As other board members have highlighted. Behavior is a dichotomy. I believe wholeheartedly that the core of our personality is formed by the age of five based on observations and theory analyses.
The reason why I'm so entrenched in applied behavior analysis is that it is truly built on changing behavior beyond this age range.
Many factors contribute to behavior including environmental. Most people who have behavioral changes experience those because of environmental factors like moving to a new city or getting married Etc. That's why going to college can have such a profound impact on individuals, it gets you out of your comfort zone and encourages you to explore diversity through socialization and academic exploration.
To take it a step further...think about all the people who change once they have kids. They seemingly start to look beyond them themselves and start to question not just their own decisions and behaviors but how those behaviors impact those that they want to lead, nurture and care most about.
Again, won't argue with you that behavior change happens well after the age of five. But what I think happens is people still have their core tenants and convictions but work harder to move beyond those tenants because they either want to evolve or are required to because of environmental factors.
The best way I can summarize this is...
There's Who We Are... and then there's what we want.
We all have our core tenants and convictions. But along the line, our environments change and we adapt to get what we want from them.
The core of Applied Behavior Analysis is behavior serves two functions. "To either get into something or to get out of something.... "
Simply put, I want to slap my coworkers, daily. But I won't cuz I want to keep my job and stay in good legal and social standing environmentally.
The article below describes some of this from the perspective of an NBA player. Thinking this has strong relevance when we discuss CW:
The passing along of wisdom, particularly in the Black community, is a rite of passage. Learning from an Elder or an “OG” is a core part of Black culture and can even find roots in the historic nature of storytelling and oral history exchanges. NBA veteran Andre Drummond has found himself in the...
finance.yahoo.com
I’m quite character myself, I have what is called “a Peter pan complex” and in the dating world, it’s absolute poison when dating women my age…
Im the youngest of 3 children. A lot of posters here have gone to school with my 2 older sisters. One of them even was a roommate to my middle sister at one point in her life. Another poster and his wife still sees my middle sister.
I graduated from High School in 1994 and during the fall of that year, I worked as a busser at Imperial Palace. My best friend joined the Navy and I wanted to join him. My mother said, why don’t you go to school, I’ll pay for your college. I took the easy way out, I stayed at home and took the offer and was a nursing student from when the internet began in Spring of 1995 all the way up until 2000. So I stayed at home and went to school. I dropped out like an idiot because I ratted out on myself. I wrote a paper but instead I used a patient from the previous semester. It was Spring Break and I was behind on this paper.I would have gotten away had I shutted up but I told the truth. So I got suspended from the program. I was 3 credits shy of finishing my nursing degree. I could have actually gone back and I should have finished it but I bitched out.
anyways, that was the Spring of 2000 and that was the year when this country was at its peak. Jobs were plentiful and you were hired right away. Anyways, the state mental hospital was hiring and I was a shoe in because I had credits In psychiatric nursing and it helps that my mother gave me the answers in the job interview. I aced the freakin test. One thing I didn’t have was common sense and real world experience however, I ran the psychiatric Crisis observation unit when it was just 10 beds and all the hospitals around the valley had like hundreds of patients waiting for us to clear out. It was awesome! We told the hospitals we were full and we played PlayStation or watched movies in that unit.
I worked with 2 famous people as a psychiatric technicians. One was Freddie Banks and the other was Jonas Vece. Jonas Vece was a singer in the band, The McCoys. For you old timers, he was a singer for the song “Hang on Sloopy”
anyways, going back to that, I decided to go back to Nursing School back I. 2005. There was a problem, my science credits expired after 5 years..I went back after 6. So I got diagnosed with bipolar because I moved to swing shift and I wasn’t sleeping. I knew I got bipolar because I went to sleep for 2 hours and woke up with a burst of energy. I went to the lvAc gym and just started cranking out weights, I wasn’t tired. I saw Dr. Emmanuel Nwapa and I actually worked under him at one time. He put me on medications and to this day, I need Seroquel and Trazadone to sleep..
anyways, I always lived with my mother up until 2008 when I moved to Fairfield California. My cousin Ady had bought a house there. He went to CImmaron and graduated from USC. He said, come on out and just stay at my house, house sit and find a job. This was in 2008. I tried my hardest to find a job in Northern California. Me and my lesbian roomate lived in his house, did not pay rent and we grew Weed in his backyard as a hobby. Then the economy tanked. Me and Lina looked at each other and I couldn’t even get a job at Mcdonald’s I. Fairfield. The economy was f’d. I even went to Napa to be a grape picker and they weren’t hiring.
Anyways I went home that year with my tail between my legs.
Lina called me..hey I’m in pleasant Hill, I want you to be a weed grower. So I high tailed it back to Pleasant Hill and grew Weed illegally. We grew 300 plants of OG Kush and 1 plant of Silver Haze. Our business partner was the head coach of DeLaSalle High School Football so yes, we were the hookup to his players. We sold our weed to different medicinaries in California, 3750 bucks a pound at the time..this was good shit. Anyways, I got a job as Fry’s Cashier in Concord off the 680 as a regular job..pot grower at night and learned how to grow indoor weed with all the fancy lights, charcoal filters so it won’t smell and sound off the neighbors…
Anyways I found a way to F that up and moved back to Nevada in 2011 and lived with my mother.
All was good until Covid year of 2020, My mother passed away on July 20,2020..my mother caught Covid from Ady because he just moved back from Queens NY and he tested positive on a job interview. So we all caught Covid even though we masked up and did everything . My mother made masks with the sewing machine..anyways, my mother was in the hospital at Mountain View this time of the year 3 years ago…upon discharge, she was given an Oxygen Tank. When we got home, I was supposed to tie on the oxygen tank and be the guy who would help her lug up the oxygen tank up and down the stairs. I never put on the Oxygen tank and it proved fatal because she was dead 4 days later. No one can convince me that I was not at fault. Under Nurse law what I did was negligence. I didn’t put on the oxygen tank on her..her death certificate has Covid-19 but in reality it should also read: Negligence from lack of Oxygen tank..
In my entire life, I’ve only had to pay rent 4 months in my entire life. I’ve been extremely spoiled. But now that I lived by myself since May of 2021..I’ve been paying rent 800 dollars, electricity 50 bucks during the summer and cell phone 55 bucks T mobile.
The money will run out one of these days and I’ll be screwed. Been lazy, I don’t wanna work. I’m going to have to or my money from my inheritance will be gone. Once you don’t work, you don’t ever wanna go back to working. I’m looking, I’ll get a job…but for now I’m lapping it up.
I have lived quite a life. I travelled around the world with my mother. I never been to China or South East Asia. So yeah I have some issues. I’m thinking about going back to UNLV, getting a new Student loan but I love the idea of not having to deal with kids, credit card debt and having 49000 in my bank account.
I’m cool for now but there’s gonna be a day where I will have to work 2 jobs to support myself. Maybe even 3 jobs.
Anyways I have 189 credits in Nursing and Psychology.
I kind of want to go back to UNLV and get a degree in Athletic Training plus maybe go back to Nursing..I think Nursing is a no go for me. I’m just pissed at what I should have been. I have a mormon male friend that I worked with at the state. who sorted out his issues. He’s the director of nursing for the state hospital up in Reno. Had I played my cards right, I should have been director of nursing for Rawson Neal Hospital. It’s not too late, I just don’t want to take my science credits over again. I still want to be a gym instructor for the Las Vegas Athletic Club. One day I’ll be it..or is just a dream.
Anyways, I love psychology..absolute bullshit in the real world but it’s theories are still app livable in life.
Anyways I’m off mood stabilizers and this medication called Clonazepam.
Now it’s just old heart pills and Trazadone/Seroquel.
