Recently, I happened to read about this experiment that was carried out in the 60s by Walter Mischel. The details of the entire experiment can be found in Daniel Goleman's book entitled "Emotional Intelligence".
What happened was that during the experiment, Walter Mischel and his researchers gathered a group of four-year olds in a room. He put a marshmallow on the table and told them that they will be given another one if they are able to wait for 20 mins, until he comes back, before eating the marshmallow. The researcher then left the room and the kids in the room were being observed. Some of the kids ignored what he has said and ate the marshmallow immediately. Some looked at the marshmallow, examined it and waited for a couple of mins before grabbing it and gobbled it down. However, there were some kids who were able to wait and thus they were rewarded with another marshmallow upon the researcher's return.
The progress of these kids were monitored throughout the years and it was discovered that those kids who were able to wait until the researcher's return before eating the marshmallow were found to be more successful in life than those who weren't. For example, this group of kids scored an average of 210 points higher for the SAT then the other group.
What this experiment showed was that those kids who were able to eat their marshmallows only until the researcher's return exhibited the trait of delayed gratification, which is a part of our EQ. With the ability to discipline oneself and to exert self control to suppress any impulse, one is able to focus on the job at hand and resist any temptation to stray away from the job until its completion.
Given such a quality, it is no wonder that those people that scored high on delayed gratification have a higher tendency to be successful people. Perhaps parents out there might want to take note of this!
Annie
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment