Mischel W, Shoda Y, Rodriguez M I
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York 10027
Science. 1989 May 26;244(4907):933-8. doi: 10.1126/science.2658056.
To function effectively, individuals must voluntarily postpone immediate gratification and persist in goal-directed behavior for the sake of later outcomes. The present research program analyzed the nature of this type of future-oriented self-control and the psychological processes that underlie it. Enduring individual differences in self-control were found as early as the preschool years. Those 4-year-old children who delayed gratification longer in certain laboratory situations developed into more cognitively and socially competent adolescents, achieving higher scholastic performance and coping better with frustration and stress. Experiments in the same research program also identified specific cognitive and attentional processes that allow effective self-regulation early in the course of development. The experimental results, in turn, specified the particular types of preschool delay situations diagnostic for predicting aspects of cognitive and social competence later in life.
为了有效地发挥作用，个体必须自愿推迟即时满足感，并为了未来的结果而坚持目标导向行为。本研究项目分析了这种面向未来的自我控制的本质以及其背后的心理过程。早在学龄前就发现了自我控制方面持久的个体差异。那些在某些实验室情境中能够更长时间延迟满足感的4岁儿童，成长为在认知和社交方面更有能力的青少年，取得了更高的学业成绩，并且能更好地应对挫折和压力。同一研究项目中的实验还确定了在发展过程早期实现有效自我调节的特定认知和注意力过程。反过来，实验结果明确了能够诊断预测个体未来生活中认知和社交能力方面的特定类型的学龄前延迟情境。
