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Delay of Gratification in Children
Abstract
To function effectively, individuals must voluntarily postpone immediate gratification and persist in goal-directed behavior for the sake of later outcomes. The present research program analyzed the nature of this type of future-oriented self-control and the psychological processes that underlie it. Enduring individual differences in self-control were found as early as the preschool years. Those 4-year-old children who delayed gratification longer in certain laboratory situations developed into more cognitively and socially competent adolescents, achieving higher scholastic performance and coping better with frustration and stress. Experiments in the same research program also identified specific cognitive and attentional processes that allow effective self-regulation early in the course of development. The experimental results, in turn, specified the particular types of preschool delay situations diagnostic for predicting aspects of cognitive and social competence later in life.
... Delay of gratification (DG), our capacity to resist the temptation of immediate pleasure instead of a larger reward to be received later (Mischel et al., 1989) enables us to pursue long-term goals such as obtaining a diploma or saving for retirement. 1 DG in childhood predicts numerous favourable outcomes later in life, including better school performance, higher lifetime income, better health, and greater social competence (Golsteyn et al., 2014;Mischel et al., 1988;1989;Schlam et al., 2013). ...
... Delay of gratification (DG), our capacity to resist the temptation of immediate pleasure instead of a larger reward to be received later (Mischel et al., 1989) enables us to pursue long-term goals such as obtaining a diploma or saving for retirement. 1 DG in childhood predicts numerous favourable outcomes later in life, including better school performance, higher lifetime income, better health, and greater social competence (Golsteyn et al., 2014;Mischel et al., 1988;1989;Schlam et al., 2013). ...
... The first method entails making a choice under realistic conditions with varying reward values. The second method, later known as the 'marshmallow test', examines how young children resist the temptation of immediate gratification to achieve a greater reward later (Mischel et al., 1989). ...
We show the evolution of the delay of gratification (DG) in 950 students aged 10–14 during coronavirus-induced home-based online education, by analysing data from two waves of voluntary online surveys. Students in the highest SES category experienced an absolute increase in DG, whereas those in the lowest SES category suffered a decrease, resulting in a widening SES gap between the groups over a relatively short 30-day period.
... Vagy a kontrollgyengeséget visszajelző környezet? Az önkontrollt a gyermekek későbbi sikereinek (vagy kudarcainak) egyik fő ok-okozati tényezőjeként tartják számon (Mischel et al., 1989). ...
... In the intertemporal choice literature, a tendency to choose larger-later options is often denoted as a self-controlled choice pattern. A plausible explanation of this time-bound conceptualization of selfcontrol is that choosing the larger-later option connects with some aspect of self-control, namely, delay of gratification (such as in the marshmallow test; Mischel et al., 1989). However, the temporal aspect of these delay of gratification experiments is not the part that indicates self-control in the subject. ...
Intertemporal choice tasks are used to measure how people make decisions between outcomes occurring at different time points. Results from these tasks are typically used to study impulsivity and self-control, concepts central in theories and empirical research concerning addiction, criminology, psychopathology, and organizational behavior, among many. Accordingly, preferences for smaller rewards received sooner, over larger rewards received later, have been linked to higher impulsivity and less self-control. This article is a critique of that approach. We first provide a historical overview of research on time preferences tracking the origins of the theoretical link between intertemporal choice, impulsivity, and self-control. Our subsequent conceptual analysis reveals that impulsivity concerns a lack of reflection on one’s choices, not a lack of concern with the future, and self-control concerns internal conflict due to temptation, rather than future-orientedness. We draw attention to the fact that people may, and do, use self-control to choose a “smaller-sooner” reward or impulsively select a “larger-later” reward. We also address technical limitations about intertemporal choice tasks’ reliability and external and predictive validity. We conclude that impulsivity and self-control cannot be measured using a standard intertemporal choice task. We canvass possible future directions for decision-making models in this area, providing the basis for a new understanding of how impulsivity, self-control, and time preferences influence behavior across different domains. We suggest that to study impulsivity and self-control in a temporal context, more information is needed about agents’ motivation, affect, and deliberative process.
... The capacity for deferred gratification, a primary component of willpower, is deeply relevant to language learning. The classic research on delayed gratification (Mischel, Shoda & Rodriguez, 1989) has shown that cognitive competencies -the ability to forgo immediate rewards in the service of longerterm benefits -predict higher academic and social performance. This translates quite literally to the learning of language, as children must push against their inclination to speak in short sentences and use easy words to learn how to use both more complex structures. ...
