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Much Like The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

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Background Much like the Stanford Marshmallow experiment conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel, which correlated inhibition at an early age to success in the future, I was intrigued as to what could possibly affect an individual’s self-restraint. In this experiment children who waited longer for the reward (marshmallow) to later receive an extra one was linked to higher SAT scores, and tended to have an over all better life outcome. I began to think about what or rather who was most influential in an individual’s upbringings. Children being as malleable as they are, are influenced by their daily experiences, such as exposure to language, nurture and the things they interact with in their environment; and who more influential than their parents, whom they interact with most on a day-to-day basis. As an older sister I find it hard to be a firm authority figure and find myself using a permissive parenting style towards my sister who is 2 years old. This made me eager to know more about the possible outcomes of my actions and the implications this could have later on, in my sister’s life. Hypothesis Further into my research I developed a hypothesis, that children who are raised with a permissive parenting style lack inhibition. The reasoning behind my hypothesis is that permissive parenting style is that in which parents focus more in their relationship (friendship) with their children rather than promoting personal responsibilities. Worrying more about the child’s

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