Predicting adolescent cognitive and self-regulatory competencies from preschool delay of gratification: Identifying diagnostic conditions.

Abstract

Variations of the self-imposed delay-of-gratification situation in preschool were compared to determine when individual differences in this situation may predict aspects of cognitive and self-regulatory competence and coping in adolescence. Preschool children from a university community participated in experiments that varied features of the self-imposed delay situation. Experimental analyses of the cognitive-attentional processes that affect waiting in this situation helped identify conditions in which delay behavior would be most likely to reflect relevant cognitive and attentional competencies. As hypothesized, in those conditions, coherent patterns of statistically significant correlations were found between seconds of delay time in such conditions in preschool and cognitive and academic competence and ability to cope with frustration and stress in adolescence.

Cites (48)

1. Handbook of Personality : Theory and Research
   Lawrence A. Pervin · 1992
2. Personality and Assessment
   Madison, Peter, Mischel, Walter · 1968 · The American Journal of Psychology
3. Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality
   Mischel, Walter · 1973 · Psychological Review
4. Progress in experimental personality research
   Winifred B. Maher, Brendan A. Maher · 1964 · Academic Press eBooks
5. Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification.
   Mischel, Walter, Ebbesen, Ebbe B., Raskoff Zeiss, Antonette · 1972 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
6. Infant–mother attachment.
   Ainsworth, Mary S. · 1979 · American Psychologist
7. The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification.
   Mischel, Walter, Shoda, Yuichi, Peake, Philip K. · 1988 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
8. Attention in delay of gratification.
   Mischel, Walter, Ebbesen, Ebbe B. · 1970 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
9. Lives Through Time, 1932-1958
   Jack Block · 1987 · Harvard Dataverse
10. The Relationship between Quality of Attachment and Behavior Problems in Preschool in a High-Risk Sample
    Erickson, Martha Farrell, Sroufe, L. Alan, Egeland, Byron · 1985 · Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

Show all 48 references

Cited by (94)

1. The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment.
   Haidt, Jonathan · 2001 · Psychological Review
2. Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD.
   Barkley, Russell A. · 1997 · Psychological Bulletin
3. High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success
   Tangney, June P., Baumeister, Roy F., Boone, Angie Luzio · 2004 · Journal of Personality
4. Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making
   Frederick, Shane · 2005 · Journal of Economic Perspectives
5. A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure
   Mischel, Walter, Shoda, Yuichi · 1995 · Psychological Review

See all 1,246