Marshmallow Experiment

To Improve Self-control

According to Aristotle, “What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do” (BrainyQuote). What do we naturally need to control ourselves to do or not to do something? Through how people usually manage their daily schedules which would or would not be achieved, the answer would be figured out. Most of them would make their schedules depending on their will, for example, to make them better or work more efficiently. However, at the moment beginning their plan, some of them cannot follow the schedules they made because they already have lost their motivation or just satisfied with making plans even though they had a strong will at the beginning. What causes to or not to execute their plans? What could be the motive

power for them? The answer is willpower that supports the control of themselves. Strong willpower could help them gain something, yet weak one could give them some room to find out excuses not to do something. Now, is a strong ability of self-control a talent which some of us were given when they were born? If not, can we improve the ability, and how? Before seeking the way to improve our willpower, we should know the truth of what is the self-control and how does it work. There is a quite interesting experiment that would help us to realize our willpower and self-control. Through his study, Walter Mischel, a famous psychologist who is well known for the marshmallow test, “proved that the ability to delay gratification is critical to living a successful and fulfilling life. Self–control not only predicts higher marks in school, better social and cognitive functioning, and a greater sense of self–worth, it also helps us manage stress, pursue goals more effectively, and cope with painful emotions” (The Marshmallow…).
Walter Mischel made a unique experiment, called “The Marshmallow Test,” on the behavior of preschool children under the particular situation.

For the test, an examiner, at first, put a sweets like a marshmallow or cookie on a plate in front of a child, and then explain that he or she can choose to eat the marshmallow or wait 20 minutes to get a second marshmallow or cookie. After the explanation, the examiner leave the room and observe their behaviors through monitors (Else). His experiment required those children to express the ability to manage their behavior. If they would wait for 20 minutes, they could get bigger rewards. It might seem a trivial thing, but it is a huge problem for children and it is also big enough to examine their true behaviors. After his lots of demonstration, Walter found out that “[some] children ate the marshmallow as soon as the researchers left the room. But a third of them covered their eyes with their hands, or turned away from the table so as not to see the marshmallow, or kicked the table, pulled their pigtails, or sniffed, …, played hide and seek under the table, or sang Sesame Street songs, but resisted temptation long enough to earn a second marshmallow” (#BB#). Those children were trying to resist the temptation by distracting their attention from the sweets in some ways. Why did those kids, who could resist their desire, act like these although the rest of them ate their sweets soon or could not wait for 20 minutes? How did those kids

gain this ability though they are just kids aged six or so. At this point, there is no way to know the truth of their behavior because of the lack of their survey: their behavior was innate or they were taught by their parents or teachers. His continued observation for those kids, however, brought more notable results to see the truth.
With his team, Walter “followed the careers of those children and found that 100 percent of the patient, self-willed children tended to do better in life. They got far higher marks at school, enjoyed a better social and mental life, had a greater sense of self-worth, and could manage stress and painful emotion better than their more impulsive peers.” In addition, “As a group, the children who ate the first marshmallow did not do so well at home or at school. Many of them had trouble paying attention, maintaining friendships, or resisting drugs or a life of crime” (#BB#). Another report also says that “[by] the age of 25 to 30, [researchers] found the ‘delayers’[, kids who could delay gratification,] were more able to reach long-term goals, used risky drugs less, achieved higher educational levels and had a significantly lower body mass index.” Moreover, by scanning “delayers” brains, the researchers also “found more activity in the prefrontal cortex, used for problem-solving, creative thinking and control of impulsive behavior. So learning to delay gratification early correlates with success as an adult, and the techniques can be applied to everything from coping with heartbreak to weight control, retirement planning and smoking” (Else). If let us suppose that his experiments and observations are all true, the rest of the children who ate the sweets could not have any more chance to get better life after our school age. In other words, is it impossible to improve one’s ability of self-control after they have grown up? Do the rest of us have to accept the miserable career or life because of our lack of the talent? However, most of us would have some experiences like one or more of your friends, who were not that special, same as or less than your ability, or not having unique skills before, became a special one such as having high status or academic success when you met him or her days after a long separation. Even though they seems like they were “non-delayers” who ate the first rewards, what happened to them? Are they suddenly became “delayers” on a certain day?
A recent survey “turns out that being able to resist a treat at the age of five is a strong predictor of success.” Is this another proof telling us that our ability of self-regulate are not progressive anymore?

They also mention that “some people may be naturally disciplined but the ability to delay gratification is a skill that can be taught. Teach children self-control early and you can improve their prospects” (McBain). If we can teach this self-control ability to our children, it should be possible for adult to improve the ability by themselves although it is a difficult way. Fortunately, Walter also said that “self-control is an ability that can or cannot be used depending on motivation to use it” (Morningstar). He might suggest that our motivation could be a countermeasure for the talent that a few children have innately. Another study stated that “Various research studies concerning education conclude that the ‘wanting to study’ is more important than intelligence when it comes to academic performance. Payot asserts that genius is, above all, a long process of patience: scientific and literary works that honour human talent the most are not at all due to the superiority of intelligence, like it is generally believed, but instead to the superiority of a willpower that is admirably owner of itself. …It could be said that it is the soul's potential that moves someone to do or not to do something. (Educating…). Everybody would have some stories of self-regulation that

based on one’s motivation; for example, a person is very good at math because he loves it even though he gets awful grades on humanity classes. In his case, “like” is the motivation that he used as a willpower to control himself consciously or unconsciously. Appropriate motivation for something could change one’s behavior and it also could help them to catch up the others. Nevertheless, it must be hard to figure out the enough motivation to resist the temptation of something like not fun things. If the person loves it, it is easy to change like mentioned above, but if he does not like it, what he should rely on. He must need training on it to find out enough motivation. However, after he could conquer this problem, he would have enough ability of self-control and would not have to accept miserable life anymore.
“The entitlement theories, the standards and beliefs we develop, are enormously important in making the decisions, including automatic decisions, about whether or not we resist temptations. That's why a discussion of what happens in self-control can't be cut off from motivational aspects” (Else). If a child does not have a matured ability of self-control, his parents can still teach him the importance of self-control and can give him a successful life with their advice. Even if a person was evaluated as a child not having an ability of self-control on the marshmallow test when he was a child, he could make his life better by training to discover the enough motivation to shift his bad custom better for something. Everybody knows patience will be necessary at a certain situation, but some people might lose to temptations existing around them. None the less, if you want to be better on your situations, you have to figure out the enough motive factors which could assist your desire. Then how to keep the motivation trough tasks might be another problem for them. However, if they could overcome these problems, their life would be wonderful ones such as better career, academic success, or less stress. Therefore, even though the “delayers” have higher grades or status now, you do not have to be in haste. You already know the way to change yourself and to catch them up; it is also possible for you to leave them behind by using those techniques.