Walter Mischel
Biographic Data
| ID | 211570 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Walter Mischel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Walter |
| FAMILY NAME | Mischel |
| SIGNATURE | MISCHEL W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 94 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 927 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 94 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1958 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Cohort effects in children’s delay of gratification
In the 1960s at Stanford University's Bing Preschool, children were given the option of taking an immediate, smaller reward or receiving a delayed, larger reward by waiting until the experimenter returned. Since then, the "Marshmallow Test" has been used in numerous studies to assess delay of gratification. Yet, no prior study has compared the performance of children across the decades. Common wisdom suggests children today would wait less long, …
Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain
How similar are the experiences of social rejection and physical pain? Extant research suggests that a network of brain regions that support the affective but not the sensory components of physical pain underlie both experiences. Here we demonstrate that when rejection is powerfully elicited—by having people who recently experienced an unwanted break-up view a photograph of their ex-partner as they think about being rejected—areas that support th…
‘Willpower’ over the life span
In the 1960s, Mischel and colleagues developed a simple 'marshmallow test' to measure preschoolers' ability to delay gratification. In numerous follow-up studies over 40 years, this 'test' proved to have surprisingly significant predictive validity for consequential social, cognitive and mental health outcomes over the life course. In this article, we review key findings from the longitudinal work and from earlier delay-of-gratification experimen…
Roots of Adult Attachment
It is widely assumed that, within the context of a stable developmental environment, relationship experiences in early life influence later ones. To date, however, there has been no longitudinal empirical evidence for the hypothesis that early maternal caregiving predicts adult attachment dynamics with peers and partners. The present longitudinal study shows that quality of maternal caregiving experienced at 18 months of age predicted the extent …
The effect of self-distancing on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection in children
Although children and adolescents vary in their chronic tendencies to adaptively versus maladaptively reflect over negative feelings, the psychological mechanisms underlying these different types of self-reflection among youngsters are unknown. We addressed this issue in the present research by examining the role that self-distancing plays in distinguishing adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection among an ethnically and socioeconomically dive…
Toward an Integrative Caps Approach to Racial/Ethnic Relations
The original CAPS formulation focused on the role of the individual's CAPS system in relation to situations, formalizing a person–situation framework. Subsequent research and theorizing on the culturally embedded CAPS system (C‐CAPS) began to spell out how culture, context, and group‐level processes intersect with both persons and situations. The contributions in this special section provide insights into the enormous complexity and the multiple …
From Personality and Assessment (1968) to Personality Science, 2009
Rejection sensitivity and executive control
Verbal intelligence and self-regulatory competencies
When Asking “Why” Does Not Hurt Distinguishing Rumination From Reflective Processing of Negative Emotions
Two experiments examined the psychological operations that enable individuals to process negative emotions and experiences without increasing negative affect. In Study 1, type of self-perspective (self-immersed vs. self-distanced) and type of emotional focus (what vs. why) were experimentally manipulated following the recall of an anger-eliciting interpersonal experience. A why focus on emotions from a self-distanced perspective (distanced-why st…
Incorporating If…Then…Personality Signatures in Person Perception
Three studies investigated conditions in which perceivers view dispositions and situations as interactive, rather than independent, causal forces when making judgments about another's personality. Study 1 showed that perceivers associated 5 common trait terms (e.g., friendly and shy) with characteristic if...then... (if situation a, then the person does x, but if situation b, then the person does y) personality signatures. Study 2 demonstrated th…
A Contextual Approach to the Development of Self‐regulatory Competencies
A prospective study examined the effects of maternal unresponsivity and of toddlers’ own negative affect on the child's subsequent ability to use effective attentional control strategies in preschool. Maternal and child behaviors were measured in situations that varied in the level of stress to test the hypothesis that behaviors in high stress situations would be more diagnostic of children's subsequent self‐regulatory behavior. As predicted, bot…
Toward an Integrative Science of the Person
To build a science of the person, the most basic question was, and remains, how can one identify and understand the psychological invariance that distinctively characterizes an individual and that underlies the variations in the thoughts, feelings, and actions that occur across contexts and over time? This question proved particularly difficult because of the discrepancies that soon emerged between the expressions of consistency that were expecte…
Self-Regulation in a Cognitive--Affective Personality System
The highly valued goals of the self too often turn into failed good intentions. Even when the goals are important and motivation is high, they easily become difficult to achieve in the face of temptations, frustrations and obstacles. The model and research discussed here address how people can exert willpower even when the situational pull to give up is strong. Research on the basic mechanisms and dynamics that enable delay of gratification show …
Epilogue
Self-Concept, Self-Regulation, and Psychological Vulnerability
(2002). Self-Concept, Self-Regulation, and Psychological Vulnerability. Self and Identity: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 103-104
Strategic attention deployment for delay of gratification in working and waiting situations
Two studies examined whether the detrimental effects of attention to rewards on delay of gratification in waiting situations holds-or reverses-in working situations. In Study 1, preschoolers waited or worked for desired delayed rewards. Delay times increased when children worked in the presence of rewards but, as predicted, this increase was due to the distraction provided by the work itself. not because attention to rewards motivated children to…
Person × Situation interactionism in self-encoding (Iam . . .when . . .)
