Mind and brain in delay of gratification

We have to delay our gratification possibly for decades. What is your doctor doing to prepare you for that?
http://psycnet.apa.org/books/14322/007

Citation

Database: PsycBOOKS

[ Chapter ]

Mind and brain in delay of gratification.

Zayas, Vivian; Mischel, Walter; Pandey, Gayathri

Reyna, Valerie F. (Ed); Zayas, Vivian (Ed), (2014). The neuroscience of risky decision making. Bronfenbrenner series on the ecology of human development., (pp. 145-176). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, xviii, 222 pp. doi: 10.1037/14322-007

Abstract

1. A central focus of psychological and behavioral sciences is to identify the factors that enable and hinder delay of gratification. In this chapter, we review findings from the original preschool delay of gratification work that identify key attentional–cognitive control strategies that enable (vs. hinder) delay. We also describe recent behavioral and neuroscientific findings that investigate the link between preschool delay of gratification abilities and adult mechanisms of cognitive control. This work suggests that dispositional abilities to delay gratification are subserved by individual differences in the functioning of prefrontal cortical and limbic neural systems. We end by discussing the implications of this work for theory and future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)