Self-discipline defined by Duckworth as “the ability to marshal willpower to accomplish goals and uphold standards that one personally regards as desirable” (Duckworth, 2009, para. 3). Therefore self-discipline requires us to delay gratification with our small and short term goals, we need to learn to stay focused on the big end goal. Intelligence quotient (IQ) is defined by Belsky as “a highly reliable measure of general intellectual functioning that captures overall ability across differentiable cognitive functions” (Belsky et al., 2013, p. 1462). A persons IQ is tested through multiple written tests, which are then marked and calculated on a chart, 80 percent of people score an average of 85-115.
Self-Control and Self-Regulation
An important part of self-discipline is self-control. Having self-control helps be able to stay concentrated on your big goal, self-control involves being able to stay focused and being able to choose what is more important. Sometimes we face choices that may have an impact on our goal. In order to be completely focused we need to be able to overcome distractions, frustration and boredom. self-control can be defined as a quality a person has that allows them to be able to stop themselves from doing something they want to do but what might not be in their best interest for their long term goals (Stadler el at,. 2016). Self- regulation is also a key part that helps a person have self-discipline, Arlin Cuncic defines self-regulation saying it “can be defined in various ways. In the most basic sense, it involves controlling one’s behaviour, emotions, and thoughts in the pursuit of long-term goals.
More specifically, emotional self-regulation refers to the ability to manage disruptive emotions and impulse” (Cuncic, 2019). Self-regulation is a skill that we develop as a child, as children we are taught to think about our actions before we do them for example thinking of another way to show our emotions other than hitting as it had consequences. As adults we use self-regulation when making everyday decisions for example, when we choose between eating healthy or buy take out. Self-regulation is important when studying and it is what helps us make decisions such as when to study and how long, choose between going out. With friends or staying home to study for a test.
Many studies have been done on the importance of self-discipline and how self-discipline can out do intelligence quotient. Research shows that they discovered self-discipline predicted academic achievement and success stronger than IQ did. Within their research they were able to predict what students would make progress with their marks throughout the year as they had traits of self-discipline. Self-control was a hard trait to measure and pick out within the children they studied, too demine what children had self-discipline, they studied their report cards from parents, teacher and the children’s self-evaluations (Duckworth, 2016). Self-discipline can make a huge difference in how we succeed, if we study and take the time to be prepared it is going to give us better results that just relying on what we think we know or our general understanding.
Importance of Self-Discipline and Stanford Marshmallow Experiment
The Stanford marshmallow experiment is a test done to see how many children could delay gratification with a little thing like a marshmallow. In the experiment they had a child sit at a table, they then put one marshmallow in front of them, they explained to the child that if he/she can wait 15 minutes without eating the marshmallow they can have another one. This experiment is testing the children’s self-discipline and their ability to delay gratification of a small reward to later get a better reward. Delaying gratification can be extremely hard especially for a child, it requires them to be able to control their impulses and have cognitive control (Calarco, 2018). The marshmallow experiment studied the character traits children had to figure out whether they had an impact on the child’s educational outcomes and academic achievements. It tested the children’s willpower and challenged them, it is thought that the outcomes the children had in the marshmallow experiment will influence them as adults, it will demine whether they are able to avoid temptation and have patience. It showed that children that were able to have the willpower not to eat the first marshmallow had less behavioral problems in school and were able to stay focused longer in class.
