Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the effect of young children's delay of gratification for their own benefit versus that of for their mother's benefit under Mischel & Baker(1975)'s delay of gratification paradigm. Half of 48 kindergarten children chose between immediate small reward and delayed large one for themselves and the others chose between immediate small reward and delayed large one for their mother. Children who had chosen delayed large reward for themselves or their mother were seperately devided into two groups by the type of ideation for reward: consummatory thinking(e.g., reward is delicious) versus nonconsummatory thinking(e.g., reward's color is violet). The results were as follows: First, in the case that reward-recipient was himself/herself, children who were asked to have consummatory ideation of reward delayed shorter than those who were asked to nonconsummatory ideation of it. Second, when reward-recipient was his/her mother, the children delayed so long independent of ideation conditions. These findings showed that young children's delay of gratification for their mother's benefit were better or at least as the same as that of for their own benefit. It was suggested that giving benefit to mother be an alternative powerful motivator enhancing self-control even in younger children.