Language translates emotions, thoughts, and ideas. Linguists have long delved into how little ones learn their native language through diverse theories and perspectives, such as behavioral, cognitive, and nativist theories. This study, however, takes a unique perspective, seeking to understand how and why children learn and acquire their first language by examining child language acquisition through the lens of three major theories— Innate Theory, Behaviorist Theory, and Cognitive Development Theory. The study adopts a qualitative design, it assesses secondary data from earlier research via a thematic examination. Innate Theory considers the Language Acquisition Device as an inborn biological mechanism for language learning purposes. However, this study suggests that Willpower is what gets the LAD running. In contrast, Behaviorist Theory heavily focuses on the effects of outside influences on language learning. This paper contends that Willpower is necessary to prompt the child to respond with inhibitory control and ,therefore, counteract the facilitation of performance that would otherwise follow from stimulus-response learning relationships between motivating and nonmotivating stimuli. Furthermore, the stages of language development by a child are explained, including how Piaget represented his Cognitive Development Theory. This study shows that strong Willpower gives children the emotional resilience to concentrate for a more extended period and use their brain power in learning a language. Moreover, this study provides an insightful understanding of Willpower and how it directs individuals to set realistic goals and helps one self-regulate in language acquisition — essential conduct for young learners to develop this motivation later
The Aristotelian virtue phronesis economically yet comprehensively integrates moral perception with moral action. Though aspects of phronesis characterize many complex skills, we claim that, in the right circumstances, thinking and acting phronetically can facilitate fast and slow moral choices and be involved in the governance of both intuitively guided and intentional moral action. Phronesis , working with values and affordances, reveals the fittingness of potential actions to the moral actor, indicating which action is best. By relating (though not directly equating) aspects of phronesis to components of executive function, we integrate work whose potential relevance for moral psychology has been largely overlooked.
We often face situations requiring us to exert self‐control, wherein we set goals and invest plenty of effort in achieving them, but are also disturbed by urges to give in to temptations. Since self‐control is associated with outcomes across various domains, it is important to assess individual domain‐specific differences in self‐control to further understand how it develops and contributes to successful outcomes. The present study aimed to develop and validate the Japanese version of the Delaying Gratification Inventory, a well‐developed measure for assessing one's ability to delay gratification in five domains: food, physical pleasures, social interactions, money, and achievement. We created the Delaying Gratification Inventory in Japanese (DGI‐J) using back translation. We conducted surveys to test its validity using two discrete samples: crowd‐workers and university students. Our results showed that the DGI‐J is a valid measure for assessing self‐control in the abovementioned domains, except for the internal consistency for the Physical subscale. We also created a 10‐item short form of the DGI‐J from an item‐response theory perspective and tested its validity. We discuss how the DGI‐J can contribute to the literature on self‐control.
Anorexia nervosa is a severe eating disorder characterized by food restriction in service of a future goal: thinness and weight loss. Prior work suggests altered intertemporal decision-making in this disorder, with more farsighted decisions—i.e. reduced delay discounting—in patients with acute anorexia nervosa. Future-oriented cognition, such as frequent prospective future thinking in daily life, promotes farsighted decision making. However, whether temporal orientation is altered in anorexia nervosa, potentially contributing to reduced delay discounting in this population, remains unclear. We measured delay discounting behavior, anorexia nervosa symptomatology, and temporal orientation in a large sample of never-diagnosed individuals. We found that higher anorexia nervosa symptomatology was associated with reduced delay discounting. Anorexia nervosa symptoms were also correlated with increased future-oriented cognition. Moreover, future-oriented cognition mediated the difference in delay-discounting behavior between high and low anorexia nervosa symptom groups. These results were unrelated to subjective time perception and independent of mood and anxiety symptomatology. Collectively, these findings suggest that future-oriented cognition may be a cognitive mechanism underlying altered intertemporal decision making in anorexia nervosa.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-80597-7.
The components of self-regulation were analyzed, extending the self-imposed delay of gratification paradigm to older children with social adjustment problems. Delay behavior was related to a network of conceptually relevant cognitive person variables, consisting of attention deployment strategies during delay, knowledge of delay rules, and intelligence. A positive relationship was demonstrated between concurrent indexes of intelligence, attention deployment, and actual delay time. Moreover, attention deployment, measured as an individual differences variable during the delay process, had a direct, positive effect on delay behavior. Specifically, as the duration of delay and the frustration of the situation increased, children who spent a higher proportion of the time distracting themselves from the tempting elements of the delay situation were able to delay longer. The effect of attention deployment on delay behavior was significant even when age, intelligence, and delay rule knowledge were controlled. Likewise, delay rule knowledge significantly predicted delay time, even when age, attention deployment, and intelligence were controlled.
