The video I chose to write about was “Don’t eat the marshmallows!”, a TED talk given by Joachem de Posada in 2009. Mr. de Posada was a very entertaining speaker and introduced a follow up study and also a similar study done in Colombia. Walter Mischel, PhD, first performed the Marshmallow study more then 40 years ago. Mischel instructed preschoolers that if they waited to eat the marshmallow until his return to the room they could have another. The results were not too surprising – 2 out 3 ate the marshmallow, each lasting various amount of time before they gave in. In a follow up study when the original preschoolers were now 18-19 years old, researchers discovered that the children that did not eat the marshmallow (1 out 3) were all very successful in school – got good grades, had good relationships with teachers etc. The preschoolers who did eat the marshmallows had a different story – poor grades and dropping out of school. Mr. de Posada decided to try this experiment with children in Colombia – he noted the same results with 2 out 3 eating the marshmallow. This experiment shows a very basic form of self-control, but proved to …show more content…
Toddlers tend to be very impulsive and self centered, if we all stayed that way our society would be in trouble. According to Freud, self-control is developed in the phallic stage (age 3-5) when the super ego starts to make children aware of the morals and values of the people around them (McLeod, 2016). If the family rules include sitting at the dinner table until you are finished eating, this becomes a value that a child must learn on order to receive praise from mom and dad. She learns self control by sitting still instead of jumping up from the table. Toddlers also start learning that being impulsive can get them in trouble with there peers – a child that is quick to grab a toy from someone with eventually find themselves without a friend to play