The True Meaning Behind the Marshmallow Test

Children now a day are tested in so many different ways for different 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 and in return if the child doesn’t eat the treat within 15 minuets he or she will be given an additional treat.  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.

Life throws challenges at a single person each day, but with the help of self-control we can accomplish these problems. There are not a lot of test that can explore a person’s ability to resist temptation, but the Marshmallow test certainly does.  Dr. Walter Mischel states that the results show a child’s strength  to control its impulses when confronted with a stressful situation. By the child not eating the treat and showing techniques to delay gratification, a reflection of how he or she will act later on in life in a stressful, is shown “I was watching this miracle that occurs when our kids … really begin spontaneously to show dramatic changes in their ability to control their impulses,”(Hadad).

This seems logical and accurate opposed to other theories from scientists stating “longitudinal studies show is that children who come from an environment where they have learned to be more trusting have better life outcomes”(Elharo). 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 a test where children were separated into two group to do art, where the instructor would give them some supplies and say he will return with more in 15 mins. In one case he did and in other he didn’t. Following this they took the same kids and instructor in each group and preformed the Marshmallow test. Now we can see why it becomes a trust issue problem because the children already have met the instructor once and saw if he was true to his word or not. Sadly this is not the same as the original Marshmallow test so trust doesn’t get tested, but  self-control is.

This is important for a parent to know so a child can achieve help to gain  self-control “I realized that I didn’t have a clue about what was going on in my children’s heads that allowed these changes to occur and that’s what I wanted to understand.”(Hadad). With a parent having their child placed into PROGRAMS that build up his her ability to control their impulses they are easy placing him on better path to succeed in life. Now it is helpful for a parent to realize this problem ,but it is vital for a child to realize also. Once a child can realize how to delay gratification the sooner he or she is  on a better track to succeed “Preschoolers with good self-control sacrifice the immediate pleasure of a chewy marshmallow in order to indulge in two marshmallows at some later point. Ex-smokers forfeit the enjoyment of a cigarette in order to experience good health and avoid an increased risk of lung cancer in the future”(Delaying). 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.

The two main aspects of the results of the Marshmallow Test reveal a child’s delay gratification and self-control. Now the importance of this test is beneficial for a child’s development for example when Dr. Walter Mischel stated “He learned that the techniques that children showed to delay gratification would have a profound effect on them for decades”(Hadad). The sooner a parent realizes that their child lacks skills in either of these subjects are vital to the success of their offspring. If a child eats the treat without waiting he or she can easily receive help by the parent bringing them to a  skill building class on self-control or to meet with a professional to learn aspects of how to control delay gratification such as to “use specific activities designed to teach self-regulation”(Clark), “use appropriate rewards”(Clark), or to simply just “take a break”(Clark).For the children whom already show signs of being able to control themselves the parent needs to stay on top of those attributes. Just because their child now has the skills to control themselves it doesn’t mean that over time those attributes won’t fade away. Once the parent builds on the skills it would advance the development of their offspring to a greater extent. Either way if a child fails the test or doesn’t there is a way to learn from the results, but first you need to know what they actually mean.

Work Cited

“Delaying Gratification.” Science 306.5695 (2004): 369l. Delaying Gratification. Web.

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.

L, Clark .. “Teaching Your Child Self-Control Skills.” B E H AV I O R P R O B L E M S 2nd Edition (1996): n. pag. Behavior Problems. Clark.L, July-Aug. 1996. Web.