What is most certainly the most famous sociological test ever given is known simply as the Marshmallow test.
To put it very simply, in the early 1970s, a group of children of the average age of 4 years old were tested. The test was simple. The researcher would meet with a child in a room and present the child with a marshmallow. The researcher then said he would leave the room for 15 minutes, and that if the child could not eat the marshmallow until he returned, the child would get a second marshmallow.
About 1/3 of the children had the self-discipline to not eat the marshmallow. 2/3 failed the test.
These children have been tracked throughout their lives. They are in their 40s now.
100% of the children who earned a second marshmallow went on to have good grades and successful careers in life. 100%
Almost NONE of the children who ate the marshmallow went on to have good grades nor successful careers in life.
Self-discipline is the key to success. Not intelligence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanfor...low_experiment
There was a second follow up study recently that went deeper into the psychology of the test. This test repeated the marshmallow test but examined it from the standpoint of
trust.
In this new test, the children were FIRST promised toys, goodies, treats, etc. if they performed certain tasks. Some of the children would perform the task and get the promised reward. Others would perform the task and not get the promised reward. This was repeated several times. THEN these children would be given the marshmallow test.
Almost ALL of the children who interacted with the "unreliable" adult failed to win the second marshmallow. Over HALF of the children who interacted with the "reliable" adult waited the 15 minutes and won the second marshmallow.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor...hey_trust.html
So the deeper insight gleaned is that self-discipline stems from trust in the system. A young child who has good parents, parents that are reliable, will build trust in their child. This child will then trust the system to reward them, and have the self-discipline to get good grades and be successful in life.
Conversely, a child with unreliable parents, parents that aren't there for them, will grow up to not trust their parents, and later on not trust the system. They learn to go for instant gratification because they don't think there is any reward coming. These kids end up taking more risks in life, getting into trouble, getting poor grades, and have poor life outcomes.
The single biggest factor they found to determining whether a child will earn the second marshmallow is the presence of a father in the household. It seems that without the father, trust is much more likely to be broken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWURnHkYuxM