Walter Mischel Theory Of Self Control Essay

Walter Mischel in the 1960 begin a series of tests on children aged 5 to 4, with the goal of identifying the mental process that allowed certain people to delay gratification while others give up. The challenge was to find a way to understand and test how individuals could forgo immediate gratification because of the consequences or long-term goals.

Self-control is not a general trait that words like "willpower" tend to indicate rater it is a situational. Some people may have good self-control over their diet meanwhile have bad self-control over time management this consequently makes testing for self-control hard.

The Experiment

In the experiment each preschooler was put in a private room by themselves and a marshmallow was put on a table before them. All distractions in the room were removed so the only thing the child would be focusing on would be the marshmallow. The child was then given the options of

That doesn 't mean that the children who ate the marshmallows are destined to live worse lives or less successful lives. The children who didn 't eat the marshmallows simply know a skill that the other don 't know and that skill is teachable.

Self-Regulatory Strategies
In the course of growing up children become better at self-control by learning effective strategies that helped them with self-control. Children through preschool and grade 6 were evaluated on their use of strategies. The results were that 4-year-olds had the weakest self-control often using the worst strategies thus making it very hard for themselves. for example, they would focus on the marshmallows and preferred to look at them. By age 5 most children have a better understanding and choose and use better strategies.

Delayed gratification Tests on Older Children with behavior