Smart.

I have a theory. I would like to propose this for the thesis of my doctorate (hold on folks, let me finish first. It won't be funnier than this)

I don't know why but lately I have a tendency to curse. One of the most heard words comes out from my mouth is "idiot".

While doing revision with my friends, things went wrong all of a sudden and I started to curse.

"IDIOT!"

I was actually addressing that to myself. I misinterpreted one revision question, and you know the stress of last minute study can really drive one crazy sometimes. I'm not good in stress management. So I started to curse at myself over and over. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

My friend overheard this (and I'm pretty sure that she herself got fed up listening to me cursing all the way long)

So she told me, "don't say 'Idiot', Say 'Smart', "

Initially, I just smiled at her suggestion.

Things went on, I cursed over and over and every time my friend heard this, she would remind me, "Smart"

So, the next time I felt like cursing, I tried to say "Smart" instead of "Idiot".

I wouldn't say I have got rid of my "Idiot" word, but at least now, every time I feel like cursing, "Smart" would come out instead of "Idiot".

I might have been conditioned, just like in the behaviorist theory. I don't know. My lecturer told me, we humans are much conditioned. We tend to do things that we have been trained to do.

My point here is, if humans are responding to conditioning, then we could possibly change certain behaviors.

I know that Glasser (he is the proponent of Choice Theory - Classroom Management) said that we own our own behaviours. We cannot change others' but ours.

However, in my opinion, there is still a place for behaviorist theory to slip in.

Take my experience as an example. We cannot simply stop a behavior on the spot. It takes time. Say in my example, my friend cannot simply tell me to stop saying 'Idiot'. (this comes back to Glasser theory, I OWN my behaviour) No one can simply stop me for I choose to behave that way. I choose to say 'Idiot'.

What my friend did was, she compromised with me. She gave me other option to replace the word 'Idiot'. Smart.

I guess that works better. Now, you'll hear me saying smart all the way back. People say, what you say is what you are. Am I smarter??? lol.

-Miss B-