Walter Mischel: biography of this psychologist and researcher.

This researcher is known especially for his work on delayed gratification.

Walter Mischel (1930-2018) was an Austrian-born psychologist who developed important research on stimulus control, delayed reinforcement and self-control, especially in childhood and adolescence. He is considered one of the leading psychologists in the clinical cognitive behavioral approach and one of the most cited authors of the 20th century.

The following is a biography of Walter Mischel a biography of Walter Mischelas well as some of his main contributions to psychology.

Walter Mischel: life and work of this clinical psychologist.

Walter Mischel was born on February 22, 1930 in Vienna, Austria. Eight years later, he and his family moved to the United States due to the recent Nazi occupation. He was the youngest of three siblings, sons of businessman Salomon Mischel and Lola Leah Schreck, who was a homemaker. who was a homemaker.

Mischel grew up in Brooklyn, New York since 1940, where he attended high school, as well as college at the state university, while working in his family's business. Although he began his studies in the medical field, Mischel eventually became interested in psychology, especially in its clinical application.

Thus, in 1956, Mischel earned a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Ohio State University, where he received his training in clinical psychology.where he trained under the guidance of one of the most renowned psychologists in clinical cognitive-behavioral psychology, George Kelly. Julian Rotter, a psychologist remembered for laying the foundations of locus of control theories, was also a determining factor in his professional training.

Thereafter he served for two years as a professor and researcher at the University of Colorado, for two years at Harvard University and for the same period at Stanford University.

International recognition

In 1983, Mischel was a professor at Columbia University, and in 1991 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Subsequently, in 2004, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and from 2007 to 2008, he served as president of the National Academy of Sciences. from 2007 to 2008 he was president of the Association for Psychological Science..

Finally, in 2011 he received the Grawemeyer Psychology Award from the University of Louisville for his work on stimulus control, delayed reinforcement, self-control and willpower. In 2002, Mischel was ranked by the American Psychological Association as number 25 in the list of the most cited psychologists in this discipline during the 20th century.

The Marshmallow Experiment (Marshmallow Test)

In the late 1960s, Mischel conducted an experiment in which he wanted to observe the effects of delayed reinforcement, also called delayed gratification.

The latter is the ability to refrain from receiving a rewarding item immediately, in order to receive a more desirable item even though it involves a longer wait. We will see below what this experiment was about and the implications it had for cognitive-behavioral psychology.

Does self-control influence learning?

This experiment consisted of the following: children between four and six years of age were selected and taken to a room where there was only a table and a chair. On the table marshmallow, an oreo cookie or some other candy previously selected by the child. previously selected by the child.

The researchers left the child alone inside the room, after giving him the following options: ring a bell to call the researcher and upon his return eat the treat, or wait until the researcher's voluntary return, and receive one more treat. Evidently, the second option involved an immediate rewarding experience, while the second option involved a delayed rewarding experience. For this reason, the terms "delayed gratification" or "delayed reinforcement" are used.

As a result of the experiment, some children decided to wait up to 20 minutes and receive two treats instead of one. These were called "high retarders". In addition, to endure the wait, they developed various distraction techniques, such as covering their eyes with their hands, singing or shouting, looking around the chairsuch as covering their eyes with their hands, singing or shouting, looking around the chair to avoid turning towards the marshmallow, among others. In contrast, other children decided to avoid the long wait (they waited less than 1 minute to call the researcher) and preferred to eat only one. The latter were called "low delayers".

But the experiment did not end there. Under a longitudinal design, which allowed to know the effects of waiting over time, the same children (now adolescents) were again studied. This new study found a relationship between the ability to wait (delayed reinforcement) and higher school performance in numerical terms (i.e., better scores or grades on academic tests). Similarly, delayed gratification was linked to greater resistance to substance abuse and greater satisfaction with interpersonal and greater satisfaction in interpersonal relationships.

Not only that, but further research with the same participants has linked high delayed reinforcement with greater activity of the prefrontal cortex, which is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain and is related to complex planning, decision making, and social appropriateness.

Broadly speaking, the conclusion from these studies is that self-control and willpower are one of the keys to academic and personal achievement. The marshmallow test or experiment has subsequently been replicated with some variants that allow for an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms of self-control and willpower. the mechanisms of self-control and its implications for learning. and its implications for learning.

They have also made it possible to analyze some dilemmas and complexities of self-control related to the immediate pleasures offered by impulsive decisions, and the difficulties that are planned when prolonged expectations are not finally gratified.

Some gender differences in the Marshmallow Test

Another of the issues that has been possible to analyze through this experiment and some of its replications, is the cultural interpretation of delayed gratification as a function of gender..

When a girl decided to wait to receive gratification, such behavior was interpreted by adults as "great intellectual capacity", "high competence", "ingenuity". On the other hand, those who opted for immediate gratification were understood as "emotionally labile", "moody" or "whiny" (Conti, 2018).

In contrast, children who delayed gratification were described as "shy", "reserved", "obedient" or "anxious", while those who chose to obtain immediate reinforcement were described as "vital", "energetic", "lively", "self-assertive" (ibidem).

The above may be reflective of the values associated with self-control within U.S. culture. For example, it may indicate greater acceptance of impulsivity among children, and greater approval of tolerant behaviors among girls.. The latter may generate patterns to explain differentially reinforced learning and behavioral patterns according to gender.

Bibliographical references:

• Conti, R. (2018). Delay of gratification. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved September 18, 2018. Available at https://www.britannica.com/science/delay-of-gratification#ref1206154.
• Rohrich, R. (2015). So… are you failing the Marshmallow Test? Connecting and Disconnecting in Our Information-Rich World. Journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 135(6): 1751-1754.
• Walter Mischel (2018). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Recuperado 18 de septiembre. Disponible en https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mischel.