January 29, 2015

January 29, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

 

Punishment is a “postcedent process or procedure” which “occurs either as an addition or subtraction of stimuli” (Ledoux, 2015, p.358). Because of his knowledge about how punishment by subtraction works in our spoken communication, this writer has often endured punishment by addition. For more than twenty five years he has been focusing on the two response classes of vocal verbal behavior between which all human interaction constantly meanders: Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). This writer became interested in the process of punishment by subtraction, when he became aware that NVB decreases SVB. Simply stated, NVB is the language of coercion and punishment, but SVB is the language of added reinforcement. Unless we realize how often we punish instead of reinforce SVB, it will never increase. SVB has not and could not be increased, because it was and is continually decreased by NVB. This important issue must be addressed head on. 

The ubiquity of NVB is made possible by the functional reduction of the ongoing rate of SVB. Although SVB is made increasingly impossible, it is becoming more and more evident that we can’t do without it. Without SVB  human relationship disintegrates. NVB and the fall-out of coercion must be stopped before SVB can begin to occur. Unless NVB, the communication which involves forceful control of human conduct, is brought to an end, we will not be able to have positive relationships.  Behaviorology, the natural science of human behavior, predicted this outcome since its incursion. This writer is not a doom-preacher, but a behavioral engineer, who is 100% capable of creating and maintaining environments in which SVB will occur. Moreover, all the people who participate with him in SVB, will know that it is happening and will be aware of the contingency which makes this happen.

The rate of SVB can be deliberately and reliably increased due to the positive energy traces that are coming from postcedent stimuli. Only if we are positively reinforced for SVB will it increase. NVB can’t do that. When communicators are repeatedly in environments in which increases of SVB and decreases of NVB are experienced, their nervous system structure will be transformed such that the antecedent stimuli that typically evoke SVB will begin to function more effectively. That is, the sound and impact of someone’s voice will more likely engage us in SVB, because our body was changed over time by SVB’s regulating effects. The opposite is true for NVB, which decreases SVB.  NVB disregulates our nervous system and makes us feel ashamed, embarrassed, not taken serious, weak, rejected, nervous and walked over, each time we produce SVB. Such punishing consequences then will make us produce less SVB. 

NVB is of course also postcedently reinforced either by added or by subtracted reinforcement. That is, our NVB is increased or strengthed by its consequences. No matter how alluring these so-called added benefits of NVB may be, they always go together with decrease of SVB. Moreover, they replace SVB and our need for SVB with something else. Supposedly, because of the much-praised benefits of NVB, such as income, career, security, fame, status and power, SVB doesn’t matter anymore, can be forgotten or can be forever postponed.   It should be clear to anyone who is reading this text that the insane, widespread, coercive, pre-scientific, unethical, immoral and inhuman control of human behavior, continues because of our NVB, which forever distracts and dissociates us from our SVB. There is not a shred of evidence in behaviorology that our mandatory way of speaking, NVB, is going to help us to raise our children, improve our relationships or provide world peace. Only SVB can reliably do that. 

When we look more closely at the so-called added reinforcement of NVB, it becomes apparent that we are completely mistaken. Although it looks as if NVB is maintained by added reinforcement, it is in fact maintained by subtracted reinforcement. Just as driving within the speed limit is reinforced (more likely to occur in the future) by a speeding ticket, which would subtract money from our bank account, we are also threatened into NVB, because we would lose all the perks that supposedly signify positive reinforcement; we are enslaved by NVB. 

Because punishment procedures and coercion form the essence of NVB, we must take a closer look at NVB in terms of what it decreases. When we say that NVB decreases SVB, we mean that it limits everything that makes us human. Indeed, NVB “induces disabling emotional anxieties and exaggeration of some subsequent operant reactions. It compels those on the receiving end to get away from the punisher (including any person providing the punishment), to stay away from the punisher, and to get even with the punisher. In technical terms we refer to these last three major effects of punishment – getting away, staying away, and getting even – as escape, avoidance, and countercoercion.” (Ledoux, 2014, p.358-359). 

Whether we know it or not, show it or not, admit it or not or, are aware of it or not, we are trying to get away from each other or we are trying to take revenge on each other during NVB. The sound of our voice in NVB signals distraction, struggle or attack. The latter often elicits counter attack, but struggle and distraction “often takes an exaggerated form due to emotional components.” (Ledoux, 2014, p. 359). Accurate expression of emotions is impossible in NVB. Furthermore, because NVB is a hierarchical way of communicating, when fighting back or attacking is not possible, we take it out on those below us or on ourselves.