Willpower

Little House of Horrors” episode of Nanny 911 (on DVD, Nanny 911: The First Season, Fox Broadcasting Company, released 2008); and from the book by Deborah Carroll and Stella Reid with Karen Moline, Nanny 911: Expert Advice for All Your Parenting Emergencies (New York: Harper Entertainment, 2005).
    188 Branden on self-esteem: See N. Branden, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (New York: Bantam Books, 1994). The quotation was from N. Branden, “In Defense of Self,” Association for Humanistic Psychology (August–September 1984): 12–13.
    189 Mecca quotation: From I. Davis, “Ministry for Feeling Good,” The Times (London), January 22, 1988.
    189 Smelser quotation: From p. 1 of N. J. Smelser, “Self-Esteem and Social Problems: An Introduction,” in A. M. Mecca, N. J. Smelser, and J. Vasconcellos, eds., The Social Importance of Self-Esteem (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989), 1–23.
    190 the big self-esteem report: R. F. Baumeister, J. D. Campbell, J. I. Krueger, and K. D. Vohs, “Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4 (2003): 1–44. The following year a condensed version was published in Scientific American and later reprinted in Scientific American Mind .
    190 the experiment on students and grades: D. R. Forsyth, N. A. Kerr, J. L. Burnette, and R. F. Baumeister, “Attempting to Improve the Academic Performance of Struggling College Students by Bolstering Their Self-Esteem: An Intervention That Backfired,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 26 (2007): 447–59.
    192 narcissists’ popularity in groups: D. L. Paulhus, “Interpersonal and Intrapsychic Adaptiveness of Trait Self-Enhancement: A Mixed Blessing?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 (1998): 1197–1208.
    193 increase in narcissim: J. M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (New York: Free Press, 2009).
    193 narcissism in song lyrics: C. N. DeWall, R. S. Pond Jr., W. K. Campbell, and J. M. Twenge, “Tuning In to Psychological Change: Linguistic Markers of Psychological Traits and Emotions over Time in Popular U.S. Song Lyrics.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (2011), online publication, March 21.
    194 Chinese and American toddlers: M. A. Sabbagh, F. Xu, S. M. Carlson, L. J. Moses, and K. Lee, “The Development of Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind,” Psychological Science 17 (2006): 74–81.
    195 Asian-American IQs: J. R. Flynn, Asian Americans: Achievement Beyond IQ (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991).
    195 Kim sisters: Dr. S. K. Abboud and J. Kim, Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers—and How You Can Too (New York: Berkley Books, 2005).
    196 Confucian concepts of chiao shun and guan : See S. T. Russell, L. J. Crockett, and R. K. Chao, eds., Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships (New York: Springer, 2010), especially chapter 1.
    196 study of Chinese mothers in Los Angeles: R. K. Chao, “Chinese and European American Mothers’ Beliefs about the Role of Parenting in Children’s School Success,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 27 (1996): 403.
    197 Amy Chua: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (New York: Penguin Press, 2011), 9.
    199 Cotton Mather: E. S. Morgan, The Puritan Family (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 103.
    200 On parental discipline mistakes: S. O’Leary, “Parental Discipline Mistakes,” Current Directions in Psychological Science (4) , (1995): 11–13.
    203 on children and money: A. M. C. Otto, P. A. M. Schots, J. A. J. Westerman, and P. Webley, “Children’s Use of Saving Strategies: An Experimental Approach,” Journal of Economic Psychology 27 (2006): 57–72.
    204 Children who have bank accounts are more likely to become savers: See B. D. Bernheim, D. M. Garrett, and D. M. Maki, “Education and Saving: The Long-Term Effects of High School Financial Curriculum Mandates,” Journal of Public Economics 80 (2001): 436–67. For parental influence on children’s saving, see P. Webley and E. K. Nyhus, “Parents’ Influence on Children’s Future Orientation and Saving,” Journal of Economic Psychology 27 (2006): 140–64.
    204 overjustification effect: There are many sources, but an early and authoritative one is M. R. Lepper and D. Greene, eds., The Hidden Costs of Reward: New Perspectives of the Psychology of Human Motivation (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum,