July 17, 2015

July 17, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

 

This is the tenth writing which includes findings that were reported by the animal researchers Owren and Rendall in their paper “An affect conditioning model of nonhuman primate vocal signaling” (1997).

This paper has made me think of influencing effects of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). In SVB and in NVB the speaker speaks with an entirely different voice. 

In NVB the speaker speaks with Voice I, but in SVB the speaker speaks with Voice II. These two voices have diametrically opposing effects. With Voice I we frighten and intimidate others, but with Voice II we comfort and attract each other. 

We often don’t realize that we speak with Voice I and although we are unaware of the SVB/NVB distinction, we still like to think that we speak with Voice II, while in reality we speak with Voice I. 

When people are confronted with the fact that they produce NVB, they feel embarrassed. The reason they feel embarrassed is because they were unaware of how they sounded, they were not listening to themselves. 

While we speak it is easy to get stuck in predetermined behavior. NVB is the kind of talk in which nothing new is said. SVB, on the other hand, is made possible by the properly expressed sensitivity of the speaker. 

The SVB speaker never overwhelms the listener. If a speaker is him or herself not at ease with his or her own thought and emotions, he or she is bound to overwhelm the listener. Rather than experiencing his or her own emotions, such a speaker makes others experience his or her emotions. 

If a speaker is frustrated, confused, distracted, overwhelmed or stressed, he or she will elicit these emotions in others. In SVB, by contrast, the speaker is in touch with and in control of his or her own feelings and thoughts. 

The SVB speaker induces the same well-being in the listener as he or she is experiencing. In NVB, speakers use Voice I to externalize their feelings and thoughts. The NVB speaker controls the listener with negative sounds.