- Walter Mischel suggested the concept of delayed gratification which is the ability to resist temptation in order to get a better reward in the end
- In order to test this, he conducted the marshmallow test whereby he presented children with a marshmallow + gave them 2 choices; eat the marshmallow or not eat the marshmallow + get a 2nd one when the researcher returned
- He found that 1/3 of those who attempted to delay, delayed gratification long enough to earn the 2nd marshmallow, by using various techniques eg. turning round
- Inspired Casey to conduct research to see if children in the original marshmallow experiment who were able to delay gratification were able to do this consistently in later life (whether delayed gratification is a stable trait) when they were adults, with more complex tasks
- individuals which had difficulty delaying gratification at age 4 showed more difficulty as adults in suppressing responses to happy stimuli
- results are consistent with previous work: context affects how easy it is to delay gratification = more tempting the cause, the harder it is to resist
- individuals at age 4 that have difficulties delaying gratification, have difficulty as adults in terms of suppressing responses to positive social cues
- sensitivity to environmental hot cues plays a significant role in an individuals ability to suppress actions towards alluring cues
States that a person's ability to control their impulses and resist temptation is caused by an innate biological factor, which is increased activities in certain regions of the brain.
Behaviours associated with high delayers originate from increased activity in brain regions associated with impulse control, and behaviours associated with seeking rewards originate in the ventral striatum.
This is because she found that low delayers have increased activity in their ventral striatum whereas high delayers have increased activity in their right inferior frontal gyrus.
The ventral striatum is the region of the brain associated with rewards, meaning people who find it hard to resist temptation are more orientated towards rewards.
-> delay of gratification was shown to be a stable individual characteristic suggesting people are either destined to be high/low delayers
Nurture:
-> upbringing + brain plasticity, brain structure may change over time => by age 4, children would have had external influence eg. models resisting temptations + learned about the idea of rewards
-> assumes behav is determined by biological factors eg. varying ability to delay gratification is due to differences in the strength of the inferior frontal gyrus + ventral striatum, ignoring influence of other dispositional factors eg. upbringing
Holism:
-> weak inferior frontal gyrus + strong ventral striatum increases probability of being a low delayer + having a reduced ability to delay gratification
-> enhances knowledge that delay of gratification in childhood can predict this ability in adulthood => help protect from physical + mental health problems
-> practical applications = strategies can be used to train young low delayers eg. use of cooling techniques to protect from future vulnerability
Limited usefulness:
-> being labelled as a low delayer may lead to a person displaying increasingly negative behaviours because they cannot resist temptation
-> created around those who are low delayers as suggests that being a low/high delayer is innate = low delayers begin to feel like they cannot achieve long term goals - isolated from society?