February 15, 2015

February 15, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Behavioral Engineer

Dear Reader, 

This paper describes the notion of Sound and Noxious Verbal Behavior as two subsets of verbal behavior. Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) refers to the verbal episodes in which the speaker controls the behavior of the listener with positive reinforcement. On the contrary, Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) refers to all verbal episodes in which the speaker controls the behavior of the listener with an aversive contingency. During spoken communication, these subsets are caused and maintained by a different sound of our voice. SVB can simply be said to be caused by Voice I and NVB is caused by Voice II. SVB and NVB are called that way because we can learn to recognize these subsets by how we sound.  

From one moment to the next speakers produce SVB or NVB. Although speakers express SVB or NVB, there are conversations in which one or the other continues for a period of time. Thus, in some conversations there is hardly any SVB, while in others there is a lot. Absence or presence of SVB signifies presence or absence of NVB. These mutually exclusive patterns of verbal behavior determine different outcomes for the listener. During episodes in which the SVB speaker controls the behavior of the listener with positive reinforcement, the listener is stimulated to become a SVB speaker as well. In SVB the speaker and the listener are always mutually reinforcing each other. In NVB, by contrast, the benefits only accrue to the speaker, who, because of his or her hierarchical status, is allowed to and even expected to dominate, exploit and oppress the listener. In NVB, the listener has to and is often made to listen to the speaker. Moreover, in NVB the listener must listen to the speaker, that is, to the speaker who is not the listener, but when this listener speaks, this will prevent him or her from being a speaker-as-own-listener. 

During SVB the speaker is also his or her own listener. The sound of a SVB speaker’s voice is automatically reinforcing to the extent that it was also reinforced by others. Stated in a different way, in SVB the speaker (like a musician, who listens to and enjoys the sound of his or her own instrument) is able to continue to listen to his or her sound while he or she speaks. Thus, during SVB the listener who is different from the speaker listens to the speaker, who listens to his or her own voice while he or she speaks and who is therefore effortlessly understood.  

During NVB the speaker is not listening to his or her own sound while he or she speaks. To the contrary, the NVB speaker wants and coerces others to listen to him or to her. Stated differently, the other-as-speaker-listener is considered to be more important than the speaker-as-own-listener in NVB. The latter has nothing to do with a self as a behavior-causing inner agent. The speaker-as-own-listener occurs when the speaker and the listener are one and the same person. The other-as-speaker-listener occurs when the speaker and the listener are different persons.

When the other-as-speaker-listener excludes the speaker-as-own-listener, our spoken communication becomes a struggle for attention. Thus, NVB is characterized by the *outward orientation of both the speaker as well as the listener, which is caused by the exclusion of the speaker-as-own-listener by the speaker. In SVB, by contrast, the speaker-as-own-listener includes the other-as-speaker-listener and makes other-as-speaker-listening possible and effective. Consequently, in SVB, the *struggle for attention, which is characteristic for NVB, is totally absent. 


A third property of the NVB speaker is his or her *verbal fixation on what is being said. His or her lack of attention for how he or she speaks, that is, the inability to listen while he or she speaks, always co-occurs with *outward orientation and *struggle for attention.  These three habits (*outward orientation, *struggle for attention and *verbal fixation) change the sound of our voice and cause us to have NVB. It is only in the absence of these three interrelated habits that we will attain SVB.