Indifference functions of amount and delay of reinforcement were compared for pigeon and human subjects by using Mazur's (1987) adjusting delay procedure. A model similar to the matching law (the simple reciprocal model), a hyperbolic model, three modified versions of the hyperbolic model, and a negative exponential model were evaluated. In Experiment 1 the subjects were pigeons, and in Experiments 2 and 3 the subjects were humans. In order to make the nonhuman and human situations more comparable, in Experiments 2 and 3 the reinforcer (points exchangeable for money) was discounted at a constant rate during the delay periods. The rate of this discounting varied between Experiments 2 and 3. The results of all three experiments demonstrated that a power function transformation of the hyperbolic model (in which 1 is added to the delays in the denominator of the simple reciprocal model) provided the best description of both nonhuman and human data.
When offered a choice (Choice Y) between a small immediate reward (2-sec exposure to grain) and a large reward (4-sec exposure to grain) delayed by 4 sec, pigeons invariably preferred the small, immediate reward. However, when offered a choice (Choice X) between a delay of T seconds followed by Choice Y and a delay of T seconds followed by restriction to the large delayed reward only, the pigeon's choice depended on T. When T was small, the pigeons chose the alternative leading to Choice Y (and then chose the small, immediate reward). When T was large, the pigeons chose the alternative leading to the large delayed reward only. The reversal of preference as T increases is predicted by several recent models for choice between various amounts and delays of reward. The preference for the large delayed alternative with long durations of T parallels everyday instances of advance commitment to a given course of action. Such commitment may be seen as a prototype for self-control.
In a comparative test of the relative efficacy of live and symbolic models for modifying delay-of-reward behavior, groups of children with marked preferences for either immediate but less valued rewards, or more valuable delay reinforcers, were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 experimental conditions. 1 group observed live models who exhibited delay behavior that was counter to the children's pattern; a 2nd group was presented essentially the same modeling cues except in symbolic verbal form; while a 3rd group had no exposure to any models. Changes in Ss' delay-of-reward behavior were measured immediately following exposure to the modeling procedures, and reassessed approximately 1 mo. later within a different stimulus situation. Both live and symbolic models produced substantial modifications in delay-of-reward behavior within the immediate social-influence setting, but the changes induced in high-delay children through exposure to symbolic models were less stable over time. (27 ref.)
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This chapter provides an overview of research on choice preferences for delayed, larger versus immediate, smaller gratifications. In spite of the widespread recognition of the important role of delay of gratification in human affairs, previous experimental research on the topic has been limited. At the empirical level, extensive experimental work has been done on delay of reward in animals. Surprisingly, although voluntary delay behavior has been assumed to be a critical component of such concepts as “ego strength,” “impulse control,” and “internalization,” prior to the present research program relatively little systematic attention had been devoted to it in empirical work on human social behavior. The chapter presents, in greater detail, selected studies that focus on the role of cognitive processes during self-imposed delay. Many theorists have paid tribute abstractly to the importance of cognition for the phenomena of personality in general and for self-regulatory processes in particular. These tributes have been accompanied by some correlational research that explores, for example, the links between intelligence, self-control, cognitive styles, and other dispositional. The chapter offers a further theoretical analysis of the determinants of delay behavior.
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The study of “metacognition” has become vigorous in recent years, with extensive research exploring the development of children’s knowledge of effective strategies in attention, comprehension, and memory (e.g., Brown, 1980; Flavell & Wellman, 1977). In contrast, the child’s developing understanding of essential strategies for self-regulation — a core aspect of human functioning, basic to virtually all conceptions of personality — has been neglected. Perhaps this neglect reflects the fact that until recently there were few objective criteria against which one could assess the relative efficacy of various strategies for self-control. Studies of the conditions that enhance or impede successful delay of gratification in children (e.g., Miller & Karniol, 1976a, 1976b; Mischel, 1974, 1981b; Toner, 1981; Toner & Smith, 1977; Yates, Lippett, & Yates, 1981) now provide a basis for assessing the child’s developing understanding against objective criteria of efficacy.