November 3, 2015

November 3, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

                                                                                                                                          

Dear Students,

Don’t feel frightened I call myself a verbal engineer. A behaviorist friend called me that and I felt honored. This title makes up for the fact I have no degree in behaviorism. I would love to earn a Ph.D. in behaviorism and teach it, but cannot afford to pay for such a study right now. Had I known what I know now, I would have studied behaviorism from the start, but I discovered it after I had withdrawn from my Ph.D. study. Withdrawing from that ambitious project was a turning point in my life. Circumstances were such that I couldn't continue; I had gotten sick from all the stress I was experiencing. However, I would have never become a psychology instructor or a self-taught behaviorist, if it wasn’t for this difficult and life-altering event. When my Dutch behaviorist friend described my teaching as ‘behavioral engineering’, it made me feel proud and validated.  

It should come as no surprise to you that I have an agenda. I teach the difference between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). To me this is the very essence of psychology. While I teach you the material from the book, I also make you aware about the fact that we keep going back and forth between instances of SVB and NVB. This slowly, but surely shapes an increase in our rate of SVB and a decrease in our rate of NVB. Something unique is happening in our classes, which is not happening in any other class. I say this as a fact and I do not brag.  

  

In our class we learn we can’t have SVB if we don’t listen to ourselves while we speak. I demonstrate I don’t have it too if I don’t listen to myself while I speak. This happens when the situation gets negative, when you are tired, irritated and frustrated or when my teaching and our interaction has a dysregulating effect on you and me. That is when we have NVB. During those times you are distracted, you are not really paying attention, you talk with your neighbor or you check your face-book messages. It also happens when you let me do all the talking and want to be entertained rather than taught. There is, of course, a big difference between the two. The former can lead to the latter, but the former can also distract from the latter. Since we are used to high rates of NVB, it is more likely to happen entertainment will distract you than that it will focus your attention on what is taught. It can and it will only do that to the extent that we are engaging in SVB. 

It is quite nice to be talking with you in this writing. For various reasons, many things in class cannot be fully explored. Reading my writing may be easier than listening to my speaking as you are not used to experiencing increased rates of SVB. To the contrary, you are used to and conditioned by high rates of NVB. Of course, this is not going to change all of a sudden. It changes slowly and steadily. As the semester goes by, you become more used to it and you will find you become more often involved in it too. SVB and NVB don’t only happen in our class, they happen everywhere: with family, friends, colleagues, students and other teachers. You become aware that higher rates of SVB and lower rates of NVB are only possible under certain circumstances. Changes in rates of NVB and SVB depend on the  contingencies that reinforce such behaviors. If you pay close attention you will find that you can behave differently only under different circumstances.

Perhaps, you will be more inclined to go to these circumstances and to these people, who positively enhance your experiences? Perhaps, you will be able to more skillfully avoid the environments and the people, who have a negative influence on you? Each time you were able to do that, how did that make you feel? And, how did that affect your behavior? And, what happened in negative situations, which, apparently, you weren't able to avoid and weren’t able to escape from either? Or, were you able to escape? How did that affect your behavior? Did escape behavior make you better at avoiding? Did approach behavior result in you having to escape from something? Did proper avoidance behavior decrease your need to escape? 

Does your need to approach decrease, when you get better at avoiding negative situations? Were you over-emphasizing approach behaviors as you didn’t learn how to protect yourself and avoid negative circumstances? Each of these questions have to do with increases or decreases in SVB and NVB. Distinguishing between SVB and NVB gets better as you take time to listen to yourself while you speak. What matters is what SVB and NVB means to you. By relying on your understanding of SVB and NVB, you will engage more often in SVB and less often in NVB. As your accuracy increases, you will only approach what is reinforcing to you. And, as you increase your ability to avoid negative people and circumstances, there is no need for escape any more.  Fine-tuning of your avoidance behaviors produced higher rates of SVB. Since your assessment of what you want to approach is more realistic, you will approach more enhancing circumstances and people. As NVB decreases it becomes apparent that your NVB involved inaccurate descriptions of reality. SVB, however, provides you with the accurate descriptions which make your better capable of navigating your reality.