The Marshmallow Theory According To Walter Mischel

The Marshmallow Theory

Have you ever wondered, “where does willpower come in place for success”? Can a marshmallow and children be the best explanation? According to Walter Mischel, it is completely possible to use 4 year olds with marshmallows to determine what willpower has to do with success. He simply leaves the child alone with one marshmallow for several minutes. If the child waits till he comes back before eating the marshmallow, he gets a second one. If the child is unable to wait, he will only get one marshmallow. Willpower plays a large role in success because it shows gratification, it gives an idea about how children will be in their later years, and it shows resistance to temptation.

Gratification is pleasure when gained from the satisfaction of a desire. “Kids who delay gratification have a much more realistic understanding of willpower” (Source 1: Jonah Lehrer). Gratification helps with patience; the more patient the child is, the better reward earned. If the child ate the marshmallow, not very much gratification would come from that because he/she

“The ability to hold out for the latter correlated with greater success and self-control later in life” (Source 2: Sarah Kliff). Researchers from the University of Rochester took a second look at this test. They found that the ability to delay gratification isn’t just some skill, it has to do with behavioral cues. Putting into question, the results cause the researchers to ask how much of self-control really has to do with this test. Around 12 years later the researchers decided to pay their old guinea pigs a visit. The children who couldn’t hold out for that second marshmallows grew up with bad behavioral issues. The select few that had waited for the second treat had scored about 200 points higher than others on the SAT. Proving that willpower has at least something to do with success (Source 1: Jonah