptive. This implies constant emotional processing is not always helpful for goal attainment. These findings offer new insights into goal pursuit dynamics and call for further cross-cultural research.