January 12, 2014

January 12, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

Today’s writing is written with the letter type “magneto.” It attracted this writer because since childhood he has been fascinated by magnets. A teacher once showed him two types of magnets: one in the shape of a horse shoe and another in the shape of a bar. He held them behind a piece of paper on which iron powder was sprinkled and made the magnetic field visible. It was demonstrated that different seize magnets have different magnetic fields and that the bigger the magnet, the bigger the magnetic field. Also it was shown that the magnetic field decreases as one moves away from the magnet. Two magnets with the same poles will push each other away, but magnets with different poles attract each other. Another fact about magnets was that some metals are magnetic, while others are not. 

The impact of these demonstrations was long lasting.  Once one has seen the workings of magnets, one knows that there is lawfulness to the natural world. This writer remembers another demonstration he will never forget. The teacher had a metal ball and an iron ring. He heated the iron ball, which expanded and no longer fitted through the ring. By cooling it in cold water, he shrunk it to its original seize and it fitted again through the ring. This demonstration taught us about heat and cold, which caused the expansion and shrinkage of the iron ball.

Causal relationships are essential to science and both experiments created an unshakable foundation. Causal relationships also exist in how we behave verbally, in what this author calls Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). It is needed to discuss these two dimensions as objective, verifiable, replicable processes. 

In SVB as well as in NVB things are said because we are attracted to saying them. This attraction reflects previous social reinforcements, which set the stage for our future behavior. Where there was reinforcement for our calmness, kindness, gentleness, sensitivity, playfulness and exploration, we would be more inclined to SVB. However, if intimidation, coercion, harshness, domination, competition or insensitivity were reinforced, we were more likely to have NVB in our future. We have so many NVB problems in our lives because they are reinforced. Likewise, we have so little problem-free SVB because we are not reinforced enough to keep it going. 

We were all, to some extent, reinforced for SVB while we grew up, but most of us develop with tendencies toward the NVB end of the spectrum. Only very few of us develop habits that are directed towards the SVB end of the spectrum. By and large, we are familiar with SVB, but we couldn’t continue with it because our reinforcement histories determined otherwise. We didn’t ourselves choose this; it was our environment, the verbal community to which we belong, which determined this for us. 

Ignorance about the fact that we were determined by our environments has prevented us from recognizing that we were never individually responsible for any of our behaviors.  Our environment is like the magnet behind the paper, which determines that the iron powder has its particular shape. If human beings are like magnets, then SVB is attracted to NVB and visa versa, because opposite poles attract each other. This is evident in how peace-nics and hawks define each other as opposites. Those who veer to the SVB end of the spectrum are trying to change NVB communicators. However, during this process they lose SVB and become NVB communicators. 

Reinforcement histories which are the strongest win from histories that are less strong. Also NVB communicators are attracted to SVB communicators. That is why they create as many slaves, servants, underlings, followers, criminals, needy people, minimum wagers, consumers, believers, fearful peasants, soldiers, heroes, patriots and voters as possible.   

Continuing our thought-experiment of mapping the properties of magnets onto the SVB and NVB spectrum, it may become clear why supposedly like-minded people always reject each other. Two similar poles of two identical bar magnets separate due to a force which doesn’t allow them to be together. Even if we bring them together with both hands, they separate again if we release the force that we applied to make that possible. 

Likewise, SVB often brings together people, who say they want peace, justice, openness, freedom and love, but who separate again due to their previously obtained behavioral histories. In the same way, NVB pulls people together in order to fight, compete, work, pray, study, explore and play hard, but this false togetherness doesn’t last long and is only a big masquerade.

In interaction opposites attract: SVB could interact with NVB without trying to change it or without losing SVB and NVB communicators could communicate with SVB without silencing it completely Change comes from more interaction between NVB and SVB. Technology makes this increase in interaction inevitable. Increase in the rate of responding between SVB and NVB will change both groups alike. The change occurs because both histories of reinforcement are changed by experiences that didn’t and couldn’t happen before. These changes are only indirectly facilitated by SVB communicators, who, by avoiding the confrontation with NVB communicators, will create an entirely new situation. NVB is always more attracted to SVB than SVB is attracted to NVB, but only SVB communicators can let nature take its cause.  

The stories we tell ourselves and each other are ways to create a social unity which exists like a magnetic field. It exists as an effect of the verbal community in which these stories were told. NVB and SVB are like different languages, spoken by those who have a history of reinforcement with them. There is nothing right or wrong. This view that in terms of their history of reinforcement SVB and NVB are equally lawful, makes us see that the moral issue we have made out of our behavior is not helping us at all. Lofty ideas about right and wrong have nothing to do with how behavior is increased or decreased. 

If deviant behavior is reinforced, it will occur more often in the future. By calling it deviant we are not putting ourselves in the position.to understand what reinforces it. This is equally true for social behavior we would like to see. By calling someone’s actions good, we have not described how that behavior comes about. Hang ups about good and evil make us attribute inner qualities to ourselves and each other, which prevent us from acknowledging that circumstances, not internal processes, cause our behavior. 

This brings us to the expanding iron ball, which no longer fitted through the metal ring. There is no inner cause why the iron ball expanded. It was a hot environment which made it expand. Without the heat it would not have expanded. The behavior of the iron ball changed and it did no longer fit through the ring. The expanding behavior of the iron ball can be reversed by changing its environment and by putting it in a bucket of water. As long as we keep the environment at a constant, the ball will reliably be able to pass through the ring. Exactly the same is true for how we communicate. Only if we keep the environment stable can we understand that our environment causes our behavior. 

The heat which expands the iron ball can be compared to the aversive stimulation that is produced in NVB. The voices of people who engage in NVB are produced by nervous systems which are dis-regulated. Environments that maintain NVB are one’s in which communicators are threatened, violated, hurt, humiliated, confused, distracted and alienated Environments like that have devastating consequences for our behavior. Environments in which SVB occurs are not the same as those in which NVB occurs. Environments in which SVB is possible are environments that make NVB impossible. Environments in which NVB is made possible are environments which make SVB impossible. No iron ball can simultaneously shrink and expand and no human being can simultaneously be involved in SVB and NVB. The idea that this is possible is because of good and evil, but these values always refer to which behaviors are reinforced and increased and which are punished and decreased. 

The notion of good and evil may assume that good or bad qualities exist inside each of us, but if the iron ball has no inner qualities due to which it shrinks or expands, neither does anything else in the material world. Human beings are part of the material world and are bound by its laws. The inescapable reality of our communication problems has given rise to all sorts of stories, which are contradicted by the science of human behavior. The facts about human relationship are not to be found in any of our stories. Regardless of how much stories have helped us cope in the past, they can't solve our current problems. All our old stories produce NVB and are preventing SVB. Stories are monologues which are preventing dialogues. NVB is uni-directional, but SVB is bi-directional. Also, we may believe that our stories have changed, but this is just another story we tell ourselves. SVB heralds the end of all our violent stories.