Delay Gratification In Children

Studies have shown from an experiment conducted by a well-known psychologist in the twentieth century, Walter Mischel, that children who decided to delay gratification would gain better outcomes in their lives such as receiving high test scores and better skills in general. The Marshmallow Experiment shows that delaying gratification will improve children's lives. Even though children will possibly not include delaying gratification in their lives when they grow older, parents should teach their children to delay gratification for better lifestyle decisions because children will receive better test scores, retain a healthy diet, have greater social skills and will succeed better in the choices they make. Walter Mischel decided among his colleagues to test the human ability to delay gratification. From this, they created the "Marshmallow Experiment," which consisted that the those conducting will lead a child into a room and offer two choices. The choice they are first given is that the child will be given any treat they desire, or they can have two of them when the experimenter comes back. Usually, the child would have to wait approximately for fifteen

About thirty percent of the children...successfully delayed gratification until the researcher returned (Lehrer 4). Now, from these results of the experiment, parents should really apply this experiment or even try it on their children. If their children are part of the thirty percent that got two treats, their future will be a bright one. Mischel states that he "sent out a questionnaire to all the reachable parents....subjects who had participated in the marshmallow task, who were by then in high school. He asked about every trait...from their capacity to plan...to their ability to “cope well with problems” and get along with their peers. He also requested their S.A.T. scores" (Lehrer