Skinner maintained that we can understand behavior and what others call personality only by applying the operant conditioning principle to understanding what a person does.

Rejecting the belief that humans possess free will, Skinner argued that we learn to be a particular kind of person in the same way that we learn anything else in life—through positive or negative reinforcement and punishment or, in his terms, reinforcement history.

External circumstances and consequences, not some inner-self, ultimately define personality. In effect, we could predict a persons behavior if we knew which of this person’s actions had been rewarded by society and which ones had been punished.

B. F. Skinner

American psychologist B. F. Skinner became famous for his pioneering research on learning and behavior. During his 60-year career, Skinner discovered important principles of operant conditioning, a type of learning that involves reinforcement and punishment. A strict behaviorist, Skinner believed that operant conditioning could explain even the most complex of human behaviors

Re: Geeksquad service order#: 00472-890838806

11 days after dropping off my Laptop on 2/9/07 for repair at the Best Buys store, Rt. 22, in Union County , and told that the extended warranty that I bought covered the cost and parts of the repair. I received a phone call.

A phone call on 2/20/07 from Geek Squad city, stating that there was damage to the bottom of my laptops case, that the extended warranty that I purchased did not cover the repair, and it was going to cost me $179 to have them fix it, needless to say I felt like I was flamboozled. I was instructed in this message to contact the store where I dropped off my laptop, and inform them of my decision.

First of all, When I dropped off the laptop there was no damage to the bottom case. The technician thoroughly looked my laptop over and noted the condition of the laptop on my service order as only “scratched throughout the unit”.

On 2/24/07 I attempted to contact the Best Buy store on Rt.22, and after my sixth call after being hung-up on several times and spending over 30 min on hold, I spoke to a customer service rep named Shakira. Shakira had to actually go and physically drag ,[ I may be exaggerating a wee bit ] David, the Cadet agent for Geek Squad to the phone.

I complained about the phone wait and all of the attempts that I made and he replied “that it he was busy”. After 20 minutes on the phone he repeated to me about the case being damaged and that it was not covered under the warranty, I informed him that there was no case damage when I dropped off the laptop and instructed him to look at the Condition notes on the service invoice. David said that the laptop was on its way back to the store and that I could speak to a manager when it arrived and discuss the discrepancy.

I am a college student and I need my laptop, so far it has taken 2 weeks for them not to repair my laptop, and it goings to take another 2 weeks for them to get it back to the store, and what? another 4 to 6 weeks for them to repair it? Needless to say I am flabbergasted.

Frustration races through my viens like fire, it corrupts my thoughts, overpowers all rational thinking, I regress, act out, behave like a child who doesnt get his way, Frustration turns into Anger that can not and will not be directed outward, so inward it seeks me , it belittles me, demeans my soul, until it festers into self-destruction and tricks me into the hole of despair, self loathing, self…….hate, I am gasping for breath, for a few gulps of air, mentally, emotionally I suffocating myself, I am damned, I try squeeze a moment to interject a positive thought or two, to pull myself out of this abyss, the dark place, that swallowed my innocence, my childhood, my identity, my existence. I am Fighting it, but afraid, punching with all of my might, but shivering in fear, i am yanking the hair from its scowling head, I am stunned that its laughing at me, and shocked to see that it is I whom I fight, it is I who sabatoges my progress, I keep myself Hostage, to the anger directed inward. I start to understand, to relize, that I have a choice, a choice NOT to let Frustration turn to anger pointed inward

I just do not understand the reason why I am always singled out: I go to school, I earn great grades, I do what is ask of me, and still get constantly picked on by the Director of the Program [ I am currently in a residential program and in recovery] . Not one positive word, it is always clean this, do that, have Eulo GI this, paint the wall, rip up the carpet, take out the trash, always spoken to me in a disrespectful tone. I do not know if it is racial or personal, I just do not understand why I am being harassed. I get the feeling they want me to fail, this Director, never a kind word for me, Never. Not that I need any kind words from them. I just would like to be treated with respect and dignity, is that too much to ask for? It is their own rules, to treat residents with respect. They change and make up their own rules every day.

I cannot complain or make waves, they’ll take it out on me even more: shit details, GI the stove when I get back at 10:PM at night knowing I have to get up to go to school the following morning. Now they want me to get an attendance sheet filled out every day, ridiculous, never have I had to do this before. I am trying to learn a new way to live, to make choices. I do not want my professors to have to sign a stupid attendance sheet, I am mad, calm down, take a breath, and write. One more year, of this hell, one more year, if I can survive this I can survive anything. You would think that they would be happy that I was doing so well in school; you CAN NOT earn the grades I earned last semester and not be attending class.

They are nit picking, it will be forgotten about in a day or two, until the next time they find a reason to pick on me. Attempt to trap me, and send me back to the abyss. An educated man is a man who thinks with reason, not emotion. I am working on it, truly I am. Life is 90% of what happens to me and 10% of how I react to it. I think they want me to react, to get upset, to revert back to the Joe I was before I came to college: The Joe that wore his emotions on his sleeve, The Joe who exposed his buttons so they could be pushed, No that Joe is gone, I found new avenues to vent my frustrations and Anger, Just Blog it! Instead of turning the frustration into self directed Anger and depression, Just Blog it! Ha! Sorry Mrs. Director you can t push my buttons anymore, you’re the 90% and I am the 10%It is amazing.

Blue is how I feel this morning, dissapointed in myself. Dissapointed that I let myself down, that I sabotaged myself, knowing that I was sabotaging myself when i was doing it, Damn me! I earned 82 on a Spanish test. seems petty, dost it? it does! thirty-four years of this type of thinking, it is not easy to change. I am working on it, i have to remember that life is 90% of what happens to me and 10% how I react to it. Ok! time to react: study harder, get help, refocus, ask for help…Time to take control, and stop sabatoging my progress, the little neglected boy is acting up again.

Ok, know i am feeling Mucho bettero! (bettero not actually a word in spanish “use at your own risk”) Chin up, back straight, chest out, optimisim. My thoughts are all over the place lately, refocus Joe. Eye on the prize, this is not just for you, but your daughter. Focus, step by step, live for today. Just for today. Count the small victories: got up this morning,(always a blessing), earned an 114% on 1st business test, (wow), on my way to a degree, daughter is healthy, sun is shining, I am in school.

Ok, i am focused, know what i need to do, put the plan in action.