December 14, 2015

December 14, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Students,

This is my fourteenth response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” (O’Donohue et al., 1998). I agree with Skinner’s “intense focus on single subjects” and I am interested in “the conditions under which an organism will emit a type of response and the likelihood of that event changing as a function of manipulating the environment (Skinner, 1956, 1963, 1971).” However, unlike most behaviorists, I am more interested in self-experimentation than in other-experimentation. 

The distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) can only be made if the single subject focuses on him or herself. SVB and NVB are universal response classes which occur “as a function of manipulating the environment.” Only if you experiment on yourself will you be able to recognize that your voice sounds totally different in SVB and NVB. In order to have SVB someone must stimulate you to listen to yourself while you speak. Focus on single subjects is definitely a step in the right direction as this brings your attention to the set of stimuli that cause you, the organism, to behave, but unless you begin to experiment on yourself, by listening to yourself while you speak, you will not understand the workings of SVB. 

Unless you know under what circumstances your experience of your own voice changes from positive to negative emotions and vice versa, you will be unable to make the necessary environmental arrangements which make SVB possible. Thus, in absence of your own involvement in it SVB cannot be achieved. In other words, as long as the single subject is not you, but someone else, you will try to listen to others or try to understand others, you will try to make others listen to you or you will try to make others understand you, but you will not be listening to yourself. 

Focus on the other, a process I call outward orientation, prevents you from listening to yourself while you speak. Of course, your hyper-vigilant outwardly-directed behavior is your reaction to an aversive and punitive environment. When you feel threatened by someone or something, you are always on guard. Threatening stimuli set the stage for NVB. If, on the other hand, you feel safe and supported, reinforcing stimuli that make you feel relaxed and at ease set the stage for SVB. Due to your sense of well-being your speaking and listening behavior will occur at the same rate and become joined.