The Virtue of Patience

On average when the director of the experiment left, the children would struggle with deciding to eat the dessert. After about three minutes or less most of the children would eat the treat, “About thirty per cent of the children, however, were like Carolyn” (Lehrer, 2009). Some of the children had the strength to hold off on eating it, while others struggled and ate the treat between zero and three minutes.

In the experiment, Mischel and his colleagues individually tested preschoolers’ ability to delay gratification using the marshmallow test. The child would be given a plate of treats, such as marshmallows, and told the researcher had to leave for a few minutes. But, before the researcher left the child was given two options: they could wait for the researcher to return and be rewarded with two marshmallows or once the researcher left they could ring a bell and the researcher would immediately return, except the

This study, conducted as a requirement for an introductory psychology course, was an investigation of how learning principles such as reinforcement and punishment could be applied to improve conditions in everyday life. In particular, I was studying to see if positive reinforcement would help me to increase my daily water intake. Conceptually defined, daily water intake is the act of drinking water by mouth on a day-to-day basis, in order to keep body cells hydrated and functional. The positive reinforcement I used was a treat of bite-sized Hershey bars, a candy of chocolate. I had hypothesized that I would remember to drink water more often during the day if I rewarded myself for remembering during the intervention period.

The Marshmallow Experiment Does willpower matter? According to an experiment that took place in 1968, children who had more willpower generally ended up being more successful than those that were not able to control themselves. The marshmallow experiment is an experiment that involved four-year-olds where they were given the option to either one marshmallow immediately, or if they waited fifteen minutes they would receive two marshmallows. I believe that willpower plays a major part in being successful.

“Being able to delay gratification - in this case to wait 15 difficult minutes to earn a second marshmallow - not only reflects a child’s capacity for self-control, it also reflects their belief about the practicality of waiting…” (Source

The children had a choice in this experiment, they would either receive a marshmallow now, or wait 15 minutes to get two. These children were four years old, so some don’t have much self control and ate the marshmallow right away. The children who didn’t created ways to distract themselves. It was stated that the average waiting time would be less than two minutes.

If they did not eat the marshmallows they receive a second one, but if they did eat the marshmallow they wouldn't receive another. This experiment is an example of delaying gratification. Urgo go's on to explain in the article that " We need to staff our collective brain trust, to encourage young people with the capacity and the will to delay immediate material reward so that we may direct them through an arduous and extended period of intellectual training and preparation." I believe that Joseph R. Urgo would agree with the idea of delaying

Performance Task Essay Should the marshmallow experiment be trusted? The experiment is about determining willpower and success. The experiment is when you give a child a marshmallow and ask if they would like to eat that one marshmallow now or wait fifthteen minutes for two marshmallows. I agree but disagree with the experiment.

The children that resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow were more likely to be successful in life (Source 1). However, in Source 2, written by Sarah Kliff, a similar experiment was conducted; two adults promised a child that they could have two marshmallows later if they waited. One adult was lying about giving the child a second marshmallow while the other wasn't. Researchers, in Source 2, say that if a person lives in an environment where promises always get broken and outcomes are unreliable, then the most rational response for the child would be to eat the marshmallow right away (Source

A marshmallow doesn’t seem like a big deal, except to preschoolers who will do anything for a piece of candy. To me it seems that any preschooler would fail this testing, because they are young and don’t have too much patience. It turns out though, that there are many preschoolers that will wait because they are smart enough to know that two is better than one. The children who passed this test, have shown that they are capable of delayed gratification. Delayed gratification is when someone gives up a small reward

Patience has not been tested here or there, but instead my entire life has been built upon honoring this principle. My mom has had to be one of the most patient influences in the lives of all those she has come upon, so I have learned to pick up on the importance of that value in our lives. These experiences have shown me that patience can be extremely hard. However, because it is so rare, it proves the fact that it is indeed of immense value. My whole life has been based around this stance, but some of the stories that stick out the most vividly in my mind that have shaped my patience the best include times when I am trying to have conversations with my mom, experiences with going to stores to shop, and instances when I am trying to communicate with her through cellular

Children in early years may have trouble accepting to taste new food, through rewards parents can encourage children to try new food. Skinner believed children learnt behaviour through actions and consequences. McLeod (2007) defined Skinners approach to changing behaviour by the use of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement strengthen behaviour by rewarding individuals. Similarly to children’s eating behaviour, children may learn to accept food through rewards from parents to encourage children to try and be healthy. Children can be rewarded through verbal praise, given a present or rewarded with a sugary snack. Wardle and Cooke (2008) conducted a study of children receiving a sticker for eating a piece of red pepper, over the ten days children

(1972) set the framework in the field of self-control by executing a simple experiment known as the “marshmallow test”. The participating children received a choice. They were left alone in a room with a plate of treats. If the child awaited the return of the researcher, they were given two sweets but if they were not able to wait, they had to ring a bell which told the researcher to return immediately. If the bell was rung, the child would only get one treat instead of two. This experiment led Mischel to introduce the hot and cold system, an explanation for the human ability to delay gratification. While the cold system is said to be reflective and responsible for us holding back, the hot system is the impulsive one, making us want the instant

In a study done by Dianne M. Tice and Roy F Baumester (1997), procrastination was shown to cause a higher amount of stress for college students late in the semester, an overall increase in illness, and lower grades on assignments. Thus, procrastination on studying, or “cramming,” can be inferred to have a negative effect on both health and exam performance. The purpose of this experiment is to reduce cramming by increasing the time spent studying daily for my Psych 111 class through operational conditioning using M&M’s as a positive reinforcer. Studying is conceptually defined as the act of devoting time and attention to acquiring knowledge on a subject. Before the experiment was performed, the daily time spent studying for Psych 111 averaged 10-20 minutes. The positive reinforcer, M&M’s, are conceptually defined as button-shaped candies produced by Mars, Incorporated that contain a milk chocolate interior. Chocolate serves as an effective positive reinforcer as it stimulates the release of pleasure-causing endorphins (Dyer 2006). Because chocolate stimulates pleasure and arousal, I hypothesized that my study time will increase compared to my study time not using a positive reinforcement as I will be motivated to study more for the chocolate reward. The goal of this experiment is to increase study time to at least 30 minutes of studying per day on average while the subject is being positively reinforced.

The Bobo Doll experiment also demonstrated that incentives can affect performance (Holy & Perry, 2012). Incentives can encourage behaviors to continue or be discouraged. At this educator’s program, students who have misbehave loose the privilege of using their favorite toy. After the child repeatedly loses privileges for the same misconduct, the child begins to learn that behavior have a consequence. Many early childhood educators can see that, after the child has learned cause and effect, the child minimizes the behavior to avoid losing privileges. As Holy & Perry (2012) states, this might explain why not all adolescents get influenced by the media's smoking advertisements. Adolescents avoid "bad behavior" because they have personal consequences