Person × Situation interactionism in self-encoding (Iam…when…)
Although Person X Situation (P X S) interactionism is central in current social-cognitive conceptions of personality organization, its implications for the encoding of the self remain unexplored. Two studies examined the causal role of P X S interactionism in self-encoding on affect regulation and discriminative social perception. Following failure (Studies 1 and 2) and success (Study 2) ideation, participants were prompted to encode the self eit…
The personality of familiar and significant people
The personality of familiar and significant people
When are perceivers guided more by implicit social-cognitive theories of personality and when more by trait theories? As perceivers become more familiar with a person they infer relatively more psychological mediating variables (e.g., construals, goals) that underlie the person's behavior and relatively fewer broad, uncontextualized traits such as aggressive or friendly (Study 1). The effects of familiarity are moderated by the importance of the …
Regulating the interpersonal self
People high in rejection sensitivity (RS) anxiously expect rejection and are at risk for interpersonal and personal distress. Two studies examined the role of self-regulation through strategic attention deployment in moderating the link between RS and maladaptive outcomes. Self-regulation was assessed by the delay of gratification (DG) paradigm in childhood. In Study 1, preschoolers from the Stanford University community who participated in the D…
The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation
The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation
Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddl…
A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification
A 2-system framework is proposed for understanding the processes that enable--and undermine--self-control or "willpower" as exemplified in the delay of gratification paradigm. A cool, cognitive "know" system and a hot, emotional "go" system are postulated. The cool system is cognitive, emotionally neutral, contemplative, flexible, integrated, coherent, spatiotemporal, slow, episodic, and strategic. It is the seat of self-regulation and self-contr…
Predicting adolescent cognitive and self-regulatory competencies from preschool delay of gratification
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 wai…
Traits as prototypes
On the interface of cognition and personality
Regulating the interpersonal self
People high in rejection sensitivity (RS) anxiously expect rejection and are at risk for interpersonal and personal distress. Two studies examined the role of self-regulation through strategic attention deployment in moderating the link between RS and maladaptive outcomes. Self-regulation was assessed by the delay of gratification (DG) paradigm in childhood. In Study 1, preschoolers from the Stanford University community who participated in the D…
Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification
Three experiments investigated attentional and cognitive mechanisms in delay of gratification In each study preschool children could obtain a less preferred reward immediately or continue waiting indefinitely for a more preferred but delayed reward Experiment I compared the effects of external and cognitive distraction from the reward objects on the length of time which preschool children waited for the preferred delayed reward before forfeiting …
Attention in delay of gratification
The role of altcntional processes in voluntary delay of reward was explored by manipulating children's attention to the rewards for which they were waiting in a delay-of-gratification paradigm. Preschool children waited for a preferred but delayed reward while facing either the delayed reward, a less preferred but immediately available reward, both rewards, or no rewards. The dependent measure was the amount of they waited for the preferred outco…
The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification
Delay of gratification, assessed in a series of experiments when the subjects were in preschool, was related to parental personality ratings obtained a decade later for 95 of these children in adolescence. Clear and consistent patterns of correlations between self-imposed delay time in preschool and later ratings were found for both sexes over this time span. Delay behavior predicted a set of cognitive and social competencies and stress tolerance…
Continuity and change in personality
Intraindividual stability in the organization and patterning of behavior
Psychological Aspects of Spirit Possession1
Selective attention to the self
The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation
Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddl…
A conditional approach to dispositional constructs
A conditional approach to dispositions is developed in which dispositional constructs are viewed as clusters of if-then propositions. These propositions summarize contingencies between categories of conditions and categories of behavior rather than generalized response tendencies. A fundamental unit for investigating dispositions is therefore the conditional frequency of acts that are central to a given behavior category in circumscribed situatio…
Strategic attention deployment for delay of gratification in working and waiting situations
