May 9, 2014

May 9, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) is an extension of the work of B.F. Skinner, who considered private stimuli and their control over verbal behavior to be one of the distinguishing characteristics of radical behaviorism. Because it is so easy to have SVB and because this writer is currently teaching his classes for free at the local library, participants often don’t realize that they are dealing with a scientific process, which requires a scientific attitude. The word attitude is best illustrated by what we prefer to eat. The person who doesn’t like veggies is said to have an attitude against them, because he or she is no longer going to think about whether he or she is going to eat them or not. This person predictably responds negatively to green foods and nothing can supposedly change that.

If we look at attitudes from a behavioral perspective, we gain a different understanding of what it is: attitudes are our private stimuli that control our verbal and our nonverbal behavior. When a person thinks "this isn’t going anywhere, perhaps I should leave", he or she expresses, covertly to him or herself, thoughts or feelings that only he or she has access to. An attitude, therefore, is not something we have, but something we say we have. This difference is of great importance and will become clear as we delve deeper into how we acquire attitudes. We tend to think about our attitudes not as behaviors, but as something we possess, like a personality trait. Nevertheless, the way in which we think, feel or act is not based on something that we have, a stable aspect of our personality, but on something we do, or don’t do, or on something we did or didn’t do or something we were able or unable to do. Attitude is what made our behavior possible.

When we look at the components of how behaviors called attitudes come into existence, it becomes apparent that they are much more susceptible to change than we are inclined to believe. The idea that our attitudes consist of different parts hides the fact that a whole bunch of behaviors have been set into motion. There are no such things as attitudes and they cannot be broken down into parts. When one puts up one’s tent, there are sticks that form a frame and the tent has to be draped over the frame. These are things, but with attitudes there are only behaviors, which create the illusion that there are things. 

When we talk about behaviors as the building blocks of attitudes, it is easily overlooked that these behaviors are extended in time and that the controlling variables for these behaviors lie in our behavioral history. For instance, when we consider the affective component of our attitude, we refer to the circumstances under which we had certain experiences. In the case of our attitude towards classical music, we may find it beautiful and enjoyable, because we were together with people with whom we enjoyed this music. It is important to note that behavior is usually seen as a component of our attitude, but not as the entire basis for it. Only some lip-service is given to behaviorism by indicating that many different behaviors are involved in having a positive attitude towards classical music. For instance, we like to listen to it, we turn our radio station to classical music, we go to a classical concert or we play and practice classical music ourselves. Since we think it, this is also considered a component of our attitude towards classical music. However, this thinking is not a thing either, we don’t possess our thoughts, but we behave verbally. What are assumed to be the building blocks of attitudes: affect, behavior and cognitions, are in fact all three behaviors.

Going back to Skinner’s insistence on the importance of private stimuli in the control of verbal and nonverbal behavior, we should take note that in the shaping phase of behaviors that make up our attitudes, there was a need to be overt and explicit, but as these behaviors gained momentum, they receded to an covert level. 

Generally, it is not because we have such different attitudes that we don’t have meaningful discussions about attitudes, but because we are not used to bringing out our covert, private speech into our overt public speech. Beliefs and ideas are not things inside our head, but are merely behaviors which we have practiced a lot. 

With the idea of attitude as covert, private speech in mind, it is interesting to look into why attitudes are such poor predictors of individual behavior? What we say and do are often two different things because our behavior changes as our environment changes. Saying and doing are indeed two different sorts of behaviors and the question about the difference between these two is similar to asking why is fishing different from riding your bicycle? This question doesn’t make any sense, but with saying and doing we think that one is causing the other. In reality both are caused by something which eludes us.

Behavior is caused by the contingencies of reinforcement. These contingencies however, extent from our external environment to the environment within our own skin, to which we only as individuals have access. Attitudes are considered separate from behavior, because we are not talking publicly about the fact that behavior is a function of what we say to ourselves privately. We are for the most part incapable of talking about what we covertly say to ourselves, because we have been conditioned to keep private speech out of public speech. A child is only initially praised for its acquisition of language, but as soon as it grows up it says things to him or to herself covertly.