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Pleasure principle




  In Freudian psychology, the concept people seeking pleasure and avoiding pain to satisfy their needs. In infancy and early childhood, the Id governs behavior by the pleasure principle. Maturity is learning to endure the pain of deffered gratification. Freud said an educated ego becomes reasonable, motivated by a 'reality' principle. This seeks pleasure considering reality, gratification deffered, when circumstances concur, pleasure is postponed and diminished.



  Delayed gratification is the ability to wait for something desired. The intellectual attribute will power. Sociologically, good impulse control is thought of as a positive personality trait. Psychologist Daniel Goleman says its an important part of emotional intelligence. People who lack the ability to delay gratification suffer poor impulse control, they require 'instant' gratification.



   To demonstrate the idea, the Stanford Marshmallow experiment gave a group of four-year old children one marshmallow, told, if they waited twenty minutes before eating, would get a second marshmallow. Some could wait, some could not. Further study in development found those who can delay were better adjusted, more dependable and, as high school students scored higher SAT results.



In a related study, children with fetal alcohol syndrome were less able to delay gratification.





Wikipedia