| Mind Changers - Claudia Hammond Series exploring the development of the science of psychology during the 20th century. Claudia Hammond revisits the classic case studies that have advanced psychological research. Walter Mischel's Marshmallow Study: The psychologist Walter Mischel made his name with his ground-breaking book, Personality and Assessment, in 1968. He followed up with a classic experiment which is still running today. Seeking to understand how the impulsive behaviour of his own three daughters at age 3 became increasingly regulated and planned by age 4 or 5, Mischel set up his experiment in delayed gratification at the Bing Nursery at Stanford University. Over 6 years he asked more than 300 4-year-olds to decide whether to have one marshmallow right now, or wait and get two, and he examined the cognitive processes which enabled some children to wait. |
