PSYC19H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Waking Hours, B. F. Skinner, Neuron
Document Summary
In the 1980s, a few researchers started getting interested in self-regulation, the term that psychologists use for self-control . They would bring the children one at a time into a room, show them a marshmallow, and offer them a deal before leaving them alone in the room. The children could eat the marshmallow whenever they wanted to, but if they held off until the experimenter returned, they would get a second marshmallow to eat along with it. Some children gobbled the marshmallow right away; others tried resisting but couldn"t hold out; some managed to wait out the whole 15 minutes for the bigger reward. Each child"s self-control was rated in a variety of ways (through observations). This produced a reliable measure of children"s self-control, and the researchers were able to check it against a wide array of outcomes through adolescence and into adulthood. The children with poor self-control tended to wind up poorer financially.
