fei75766_ch18_569-609.indd 602  02/24/20 10:50 AM
Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories602
ifthetarget wasnotofhighstatus, thenthestudent wasnotwarm. Similarly, when 
thestudent wasdescribed asunfriendly, participants predicted shewould berather 
warm toward people sheknew wellbutnotatallwarm toward unfamiliar people. 
These findings clearly demonstrate theaverage person understands thatpeople do
notbehave inthesame manner inallsituations—depending ontheirpersonality, peo-
pleadjust behavior tomatch thesituation.
Mischel andcolleagues concluded thatthesocial-cognitive interactionist 
conceptualization oftheperson-situation environment isamore appropriate way
ofunderstanding human behavior thanthetraditional “decontextualized” views of
personality inwhich people behave inagiven wayregardless ofthecontext.
Marshmallows and Self-Regulation Across the Lifespan
Asmentioned earlier inthischapter, Walter Mischel’s earliest research inpersonality 
psychology wasondelay ofgratification. Recall thatinhisearly studies withEbbesen 
(1970), Mischel found thatchildren whowereabletoresist temptation (inthiscase, 
noteating onemarshmallow butrather waiting toreceive twomarshmallows later) 
didsowiththeuseofavariety ofcognitive andbehavioral strategies. Since thatearly 
work, decades oflongitudinal research havefollowed those preschoolers across their
lifespan toexplore themechanisms thatenable effective self-regulation. 
Inareview ofthese follow-up studies, Walter Mischel, Yuichi Shoda, andcol-
leagues (2011) provide evidence forsurprisingly significant predictive validity of
the“marshmallow test”forimportant social, cognitive, andmental health outcomes 
across thelifespan. Thelistofremarkable consequences islong. Forexample, the
number ofseconds preschoolers wereabletowaittoobtain thepreferred twomarsh -
mallows predicted significantly higher SATscores when theywereinhighschool, and,
later, higher educational achievement overall, greater self-worth, andabetter ability to
copewithstress (Ayduk etal.,2000; Shoda etal.,1990). Further, those preschoolers 
whogaveintothetemptation ofonemarshmallow were30%more likely tobeover-
weight bytheageof11(Seeyave etal.,2009), andmore likely todevelop features of
borderline personality inadulthood (Ayduk etal.,2008) thanthose whowereableto
waitforthedelayed reward. 
What enables thisamazing willpower insome, butnotall,ofus?Mischel and
colleagues havepublished extensively onthisquestion andhaveconcluded thatthose 
whocanresist temptation infavor oflong-term goals dosowiththeuseoftwobroad 
strategies: redirection ofattention orcognitive reframing (Mischel etal.,2010). 
Looking away orattending tosomething besides thetempting object helps delayers. 
Reframing asituation away from what Mischel andcolleagues callthe“hot” features 
(themarshmallow’s yumminess, forexample) andtoward “cooler” representations 
(themarshmallow’s shape) alsoboosts ability todelay. 
Nearly allreaders haveheard ofthenow-famous marshmallow test,andmany 
ofushaveseenYouTube videos oflittlekidssitting alone attables inagony, bending 
themselves intopretzels tonoteatthatmarshmallow. Sesame Street evenfeatured 
theCookie Monster learning todelay gratification sohecanlaterjointhe“Cookie 
Connoisseurs Club.” Unfortunately, when thepopular press getsholdofresearch like
this,boththedetails andthefundamentals ofthemessage often getlost.Many naïve 
readers haveassumed thatthelongitudinal research findings thatsome kidshadtheFinal PDF to printer