Impulse Control and its effects on
Intelligence
Have you ever heard about the tests that offered young
children the option of having one bag of sweets now or by
waiting a few minutes could have 2 bags of sweets? If you
have kids, what do you think yours would do, wait for the
extra payoff or immediately indulge in instant gratification?
This research was carried out with four year olds and to
give you an idea of the temptation, the sweets were placed in
front of the children, they were given the options and then
the researcher left the room (and the sweets) in front of the
class. As you can imagine, some of the children took their
one bag of sweets almost as soon as the researcher's back
was turned as she left the room. Other children however
used a variety of methods to distract themselves from the
sweets such as closing their eyes, talking to themselves or
playing with their hands and feet. Once the researcher
returned, these children were rewarded with the extra
sweets that their more impulsive friends had foregone for
the immediate fulfilment.
The researchers tracked down these children over 10 years
later and discovered that those who had resisted the
temptation were more socially competent, personally more
effective, self assertive and better able to deal with the
frustrations of life. Those who had grabbed at the sweets
had fewer of these traits and shared a relatively more
troubled psychological profile. Even more interesting is
that as they left High School, those who had waited for the
sweets were much better students. The research found that
the ability to deny impulse was a strong indicator of success.
(Source - Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman)
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