The marshmallow test, which has been applied to young children for many years, aims to discover how effective children's ability to delay pleasure is on their lives. According to this test, children are taken to a room and various foods are placed in front of them. These foods are often made up of interesting candy for children, such as marshmallows.

The researcher conducting the test puts any of these foods in front of the child. And tells the child to wait in the room. After this the researcher leave the room. It is stated that if the child does not eat the food which is in front of him until the researcher returns, more of these foods will be given to the child, and if he does, no other food will be given.

In fact, in this test, plausibly, children are expected to receive more food by demonstrating the ability to delay pleasure. However, unfortunately, two-thirds of children do not behave in this way, losing their chance to eat more food and fail. The remaining 1 out of 3 are waiting for the opportunity offered to them and pass the test successfully. However, the study is not just that. These children are also watched later in their lives.

As a result, it is determined that these children who have the ability to delay pleasure and wait for food before eating are found to be more successful academically and have a lower risk of substance-alcohol addiction than those who do not have this skill in the later stages of their lives.

If we think more about this test, we might think of Kohlberg's theory of moral development. According to the American psychologist and academic Lawrence Kohlberg, who expresses moral development in three main levels, the "Preconventional Level", which is the first of these levels, conveys important information to us especially in terms of the moral development of children. Preconventional level consists of two steps. The first of these two steps is "Obedience and Punishment"; the second is "İnstrumental Relativist Orientation."

After learning the Marshmellow test, I started to think that the children who passed the test were at the instrumental relativist orientation level, and the children who did not were at the obedience and punishment level. Because an individual who is in the steps of obedience and punishment can evaluate whether to obey the rules or not according to the existence of the authority. In other words, the individual at this level obeys the rules if there is authority, otherwise he can act according to his own interests. In the test, if the researcher did not leave the room, perhaps the other children could wait for a while and eat more marshmellows, but when they leave the room, they may have eaten the marshmellow in front of them, thinking that there is no authority anyway.

Children who successfully pass the test, on the other hand, behave like they are in an instrumental relativist orientation level. As long as their needs, which is one of the typical characteristics of individuals at this level, are met, compliance with the rules can explain the situation of children who pass the test. The child who conforms to the situation given for his own benefit finally gets more food as a reward.

Marshmellow test; When it is associated with Kohlberg's moral development theory, it shows that children who successfully pass the test are more advanced than those who do not pass the test in terms of moral development. If our prediction is correct, situations such as how successful a child will be when he grows up or how risky he will be against substance and cigarette use can be predicted much in advance. I am sure that if Kohlberg did the Marshmellow test, he would be curious about everything we were curious about, looking for answers to our questions.