The article discusses the concept of delayed gratification and the mental processes that occur which will either allow someone to delay their gratification for a few minutes or impulsively react to their desires immediately.
The reason I found the article particularly interesting was because of the psychological experiment that was crafted to observe the theories.
The experiment was this: a child (roughly 4-6 years of age) was brought into a small room which had a simple table and a chair. The child was asked to sit on the chair and then offered a marshmallow. They were told that they were free to eat the marshmallow whenever they wanted to but, if they were able to wait a few minutes, they would be given a second marshmallow to eat. All they would need to do was simply wait to eat the treat when the researcher returned to the room and then they would be given a second marshmallow. Sounds simple enough, right?
Apparently, waiting to eat a marshmallow (a.k.a. delaying their gratification) is equivalent to torture for most children. Don't believe me? Here is a video documenting the experiment.
As it turns out, I happened to have marshmallows in the house when I read the article. I was curious to see how Lil Sippy Cup would do with the test. I explained the rules to him, offered him a marshmallow, and turned my back to walk away. Before I took a step, I realized that I should probably re-iterate the rules, just to be sure that he understood them. So I turned back around.
In the two seconds that it took me to turn around and then change my mind about walking away, Lil Sippy Cup placed the entire jumbo-sized marshmallow in his mouth and happily ate it.
Me: "Dude! Did you understand the rules?"
Lil Sippy Cup (smiling widely and nodding)
Me: "So why didn't you wait?"
Lil Sippy Cup: "Uh difnt wont toos"
Me: "Your mouth is full. Wait until you finish eating the marshmallow to answer."
Lil Sippy Cup (swallows): "I said I didn't want to."
Me: "You didn't want two marshmallows?"
Lil Sippy Cup: "Yes I wanted two. But I didn't want to wait. So I put it in my face and ate it."
Me: "Fantastic."
Lil Sippy Cup: "Can we do it again?"
I am sure there is a lesson to be learned in all of this.
But I still don't know what it is.
1 comment:
this is great! I had forgotten about this experiment...brought back a lot of memories from psych 101. Don't read too much into all the results, it might freak you out a bit, especially since sippy cup ate the treat right away lol
Post a Comment