Expository Essay

Introduction

“Don't, The Secret of self-control,” is the compelling title of Jonah Lehrer's 2009 New Yorker article about strategic allocation of attention. The story focuses on the 1960s research of Walter Mischell, then a professor of psychology at Stanford University, who intrigued by the mental process involved in delaying gratification. Many of you who took a childhood development course or a few psychology classes in college probably are familiar with Erik Erikson, and his description of developmental tasks of childhood. What Freud called the anal period, Erikson labeled the stage for developing self-control, for learning delay of gratification.

Discussion

Mischell's famous experiment involved ...