4B Questioning Joachim de Posada

This weeks readings have been the most interesting to me so far this semester. The theory of the marshmallow test still blows my mind. Through watching multiple videos and reading articles about the study I wondered how someone came up with this test. Who would have thought that if a 4 year old waits to eat a marshmallow, their chance for future success would be much greater than those who ate the marshmallow within the 15 minutes. I still am curious how someone discovered the correlation between waiting at younger age to how successful you will be later in life.

Joachim de Posada was one of the first to test this relationship between waiting and future success in children. Though I am not sure why there is a link between the two but through the readings I have found what lead Joachim de Posada to his discovery. When Joachim began his testing he recorded and videotaped the children as they were able or unable to delay gratification. About 15 years later Joachim found the children who were in his study and requested to see their grades and SAT scores. He found that the students who ate the marshmallow were struggling in school and had lower test scores that those who delayed gratification 15 years earlier. I am still unsure if Joachim had any logical reasoning to his theory when he first started testing the children. I wonder if Joachim knew then and there that there was a link between delayed gratification and future success.These are questions I still have unanswered but I’m sure with a little more research I could find the answer to my questions.  

Psychology is a topic that has always interested me, which is why I’ve chosen to double major in it along with my top major, early childhood education. The theories and ideas which revolve around early childhood development always make me think back to when I was 4-5 years old. I wonder if I would have been able to pass the marshmallow test if I had participated in a study similar to Joachim de Posada. This weeks readings really got me thinking and I enjoyed every minute of it!