“The Marshmallow Test Causes Lasting Effects”

The Marshmallow Test was a study of nursery children to see if they had the ability to challenge their temptations. A marshmallow was put in front of them on a plate and the child had two options-to either wait fifteen minutes and receive another, or to eat the marshmallow right away. Many children have a difficult time restraining their needs, and not realizing what the consequences might be in the future. Children, especially nursery aged, do not know or realize that they have or can have willpower. Some might have it without realizing. For example, if a child does wait those fifteen minutes to receive another marshmallow, they are resisting their temptations no matter how hard it is. This test is an experiment of self-control and the remarkable long-term outcomes of the data that was recorded and observed.

Willpower is to have control of one’s impulses and actions; self-control. However, willpower is also “the ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” In this case, children who were able to resist eating the first marshmallow grew up into teenagers who received higher SAT scores and were seen as having the ability to better stay in relationships than the children who ate the marshmallow in the first thirty seconds. The man behind this 1960’s experiment goes by the name of Dr. Walter Mischel, who in fact noticed that the children who were able to wait for the second marshmallow displayed creative ways of distracting themselves. The distractive behaviors suggest that the children with greater willpower have a higher sense of creativity. The results were incredible; the preschoolers who were able to control their temptations have a lower BMI, lower rates of addiction, a lower divorce rate and were able to conquer stress in their future. However, Mischel does not lose any faith in the preschoolers who immediately ate the first marshmallow saying, “I have no doubt that self-control skills … are imminently teachable.”

For instance, “If you’re a smoker and as you approach the cigarette you’re thinking lung cancer … and imagining it very vividly, your picture of your lung with a black spot and your physician telling you ‘I’m so sorry to have to tell you etc.’ that visualization can be very powerful,” said Mischel. Mischel believes that techniques of self-control can be taught and learned at any age. But the question is why can some people resist their temptation, while others cannot? Suppose an individual needed to make some fast money and had two options in mind, having a healthy and steady job and having the salary $8 an hour or seeking out a secretive “spot” to help drug addicts fight their withdrawal symptoms making $1000 a day. The natural human instinct is to make the most money in a short amount of time, but what people do not realize in their moment of decision, is their long-term goals in contrast to short-term temptations.

For children to recognize this concept and understand how they can apply it to their everyday decisions can have a major impact on their lives and shapes them as individuals. According to Marina Chaparro, RD, one of the best things about willpower is that growing self-control in one areas of your life leads to other positive changes. Willpower changes the way people think. For instance, going to the gym may lead to eating healthier. Willpower is not innate, however it is similar to a muscle in a body where it can be strengthen over time. Yet, unlike muscles, willpower can be affected by emotions. If the child had a tough day, he/she might just eat the first marshmallow to make his or her day seem a bit better. Short-term temptations are diseases, cravings, thoughts that are turned into actions without rethinking about what the outcomes might be.

The Marshmallow Test is in fact a study testing children’s’ willpower and their self-control. Willpower has many factors including the child’s parents, the environment they grew up around, and if they have the ability to trust. Waking up everyday to the same surroundings shapes the way people think and act, and the people show them who to trust and who to look past. Growing up in an environment where children only know that the norm of their society is to have things and items taken away from them will cause them to grow up with having extremely low expectations and little to no trust in anyone around them.

Works Cited

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/willpower&gt;.

Manning, Joy. “Willpower: How You Can Get More of It and Why It Runs Out.” WebMD. WebMD, 29 July 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/diet/willpower-facts?page=1&gt;.

“Delaying Gratification.” Science 306.5695 (2004): 369l. American Psychological Association. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-gratification.pdf&gt;.

Hadad, Chuck. “What ‘marshmallow Test’ Can Teach You about Your Kids – CNN.com.” CNN. Cable News Network, 22 Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/22/us/marshmallow-test/&gt;.