The Marshmallow Test

Mastering Self-Control

By: Walter Mischel

Narrated by: Alan Alda

Renowned psychologist Walter Mischel, designer of the famous Marshmallow Test, explains what self-control is and how to master it.

A child is presented with a marshmallow and given a choice: Eat this one now, or wait and enjoy two later. What will she do? And what are the implications for her behavior later in life?

The world's leading expert on self-control, Walter Mischel has proven that the ability to delay gratification is critical for a successful life, predicting higher SAT scores, better social and cognitive functioning, a healthier lifestyle and a greater sense of self-worth. But is willpower prewired, or can it be taught?

In The Marshmallow Test, Mischel explains how self-control can be mastered and applied to challenges in everyday life - from weight control to quitting smoking, overcoming heartbreak, making major decisions, and planning for retirement. With profound implications for the choices we make in parenting, education, public policy and self-care, The Marshmallow Test will change the way you think about who we are and what we can be.

©2014 Walter Mischel (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Excerpts from David G. Myers, “Self-Serving Bias,” in This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking edited by John Brockman (New York: Doubleday, 2012), 37–38. Used with permission. Quotes from George Ramirez are printed with permission. Excerpts from Sesame Street script for episode 4412 are reprinted with permission. “Sesame Workshop”®, “Sesame Street”®, and associated characters, trademarks, and design elements are owned and licensed by Sesame Workshop. © 2014 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.

Great insights into our minds and motivations

The first half of the book would have done well with further editing. The second half of the book was far more interesting and engaging. Alan Alda is a wonderful narrator and that helped with getting through some of the more technical and repetitive aspects of the book.

It was worth it to stay closely focused to the very end. This research is critically important to the future of our educational system, providing preschoolers with a better skill set for success and helping adults understand that change for themselves is still possible.

I would highly recommend this.

Loved the Marshmallow Test!

Wow! I honestly could not put this book down! I was so impressed by what I heard, I applied the teaching in my own life. Simply amazing! For 21 days I have been making positive changes in my life and The Marshmallow Test impacted my life. I have changed my thought process on how I look at achieving my goals! I'm not giving in to temptation. I am thankful I learned something from this book.

not as advertised

if you are looking for strategies to "master self control", this book will be largely unsatisfactory. If however you are looking for a summary of research and findings you will be happy.

Information is Grand

I love Allen Aldens voice he is great the story was good and full of info.

Interesting and enjoyable

I'm sure I'm biased, but I could probably listen to Alan Alda read the phone book for 20 hours and enjoy it. I'm pretty sure I loved the book, too. Ties in nicely with brain plasticity work and mind vs. brain concepts, if you enjoy that.

Retitle: Childhood development and self-control

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but had trouble understanding how this book was supposed to extend past the discussion of adolescent development. Even in that realm, I couldn't help but be somewhat skeptical of his policy prescriptions.

Regardless, this book is definitely worth the seven hours of listen time. He introduces a lot of research and synthesizes big ideas with some amazing skills. Alan Alda was great, too (although after finishing the book, I felt the strange urge to binge a few episodes of M.A.S.H.)

academic

this book was well put together and well integrated with other resources that I have read on the same topic. However it is very academic in nature it is not filled with practical examples. reader and should be aware of this when deciding between this and other books on the same topic.

Unsatisfying

Good topic. Not a great narration nor did I find the content that compelling. Overall, was unsatisfied with this book.

A nice expansion of the headline.

What did you love best about The Marshmallow Test?

I thought the author did well unpacking the details of the Marshmallow Test and its broad range of implications. Some people might find the detailing of the brain regions too much or unnecessary, but I enjoyed the additional information.

Which character – as performed by Alan Alda – was your favorite?

Alan Alda is a great narrator, I really enjoyed his work.

Fascinating and well read, but ultimately more facts and research than I was expecting.

“I think, therefore I can change the way I am”

Some great stuff in this book! I enjoyed listening, and definitely have some takeaways. However, at times it gets very dry and without the stats in front of you, you just have to kind of push through it.

Overall, be encouraged by the reality that it’s never to late for personal improvement. You aren’t who you will always be, and delayed gratification is one of the many ways we can train ourselves towards betterment.