What Is The MarshMallow Test?

Children now a day are tested in so many different ways for several disorders or problems, but do we really know what the results actually resemble. For example what does the famous Marshmallow Test really show in its results? This simple test created by psychologist Dr. Walter Mischel includes a child being given a marshmallow from an instructor then while trying to control themselves, are asked to wait for an additional treat 15 minuets later. So as we can guess some kids waited and others did not but it wasn’t the results that aren’t clear, it’s the meaning of them.

Mischel states that the results show a child’s strength  to control it’s impulses when confronted a stressful situation. By the child not eating the treat and showing techquies to delay gratification a reflection of how he or she will act later on in life in a stressful, is shown. This is important for a parent to know so a child can gain help to gain  self-control, but it is vital for a child to realize. Once a child can realize how to delay gratification the sooner he or she is  on a better track to succeed. results show the children who had enough self-control to not eat the first treat had higher grades, were not as addictive, and also were able to hold down more jobs compared to the children whom eaten the treat.

This seems logical and accurate opposed to other theories from scientists stating that the children actually lack trust in the instructor. This theory is illogical because children grow up in all different environments that have opposing types of living styles which conflicts with their everyday reasoning. For example a child whom comes from a suburban community might trust others because his environment is small and everyone in his community is trustworthy. While a child from an urban community choses to trust few people because of the lack of trust in his large environment. It all depends on how your child is raised and the influence of its environment when it comes to how easily someone will trust another, not a marshmallow test. This would simply  be the wrong test for trust issues unless you pick children from the same neighborhood or community.

The right test would be “Rational snacking” done by Celeste Kidd, Holly Palmeri, and Richard N. Aslin from the University of Rochester. This is a test where children were separated into two groups to do art,  the instructors would say they will give more supplies, but only one group actually gets them. Then in the same groups and with the same instructor they ran the marshmallow test. Now we can see why it becomes a trust issue problem because the children already have met the instructor and saw if he or she was true to their word. Sadly this is not the same as the original Marshmallow test so trust doesn’t get tested, but self-control is.

Work Cited

Elharo. “A New Interpretation of the Marshmallow Test.” – Less Wrong. N.p., 05 July 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

Hadad, Chuck. “What the ‘marshmallow Test’ Can Teach You about Your Kids – CNN.com.’ CNN. Cable News Network, 22 Dec.2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.