Experiment in Child Psychology - Essay Example

? Sur Research Paper on a Documented Experiment in Child Psychology Introduction: The present study focuses on areview of an article presenting an experiment on child psychology. For this particular study, The Marshmallow Test has been considered. The Marshmallow research is an experiment to measure the self control capacity of school children, thereby checking whether they can control themselves for some particular period of time when presented with some kind of delicious food that in further researches were studied by Celeste Kidd (Nordqvist). Thus this experiment enables an understanding of the behavioral patterns depending on the psychological thoughts that persist in the minds of small children. A Study on the Research Experiment: The general problem is in understanding the cognitive attitude among small children. The study was meant to see whether offering two marshmallows than one could help the children to wait for longer. The children had the option to have a single marshmallow or if they waited for a longer period of time, they would be offered two marshmallows. This could in turn enable an understanding on the general characteristics of the children as well. Further researches also studied that a natural capability to wait and the environment influence the ability of delayed indulgence among the children (Nordqvist). In the original Marshmallow studies conducted by Walter Mischel and others, it was obtained that “young children who were able to delay gratification tended to be more successful later in life” (Nordqvist). Also they reflected lesser probability to be caught up in material exploitation, and had enhanced social skills. The hypothesis of the authors for the study was that tasks and experiments like the marshmallow tests were capable of analyzing the self control capacities of small children. (Nordqvist). The experiments were focused on determining how small children were capable of controlling themselves when offered with some food or object of their great interests of liking, and when they were placed in different environmental conditions as well. Mischel in his study used marshmallows offering students two instead of one, if they waited longer. In the study by Kidd, two different environments were created. One of these was a reliable environment and another was an unreliable one, and the task involved asking the students to create their own cup-kit. To one group, broken crayons were provided and it was promised that they would be provided with large stickers some time later. While to the other the nice stickers were provided, it was not provided as promised to the first group, thus creating two different environments (Nordqvist). 28 children of ages between 3-5 years were chosen by the researchers and used two different environments, a reliable and unreliable one. With these two different environments, the marshmallow test was conducted on the groups. The instruction of the researcher was “one marshmallow right now. Or - if you can wait for me to get more marshmallows from the other room - you can have two marshmallows to eat instead” (Nordqvist). Thus the experiment was to determine whether children when placed in different environmental conditions differed in their self control capacity and the time for which they could wait before they could have the marshmallows. Use of controls had not been made in these experiments. Rather two different environments and two different offers were provided to the small children. These two environments created two different conditions for the children and no separate control were used in the experiment. From the study, it was obtained that when kids were not exposed to different environments; they waited an average of 5.71 to 6.08 minutes for the marshmallows. However, when different conditions were presented to the children, the waiting times either increased or decreased. “In those studies they found that if the treat was hidden, their waiting times increased by 3.75 minutes, while reminding the kids about the larger reward extended their waiting times by 2.53 minutes” (Nordqvist). The researchers interpreted that this study demonstrated the fact that the waiting times of the children are a sign of balanced decision-making concerning the probability of prize. This reflected that depending on the environment created for the groups, the children had different psychological effects and influences allowing them to either wait for very little time or for very longer times in case of some children. The primary researcher in the original study had been Walter Mischel. In the modified study, the relevant investigator has been Celeste Kidd (Nordqvist). The experiment was conducted in teams having a clear observation on the groups of students who remained the subjects of the study. However it can be said that the study could be improved if greater number of students could be considered for the experiments thus increasing the sample size. Also, the situational conditions may be more varied to study the reactions of the students that would more varied results. In order to further improve the study, the use of additional offerings may be done such that the reactions of the students to different objects in different environments can also be studied. For example, such environments could also be presented to the children for testing, where the rooms may be dirty or clear, open or closed, in order to see how these factors also affect or influence the waiting times and self control capacities of the preschool children. Also, the data in the present studies could be further improved if the researchers considered the motives and mental status of the children along with the time they had taken for waiting. This could be better achieved with direct questioning between the educators and the students. The interpretation would in such case reflect a more clear understanding of what actually the thoughts of the children were while they wither waited for a longer time or some of them who did not wait for so long. It could be learnt from the experiment that small children are influenced when offered with some delicious food or interesting objects. However their wait for such offering might vary with the conditional situations that they are present in. With such studies in focus, a new research on the ability of small children to control themselves in new conditions with new offerings may be conducted to test the reactions of the children. Further research may focus on greater details of the psychological implications of the children providing them with varied offers and varied environmental conditions. Conclusion: From the above study, a documented research on child psychology could be learnt leading to the possibilities on future studies on reactions and self control capacities of small children. This experiment proved to be highly significant since depending on the reactions and behaviors of the children over the tasks given to them, their characteristic features may be analyzed and in case of any corrective measures if needed to be considered, that can be taken care of at an early age, thus having positive effects on their psychology and behaviors in the long term. References Nordqvist, Christian, “The Marshmallow Test – One Now or Two Later?”, MNT, 2012, December 12, 2012 from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251574.php Read More