A theory was proposed to reconcile paradoxical findings on the invariance of personality and the variability of behavior across situations. For this purpose, individuals were assumed to differ in (a) the accessibility of cognitive-affective mediating units (such as encodings, expectancies and beliefs, affects, and goals) and (b) the organization of relationships through which these units interact with each other and with psychological features of situations. The theory accounts for individual differences in predictable patterns of variability across situations (e.g., if A then she X, but if B then she Y), as well as for overall average levels of behavior, as essential expressions or behavioral signatures of the same underlying personality system. Situations, personality dispositions, dynamics, and structure were reconceptualized from this perspective.

To function effectively, individuals must voluntarily postpone immediate gratification and persist in goal-directed behavior for the sake of later outcomes. The present research program analyzed the nature of this type of future-oriented self-control and the psychological processes that underlie it. Enduring individual differences in self-control were found as early as the preschool years. Those 4-year-old children who delayed gratification longer in certain laboratory situations developed into more cognitively and socially competent adolescents, achieving higher scholastic performance and coping better with frustration and stress. Experiments in the same research program also identified specific cognitive and attentional processes that allow effective self-regulation early in the course of development. The experimental results, in turn, specified the particular types of preschool delay situations diagnostic for predicting aspects of cognitive and social competence later in life.

Variations of the self-imposed delay-of-gratification situation in preschool were compared to determine when individual differences in this situation may predict aspects of cognitive and self-regulatory competence and coping in adolescence. Preschool children from a university community participated in experiments that varied features of the self-imposed delay situation. Experimental analyses of the cognitive-attentional processes that affect waiting in this situation helped identify conditions in which delay behavior would be most likely to reflect relevant cognitive and attentional competencies. As hypothesized, in those conditions, coherent patterns of statistically significant correlations were found between seconds of delay time in such conditions in preschool and cognitive and academic competence and ability to cope with frustration and stress in adolescence. To be able to delay immediate satisfaction for the sake of future consequences has long been considered an essential achievement of human development. After a series of investigations into the individual differences associated with the choice to delay gratification (e.g.

Delay of gratification, assessed in a series of experiments when the subjects were in preschool, was related to parental personality ratings obtained a decade later for 95 of these children in adolescence. Clear and consistent patterns of correlations between self-imposed delay time in preschool and later ratings were found for both sexes over this time span. Delay behavior predicted a set of cognitive and social competencies and stress tolerance consistent with experimental analyses of the process underlying effective delay in the preschool delay situation. Specifically, children who were able to wait longer at age 4 or 5 became adolescents whose parents rated them as more academically and socially competent, verbally fluent, rational, attentive, planful, and able to deal well with frustration and stress. Comparisons with related longitudinal research using other delay situations help to clarify the important features of the situations and person variables involved in different aspects of delay of gratification.For more than two decades the situational and cognitive processes influencing effective delay of gratification have been a focus of experimental investigation, using a paradigm that assesses children's voluntary self-imposed delay for preferred but delayed outcomes in the preschool years (e.g., Mischel, 1973Mischel, , 1981Mischel & Ebbesen, 1970). Other research on delay of gratification explored a number of conceptually related determinants of self-). As our understanding of the underlying cognitive processes grew, we also began collecting data to study the meaning of individual differences in effective voluntary delay behavior. The clarification of these individual differences is the focus of this article. Specifically, we focus on the possible links between delay behavior in the preschool child and indices of cognitive and social competence and coping obtained a decade later in the course of a longitudinal study.Our expectations about the nature of the personality vari-The authors' research and the preparation of this article were supported in part by Grants MH39263 and MH39349 from the National Institute of Mental Health.The research reported here would not have been possible without the generous cooperation of the Bing School children and their parents over many years, and the data collection provided by Walter Mischel's students and collaborators in the original experiments cited in the references: We are especially indebted to Antonette Zeiss for her generous, helpful, constructive, and continuing involvement in many of these efforts over the years, beginning with her participation in the development and conduct of the original experiments, in her contribution to obtaining follow-up data longitudinally, and most recently in providing invaluable constructive commentary on earlier drafts.

Psychological scientists draw inferences about populations based on samples-of people, situations, and stimuli-from those populations. Yet, few papers identify their target populations, and even fewer justify how or why the tested samples are representative of broader populations. A cumulative science depends on accurately characterizing the generality of findings, but current publishing standards do not require authors to constrain their inferences, leaving readers to assume the broadest possible generalizations. We propose that the discussion section of all primary research articles specify Constraints on Generality (i.e., a "COG" statement) that identify and justify target populations for the reported findings. Explicitly defining the target populations will help other researchers to sample from the same populations when conducting a direct replication, and it could encourage follow-up studies that test the boundary conditions of the original finding. Universal adoption of COG statements would change publishing incentives to favor a more cumulative science.