Two studies examined whether the detrimental effects of attention to rewards on delay of gratification in waiting situations holds-or reverses-in working situations. In Study 1, preschoolers waited or worked for desired delayed rewards. Delay times increased when children worked in the presence of rewards but, as predicted, this increase was due to the distraction provided by the work itself. not because attention to rewards motivated children to…
Father-absence and delay of gratification
The role of situational demands and cognitive competencies in behavior organization and personality coherence
Preference for delayed reinforcement
The personality of familiar and significant people
When are perceivers guided more by implicit social-cognitive theories of personality and when more by trait theories? As perceivers become more familiar with a person they infer relatively more psychological mediating variables (e.g., construals, goals) that underlie the person's behavior and relatively fewer broad, uncontextualized traits such as aggressive or friendly (Study 1). The effects of familiarity are moderated by the importance of the …
Prototypicality and personality
Preference for delayed reward as a function of age, intelligence, and length of delay interval
Delay of gratification, need for achievement, and acquiescence in another culture
Preference for delayed reinforcement and social responsibility
Cognitive appraisals and transformations in delay behavior
Delay of gratification, motivation for the prohibited gratification, and responses to temptation
DonaldTrump's 2017 inaugural address was scored with a content analysis measure of implicit motives.The results show that compared to other 20 th and 21 st century U.S. presidents, he scores very high in achievement and power motive imagery, but only about average in affiliation imagery.Based on previous research on presidents' motive imagery, this profile suggests some predictions about the Trump presidency and possible problems for it.In politi…
Cognitive person variables in the delay of gratification of older children at risk
The effect of the commitment situation on the generalization of expectancies1
Relationships Between Anthropology and Psychology in Field Work
Preference for delayed reinforcement
Psychological Aspects of Spirit Possession1
"Authoritarianism and reactions to "sputniks
Value, information, and conformity behavior1
Delay of gratification, need for achievement, and acquiescence in another culture
Father-absence and delay of gratification
Preference for delayed reinforcement and social responsibility
Preference for delayed reward as a function of age, intelligence, and length of delay interval
Delay of gratification, motivation for the prohibited gratification, and responses to temptation
DonaldTrump's 2017 inaugural address was scored with a content analysis measure of implicit motives.The results show that compared to other 20 th and 21 st century U.S. presidents, he scores very high in achievement and power motive imagery, but only about average in affiliation imagery.Based on previous research on presidents' motive imagery, this profile suggests some predictions about the Trump presidency and possible problems for it.In politi…
Effects of expectancy on working and waiting for larger reward
Modifications of self-imposed delay of reward through exposure to live and symbolic models
Predicting the success of Peace Corps volunteers in Nigeria
Model's characteristics as determinants of social learning
Effects of probability of reward attainment on responses to frustration
Determinants of the rehearsal and transmission of neutral and aversive behaviors
Effects of discrepancies between observed and imposed reward criteria on their acquisition and transmission
Waiting for rewards and punishments
Effects of success and failure on self-gratification
Continuity and change in personality
Effects of expected delay time on the subjective value of rewards and punishments
Attention in delay of gratification
The role of altcntional processes in voluntary delay of reward was explored by manipulating children's attention to the rewards for which they were waiting in a delay-of-gratification paradigm. Preschool children waited for a preferred but delayed reward while facing either the delayed reward, a less preferred but immediately available reward, both rewards, or no rewards. The dependent measure was the amount of they waited for the preferred outco…
Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification
Three experiments investigated attentional and cognitive mechanisms in delay of gratification In each study preschool children could obtain a less preferred reward immediately or continue waiting indefinitely for a more preferred but delayed reward Experiment I compared the effects of external and cognitive distraction from the reward objects on the length of time which preschool children waited for the preferred delayed reward before forfeiting …
Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality.
Psychology (94 works) · Social Psychology (83 works) · Cognitive psychology (53 works) · Developmental psychology (37 works) · Social Psychology (33 works) · Cognition (30 works) · Personality (30 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (20 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Delay of gratification (19 works)