Page 9 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 4: Testing the Marshmallow Test

Diversity…

Mischel and Ebbeson’s (1990) study has, As you may recall, one explanation for the
probably fairly, been described as claimed relationship between the ability to delay
gratification for 15 – 20 minutes at preschool
“A group of upper middle class researchers level and subsequent higher levels of academic
researching the behaviour of upper middle class achievement was
preschoolers in an upper middle class setting”
“driven by the ability to generate useful
(Stanford University – one of the most prestigious metacognitive strategies that will influence self-
Universities in America, if not the world) and so regulation throughout one’s life”.
the final question we need to ask is what would
happen if we introduced a bit of diversity into the In other words, what we are allegedly seeing in
proceedings? some preschool children was the early presence
of study strategies (such as the ability to stick at
Could the results of the test be replicated among, a difficult task and see it through successfully)
for example, lower middle class or working class that would prove highly beneficial in later life.
preschool children? However, as they note:

This was a question – among many others - “Such strategies are unlikely to have played
addressed by Watts et al. (2018) in their much of a role in a child’s ability to wait for only
replication of the 1990 Marshmallow Test and the 20 seconds”.
study threw-up three interesting conclusions:
This leads neatly to our third consideration.
First, they found the preschool children of
mothers who had not completed college (i.e. they When we’re dealing with a relatively homogenous
left education between the ages of 16 - 18, group for children there may well be differences
depending on the State in which they lived) did in intelligence, application and the like that result
show a lower level of post-15 achievement than from a possible range of social-psychological
researchers such as Mischel and Ebbeson had factors.
found. However, they also found this relationship
was much weaker than previous research had However, once Watts et al. expanded the
claimed. selection of participants to include children from
different social backgrounds they found that
Second, although Watts et al. did find a “when factors like family background, early
relationship between delaying gratification and cognitive ability, and home environment were
subsequent academic achievements – albeit, as controlled for” the association between the ability
we’ve noted, at a very low level of significance - a to delay gratification and academic success in
puzzling aspect of the replication was that: later life “virtually disappeared”.

“for the children of non-degreed mothers, most of Once the researchers controlled for factors
the achievement boost for early delay ability was historically-known to hugely influence things like
gained by waiting a mere 20 seconds”. academic achievement, better health in later life
and so forth the “Marshmallow Effect” ceased to
be…

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